My First and Last hike in Poly Canyon

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My First and Last hike in Poly Canyon

I knew it was coming. A couple weeks before, I received an introductory email from my instructor explaining the textbook we needed and providing a link to the class website. I selected the link and navigated curiously around the site, arriving at last at the class itinerary. To my horror, I saw planned on the third class day a “moderately strenuous hike over steep, rough ground.” Subsequent readings of this statement produced the same result, and so I resigned myself to impending doom.

And so it was that I found myself standing on a dirt and gravel road, surrounded by equally sleepy classmates at 7:30 am, Monday morning. We all huddled within our baggy jackets, unconsciously mirroring one another in loose jeans, gray or black t-shirts and scuffed, dusty running shoes. In contrast the instructor appeared wide awake and put together, standing before us in a green sweater, pressed khaki slacks and well-worn yet well-maintained hiking boots. He perkily welcomed us to the threshold of Poly Canyon, and with other preliminary descriptions of the upcoming landscape turned and headed down the long, winding service road.

Being so close to the pacific coast- a mere ten or twelve miles- a thick marine layer had rolled in during the night, and the waning summer sun had not yet mustered the heat to dispel it. We moved to the crunch and scrape of rubber sole on loose stone, passing ancient monoliths of serpentine stone that jutted from the mountain on either side. Vague silhouettes of live oaks and yucca plants loomed from the morning mist, and occasionally a hoarse crow would cry out. Above and beside us power lines carried electricity to private homes hidden down the road, occasionally...

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...e distant than ever surrounded as I was by other life forms. What, I pondered, was my purpose there? Was I predator or prey, virulent or benevolent, useful or worthless? In nature, the strong and necessary survive and prosper, while the weak and redundant are mercifully removed for the good of the system. I solemnly asked myself which I was, and was relieved when like deer the answer retreated from view, filed away in the archives of my mind for future perusal. Giving Poly Canyon a final glance around, I followed their examples and left that ethereal place to meld once more with the world of Man.

I did not see my instructor nor my classmates again that day, and was content to be left alone with my meditations. It was an experience I would not trade, though I will admit that I am never setting foot in Poly Canyon again; once is definitely more than enough.

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