-A weekend getaway to reconnect-
“Wilderness areas are first of all a series of sanctuaries for the primitive arts of wilderness travel, especially canoeing and packing. I suppose some will wish to debate whether it is important to keep these primitive arts alive. I shall not debate it. Either you know it in your bones, or you are very, very old.” – Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac
Somewhere along the line of growing up we replace shovels and sticks with smart phones and work emails and we lose track of what our pure child-like selves were like. The act of playing should never be forgotten, in fact, it should be practiced, no matter what age or responsible excuse one gives themselves. My way of staying youthful and in touch with nature is through rock climbing and my love of being outdoors.
The rock gym in Angers Playground at Le château de Chenonceau
I love France, Angers, the blessing of being on this program, and everything in between. But that still did not stop me from experiencing a sense of withdrawal from my routine. How could someone who has so much feel deprived amidst abundance? I have found that being immersed in the simplicity of the natural world we were evolved to thrive in brings me not only back to earth but to peace of mind and well-being. In September, I made a point of establishing my hobbies in this new place and found the local Alpine club, but with reoccurring miscommunication I have not been able to join yet so instead I made a point of making my weekend trips to nature reserves and parks.
In 1914 France created its first National Park “These pioneering creations resulted from concerned action by two very different constituencies: on one hand, scientists and nature lovers…and on the other organizations like the Alpine Club of France…masses of people soon found it expedient to join forces in organizing excursions and trips; as they wandered and compared notes with each other, they began to create a common culture of beautiful spots. (Bess) Fontainbleau forest is in the heart of France and a Mecca for rock climbers because of its world class bouldering (climbing short routes without protection). Here I would travel with Liz and Jackie to meet up with a fellow climber Adam to be with our common culture, in our beautiful spot.
While walking into the forest and coming upon the massive rocks strewn about Liz looks over at me and pondered how they got there. I thought of the last ice age and how when the glaciers receded they may have left behind these out-of-place formations and upon returning home to Angers I looked up. Turns out they are called glacier-born-erratics and I hypothesize that these are what we came to climb. Erratics are “large masses of rock, often as big as a house, that have been transported by glacier-ice, and have been lodged in a prominent position in the glacier valleys or have been scattered over hills and plains. And examination of their mineralogical character leads the identification of their sources…”(Geikie) If I had the tools and time, perhaps we could figure out which warming period they were dropped off by and compare to other erratics around Europe.
A little off my game, but I was happy to be working my body with the rock again. The climbing culture is like a family, people from all walks of life coming together to reach a common goal, and help each other out on “beta” or “spotting”. For the most part we keep a discrete presence, the only signs of humans were the left-behind hand chalk that is easily washed away by rain. There are markings on some of the boulders and a little graffiti, signs a fire had been made at one point, and some stacked stones for shelter. I was happy overall to see that the forest was well preserved and unless one had prior knowledge, one of the most famous climbing areas in the world still seemed to me to be a hidden playground.
After awhile, we paused and reflected and noticed the smell of the soil and the sound if the wind. One by one we laid down, closed our eyes, and tuned into our surroundings, the birds chirping, the occasional plane overhead, a reminder of our other world..the constructed one we were escaping for a moment in time. The towering oaks (Quercus) reminded us Autumn was upon us as their leaves changed bright hues of yellow, orange and red. The European beech wood (Fagus sylvatica) provided canopy and light to the fields of ferns. Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris) sprinkled the ground with needles that cushioned out feet and smelled like the coming of winter. The soil here was rich and fertile, home to five thousand species of insects and three thousand species of mushrooms fed on the decay. The picturesque scenery of this forest was like being immersed in an impressionist painting, Fontainbleau has been “variously called “savage,” “wild,” “romantic,” and “beautiful” by visitors” and reimagined by great French artists such as Claude Monet. (Jones) I glanced at my fit bit in intervals and watched as my heart rate lowered to a resting beat. One by one we each drifted off in silence to walk, fully present in the miracle of it all, for I believe science to be just that, an accumulation of interactions, connections, and chances that have the potential, when played out without intervention to be absolutely stunning.
In addition to being a refuge for sport, leisure, and research for humans, “we should care about forests because they provide highly valuable economic and ecosystem services. For example, through photosynthesis, forests remove CO2 from the atmosphere and store it in organic compounds(bio-mass).” Conserving and allowing forests to flourish not only protects the 2/3rds of terrestrial species living in them, but also the regulation of Earth’s atmospheric temperature and climate. (Miller, p. 220) It is vital to keep a reciprocal relationship between our species and the ecosystems of our Earth. While scoping out my next climb in the forest of Fontainbleau, a trail runner speeds past me and then halts, looks down at his feet, picks up a lone piece of trash left on the ground, mumbles “cochon” (pig in French) to himself, and carries on his way. I smiled as I saw this and reflected on how conscious I have found the French to be when it comes to their personal footprints on the environment and enjoyed seeing someone get minorly upset and then take responsibility for someone else’s actions or overlooked mistake. I feel with personal awakening to the delicate harmony of the universe we can create a global movement to keeping the balance a priority.
Works Cited
“Aldo Leopold.” Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6Th Edition (2015): 1. Literary Reference Center. Web. 21 Sept. 2015.
Bess, Michael. The Light-green Society: Ecology and Technological Modernity in France, 1960-2000. Chicago: U of Chicago, 2003. Print.
Geikie, Sir Archibald (1882). “Textbook of geology”. Retrieved 12 December 2009.
Jones, Kimberly, et al. In The Forest Of Fontainebleau : Painters And Photographers From Corot To Monet. n.p.: Washington : National Gallery of Art ; Houston : The Museum of Fine Arts ; New Haven : Yale University Press, c2008., 2008. ST EDWARDS UNIV’s Catalog. Web. 13 Oct. 2015.
Miller, G. Tyler, and Scott E. Spoolman. Living in the Environment. 18th ed. Stamford: Cengage Learning, 2015. Print.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_of_Fontainebleau
http://anjou.ffcam.fr/