This morning I took a hike at Wolsfeld Woods SNA. I haven’t been there since late spring and it felt good to
Return to the Woods
This is one of my favorite places to hike. A remnant of the Big Woods that once covered a large portion of this part of Minnesota, these woods are filled with tall maple trees, oak trees, and basswood trees. When the leaves turn golden in the fall, walking there is like walking in a golden cathedral.
Today, only a few leaves have fallen, harbingers of what is to come in about a month.
When the leaves begin to fall from the old grandmother maple trees, the trails are covered 2-3 inches deep with golden leaves. And more golden leaves rain down as you walk. There is a steep hill there that I used to hike up and down with ease. But last time I hiked it in the fall the leaves were so deep I could not see the ground beneath them and the trail so steep that I feared that I might slip and fall. So I sat down and slid down the hill on my bum. It was fun sliding down that way but I wish that I felt as strong and able as I did ten years ago when I hiked these trails.
Because this is my land. I can feel it, tremendous, still primeval, looming, musing downward upon the tent, the camp—this whole puny evanescent clutter of human sojourn which after our two weeks will vanish, and in another week will be completely healed, traceless in this unmarked solitude. It is mine, though I have never owned a foot of it, and never will. I have never wanted to, not even after I saw that it is doomed, not even after I began to watch it retreat year by year before the onslaught of axe and saw and log-lines and then dynamite and plow. Because there was never any one for me to acquire and possess it from because it had belonged to no one man. It belonged to all; we had only to use it well, humbly, and with pride.
― Big Woods
Gratitude
Still I am thankful that I can still hike most of the trails here with ease. And I am thankful that portions of the Big Woods remain.
Many wise old trees succumbed to windstorms over the course of the summer. I was surprised at how many newly fallen trees I saw. Since Wolsfeld Woods is a Scientific and Natural area, the downed trees are allowed to stay where they fall, slowly returning to the soil. Only where trees block trails are the fallen trees cut and then only enough to maintain the trail. I find many downed tree trunks along the way that make nice stopping places to sit down or lie down and look up at the tree branches high above.
These wild woods are holy places, I think, and perhaps places where the veil between this plane and next thin a little. They feel holy and whole and remind me of the sanctity of all life and of the cycles of life that turn for all life forms.
Do you also long to return to the woods? Which places feel like holy places to you and nourish your spirit? When was the last time you spent time in one of them?
May you walk in beauty.
Intentional camera blur
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