Outdoor Experience 2

Outdoor Experience in Nature:
A beach in NN

The interesting thing about intentionally forsaking the confines of your daily obligations to seek refuge in nature is that manmade institutions inevitably find their way there too. Sometimes it seems that no matter how far you retreat, you cannot escape some trace of the noise, the distractions, the pollution of man covering every inch of the earth.

You can see in in the trash that litters the Noland Trail, hear it in the constant flow of traffic at Lion’s Gate Bridge, and smell it in the backyard cookouts of neighbor’s houses drifting through to my beach.

In class, we discussed the difficulty of students to detach from electronic devices even on the Appalachian Trail. We learned about how bringing in even potentially positive things like music affect the interface of the place.

Even now, as I sit writing this, two landscapers have chosen today of all days to take leaf blowers to the trail leading up to my chosen seat of refuge. My attempt to sit untouched and unaffected by the stressful and chaotic reality of being on campus this close to finals week; to escape the noise, has been foiled.

And yet, nature carries on. Though I wish the only sound I could hear right now was the rising and falling of the tide, the chirping of birds in the trees above me, the soft whisper of the wind over the waters and in the leaves, I see that they are not disturbed by the disruption. Why should I be? In my limited time and lack of ability to travel much deeper into the wilderness, I will take what I can get.



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