OWL-DRAGON

Late Spring Trail Run

The morning was damp, closed in. A misty rain had been falling but stopped just as I stepped out onto the trail. The woods are a deep, vibrant green now. The new growth overwhelms the path in spots. The morning is loud with bird calls. I have the trail mostly to myself with just a few rabbits – I will see only one deer further into the run on the edge of a meadow. Perhaps the vegetation makes them harder to see or perhaps the lusher growth allows them to stay further in the woods.

I believe that current evolutionary thinking posits that the path to humanity as we know it began when our ancestors left the forest for the plains. In fact I remember reading somewhere that all over the world humans replicate the look and feel of that African veldt.

But I feel quite comfortable in these woods and when the trail opens into a meadow I am glad to reenter the forest. I especially like the spots where ferns predominate and the forest could be a million years old. (Of course if it was filled with critters anxious to make me their next meal I would undoubtedly feel quite different. And there are stretches of less used paths where the brambles say imagine if no one had come before you. And you don’t mind being wet and chilly when you know a hot shower is minutes away.)

I stayed on a circuit I know well enjoying the calmness of this world apart. I need hardly to think about where to go – when I first ran these paths I would occasionally get lost but now the paths are familiar and I coast on automatic pilot just enjoying this wet morning.

Wet, tired my hour used up I head toward that hot shower.