Today’s hike is at Blue Mounds State Park.  Blue Mounds Park is located about 25 miles west of Madison. Located atop the largest hill in the southern half of the state it offers views of the Wisconsin River Valley, the Baraboo Range and the Driftless area.

 

Today my goal is to hike the Pleasure Valley trail (with a name like that who wouldn’t want to hike it?!)  It is Wednesday morning.  It’s cloudy, cold, damp and windy with temps in the 40’s, pretty much guaranteeing I would not see another person on the trail. It had rained all last night and into this morning making the trails wet and muddy. I start my hike from the parking lot by the pool intending to follow the trail across the road and into Pleasure Valley but I never made it that far.  I got distracted along the way following the little creeks and end up following what turns out to be the MT bike trail.

 

There is something about being in the woods that fills me with wonder and peace and joy. That makes me feel truly alive and grateful and hopeful. It makes me want to open my arms wide and say thank you. Thank you for sharing your beauty, thank you for the healings you provide me,  thank you for showing me a fresh perspective,  thank you for giving me faith that all will be well in my world. I want to soak it up and become refreshed and renewed like the forest after a rain.

 

A hike in the woods after a good rain seems to make all my senses heightened. The air seems to be cleaner and crisper, the smells intensified. The colors become more vibrant and deep. The mosses becomes greener, the mushrooms become plumper, the creek beds run fuller and the birds seem to sing more cheerfully. The leftover water droplets make everything sparkle and the random pools of water reflect back the beauty of the surrounding woods.

 

I spend the next hour walking aimlessly being truly grounded in the present moment with a smile on my face.

 

After all this wonder and peacefulness I’m not ready to get back to the real world so I decide to head up to the upper section of the park and tackle the observation towers. I am not a big fan of heights (I’m actually not even a little fan of them) and old wooden structures just intensify those fears. But when you go to Blue Mounds Park the view from the top of the towers are part of the whole experience so I decide to face my fears and climb up all by my lonesome.  Slowly, with hands tightly grasping both sides of the railings I climbed one step at a time, repeating “do not to look down, do not look down”, forcing myself to breath slowly in and out, trying desperately to keep any fear and dreadful thoughts out of my mind. (for instance;  “that’s a really, really long way to fall” or “my foot could slip right though one of these old wooden steps at any moment” or “this old wooden structure seems to be swaying in the wind” or “there is no way that this is safe”) As I take my last steps up and plant both feet on the top deck, still grasping the sides, but daring to have a look around at the distant views, I hear the very loud and distinctive sound of wood breaking and slowly falling.  I can hear it echoing in the valleys as time slows down and I feel a moment of terror and panic. My mind is frantically trying to make sense of what is happening.  My first thought is that the whole structure was giving out and my worst fears were coming true, that I climbed this damn thing only to die just as I reached the top. After my initial moment of panic I noticed that I was not actually falling and that the structure was not actually collapsing. Still frozen in fear I started to look around trying figure out what the noise is that I am still hearing. When I finally get my rational mind back I realize that a very large tree is falling slowly in the woods next to the tower, hitting smaller trees and branches as it falls. The tower is still standing, it is safe and sturdy and I am not going to die! I let out a very large sigh of relief and then turned around and run back down the stairs in about 5 seconds flat! Reaching the bottom I have a new appreciation for solid ground!

 

So the questions is when a tree falls in the woods and there is no one around but a lone woman conquering her fears, does it make a sound? YEP a very loud and frightening sound that when over makes you feel very grateful to be alive!