The trail in Autumn is my favorite thing. Spring is nice, new and warm, but can be muddy and it rains often. There have been whole months of Spring lost to rain...Summer is ok, but the heat and bugs can be a real downer. Wearing light clothes is a plus, though. But Autumn is just perfect. Cool, dry and scenic all at once.
A new bike to add to the season doesn't hurt either!
Fall color in MI is simply divine:
As the bigger trees lose their leaves, smaller open areas are exposed. The beauty of the season comes in layers. These reminded me aspens in CO (a sight to behold in their own right!)
Golden maple leaves shine despite the cloudy day. They simply radiate!
This trail I know, like an old lover, every curve, every up and down. Somedays I don't need to see it to even ride, I feel it undulate beneath me, drop away and rise. Speed, power, sometimes soft gentle flow, this trail offers every subtlety of the best ones ever made. The terrain is comprised of dirt, rock, roots, sand and clay. But in Fall, these items become covered in a rich blanket of oak, maple, and cottonwood leaves, with some fragrant sections of pine and open grasslands. When you can't see the obstacles, you ride faster, free to flow over those things your bike says yes, but your brain says no.
Fast, churning efforts rewarded with exuberant speed through candy coated woods.
Too few stop to see the wonderful creatures that inhabit this area. All manner of birds, from jays, cardinals, vultures, hawks and woodpeckers, to deer, squirrels, chipmunks, snakes and turtles. And there was this serene swan just waiting for his cameo. Often in the summer, beautiful lotus flowers bloom here.
Trees carry large quantities of healing energy forth from deep witinh the ground. We are children of Gaia and through her calm, constant resonant frequency, we can heal all manner of things. We can transmute the pain of living, the sickness and anxiety. One cannot help but match the frequency of Earth if you just let it take over. Reaching for the heavens, yet rooting in the ground is a spiritual principle called Extension, as described in the great book "The Invisible Garment", by Connie Kaplan. I think this well describes our human existence.
I've left this trail stain in blood, sweat and tears. I've met a vulture who cleaned the dead scars from my heart, a hawk who inspired me to ride fast through the chaos, snakes who brought messages of transformation and creativity. I've laughed with good friends, hollered off jumps and drops, and crashed hard when I lived recklessly and without concern for the most precious things in my life. Every journey here is new, every ride a joy.
But it has never broken me, though I have not mastered it, I have become one with it. Like other trails since, I long to be here often. But this one was my first and it's my home trial, and I love it!
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