This month, I explored more of the greenbelt. This time, I decided on exploring a different access point – the Homedale one on the other side of the Spyglass access point I visited last month.
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This access point was significantly different than the ultra-rocky trail I explored the month previous. For one, it was much, much flatter like sheetrock layered beautifully eroded by puddles of water that created little, sometimes perfectly circular holes in the ground.
Seeing as it was Martin Luther King Jr. Day, it seemed everyone and their dog (literally) had the same idea to visit this point in the greenbelt. There was a beautiful, clear stream of water running on the side where people were crossing sloppily across to the other side or merely dipping their bare feet to refresh themselves. There were several dogs running around, a meditation circle along the creek, and some guy with a circle-drum playing to a crowd of his friends. Worth noting, I saw a relatively small black labrador pick up a thin yet very large fallen tree log that I had trouble picking up myself.
I myself went with a handful of friends. We brought some wine, a fishing pole (though, we didn’t find a spot that wasn’t too shallow to fish in), and a whole cantaloupe to share while basking in the beautiful glory of the day. It felt like the perfect day to spend outside, and after several days of Netflix binging, it was a refreshing change of scenery.
After we spent some time by the water, napping in the sun, we decided to climb the extremely steep cliff that overlooked the entire access point. There were several large graffiti caves to choose from, but most were occupied by some 420-friendly kids so we settled on one where a girl and her amazing climbing dog were resting on.
Not too long after we settled our yoga mats down on our cliff, some graffiti artists followed behind to stencil in some new art in the cave. Some of my friends had conflicting feelings about marking up such an already naturally beautiful area, but I thought it was fascinating to watch them do work on the rocks.
I meditated in silence as we all watched the sun go down and light up the entire sky with warm colors. I thought about this quote:
“To those devoid of imagination a blank place on the map is a useless waste; to others, the most valuable part.” – Aldo Leopold, Sand County Almanac
There wasn’t much to do, in all honesty, except for to just sit and just think or, even, not think about anything at all. And it was beautiful. This “blank space” where nothing was to be done was actually the reason why we escaped our little dark cave with our video games and our Netflix and our beer pong and our everything college – we needed to get away from the activity and admire the earth we’re all apart of.