Hike into Heaven
Hiking in a mountain, hiking by the beach, in a desert or a forest — wherever in nature you may be — is like hiking up into heaven. Heaven is a place maybe most of us have not seen but we associate this word with peace, beauty, a place above the sky, or a place where a god lives. However, who says heaven is one certain place and you only see it once you pass. For me nature is heaven.
Hiking up Worsham Canyon — in the late afternoon — felt like I was entering one of many heavens. My Environmental Journalism class and I started from the bottom of our campus, it was cold, very windy, and cloudy. Much like how our society feels today, at least in the greater Los Angeles area. As we got higher up the mountain I could see the clear blue sky and puffy pure white clouds. It was a whole new world compared to where we started on campus. We stopped a few times to look back at our view, admiring from a distance what we once knew. The view was beautiful, I took it all in and I felt a lot warmer, inside and out. This was the key to being warm, visiting nature, escaping from our muggy city.
From the view, I saw buildings, the ports of Long Beach, and the city of Los Angeles and for a second I thought, “hey that’s my home, that place is where I’ve come to known and appreciate what it has offered me” but I was away from all chaos, I felt more aware of my surroundings. Hiking and getting up high and as far as we possibly could, was like getting away from the normal me and so when we returned to campus it sucked to be back! Escaping from reality makes me feel like all the things we are doing were no longer important. So I felt free and relieved. Nature did that. And it can for you too.
In the picture, we can see how the mountains, trees, bushes, and canyons are framing Los Angeles. This “picture frame” puts our big industrial city in this perfect spotlight. But if you really start to dig in deeper to what you are exactly looking at, as my professor put into similar words, think about what the Tongva and Kizh tribe saw from this viewpoint. I started to compare beauty and the difference from history to now. I imagined the tribes must have seen rows of mountains and a line up of trees that never ends, all reaching out to the ocean. Today our mountains and canyons surround a city, leaving it centered down below, in other words, the melting pot? Considering what used to be, allowed me to notice the darker clouds above the city but above the mountains were nothing but clear blue skies. It is just as if the weather goes along with our mood. No human can control the weather but our climate actions such as abusing our carbon footprint do. So this thought brought me to my next theory.
Mother Earth does not give a F*** about us.
Ouch, I know.
We can love, connect, or appreciate our Earth in our own ways but that does not mean climate will do what it can so we can live comfortably. The way we live, contribute to this Earth — we belong to — will, is, in fact, biting us in the ___. You fill in the blank.
Coming across vandalism puts me in contradiction. Creating art, as we all know, is a way to express yourself and I’m here for it. But what about when it is in an unusual place? The graffiti is “sick”, I love that this road divider is used as a canvas and it kind of makes the space on the mountain an art piece making a loud statement hence that palm tree in the background people would pay thousands of dollars for. The palm tree represents the higher class and the art down below represents the diversity in Los Angeles and the underserved artists. I thought twice and asked, “Shouldn’t I be upset this road divider is here in the first place, maybe it should have been taken out instead, plus the canyon should be independent of the city, why does what we see in LA have to be marked in nature too?” That’s the contradiction I’m talking about. I hate that we colonize this space in nature, it takes attention away from the natural beauty and the issues in this picture (hint: it’s the litter) but then I love the story it is telling and what or who it is representing.
Nature is surprising and fun. You learn and see new things, escaping into it lets your mind wander, it opens up new ideas, you feel happier, sometimes even safer than at home, the positive emotions and possibilities are endless. Once you are done you will find that you will be less stressed, at least for the rest of the day.
The trail that my class and I started on was not enough to get the whole experience of Worsham Canyon. There are plenty of views and high peaks to come upon starting from different parts of the canyon. Casey Schreiner is a local hiking enthusiast who has visited plenty of parks and writes guides and journals about all the hikes he has gone through on his blog, Modern Hiker. He writes a guide about Worsham Canyon, specifically on how to get your way around and what to look out for such as: signs, views, trails, and snakes! He hints that this trail promises you less crowds -compared to Turnball Canyon- and steep inclines. Along with providing assistance to you he mentions to look out for, ”…Beautiful bunches of black and purple sage, as well as lupines, mustard, and other wildflowers in the spring” this is something I did not see on my end of the hike. This is remarkable in terms of colorful plants he saw versus colorful out of place art I saw. We can now understand how much this canyon has to offer and that it is full of surprises, now just try to imagine it through the different seasons. His remarks such as, “…You may be struck by just how quiet and secluded it feels — even though you’re within eyesight of Whittier itself” tell us what kind of serenity we may expect. Overall, Casey sharing his experience on his blog is in his best interest to guide us into having a safe, easy, and wonderful time. Where my class and I started on the trail was just a taste of one of the few starting places and parts to the stunning Worsham Canyon. However, it was the majority of the class’s first time, so we entered blindingly and yet each of us gained our own experiences and thoughts. Therefore, despite reading about a trail before getting started, take your chances of getting lost in the moment or maybe even literally. Your own formations and experiences first hand will excite you and expecting less with bring you to less disappointments.
