It took longer than expected to get to where we wanted to go. Happy to be off the winding road and out of the truck we set out on trail, fully loaded for a weekend in the mountains.

Weather was forecasted so our trip would be shorter than desired. But, to be out there again was not only welcoming, it was necessary. The winter weather has been especially wet this year, little snow and lots of rain. We managed to squeeze into a window of days without rain. We’ll take what ever we could get…

During a break near a shallow spring, I listened closely to the silent forest. My mind turned towards the sound of an approaching wind from the next canyon over. In this mostly silent space, I wondered about the wildlife. Hearing mostly silence, when I did hear it’s creatures, I heard birds, only Ravens and Scrub-Jays for now, two very common birds native to this forest. Extremely territorial, playful and predatory birds, I feel as if I am seeing these two species of birds increasingly more and more. Though it is still winter and migrating birds haven’t yet arrived in great numbers.

Continuing to listen, I wondered too, about the Mexican gray wolf, who would rightfully call this forest home, had humans not decimated their numbers to near extinction. This made me think about how un-wild-ed the forests have become… and a sadness creeped over me.

In that moment, I became hyper-sensitive to the forest’s delicate-ness. I noticed the cryptic earth beneath my feet tried to piece it together the bits that I had disturbed just by my resting there. Keeping up as much as possible with the “Do No (more) Harm” motto to our Mother Earth, Gaia.

We continued onward to yet another spring where I noticed that it’s banks of grass had been grazed. There weren’t signs of cow, thank goodness, which I am so inclined to automatically blame, but a gentler creature, deer. Deer tend to tread more gingerly across the landscape, barely disturbing healthy earth. The spring interestingly fed water between two medium sized Alligator junipers and dropped into a small pool before pouring over yet another rocky drop.