All the Trails

We’ve always been a family of hikers and walkers, but since the pandemic began, our daily excursions have become quite sacred to us, whether in our neighborhood (blessed by many regional open spaces with great hilly walks) or in the greater Bay Area. We have been using an app called Gaia in the last year, which records our walks, and also shows us the many trails we have yet to travel (the free version is great). This has allowed us to find trails that we didn’t even know existed, and especially on weekends, we tend to go further afield to find new favorites.

One thing that has become so clear to us is that the Bay Area is littered with extensive trail systems, some maintained by local park systems, and some by state parks or even national parks. These are all non-profit groups, often dependent on volunteers to establish or maintain trails. We are so thankful for all of these organizations, and all the people, who make this kind of recreation possible.

We have long been supporters of East Bay Regional Parks. Many of these parks are free to enter, but supporting them by purchasing an annual pass is great. Individual memberships run $60 for a year (the price of three movies, or 10 fancy coffees). A family membership is $105. The wonderful thing about EBRP is that they have an extensive system which includes urban trails and parks, as well as more suburban parks. This promotes equity in the outdoors and makes these open spaces accessible to everyone, which is something that is really necessary.

EBRP also oversees two of the longer, linked trail systems we often find ourselves using. The California Riding and Hiking Trail is mainly a Contra Costa County trail system that links Mt. Diablo with Martinez, and will encompass 16 miles of trail. The Martinez-Concord section is already completed and will link to Mt. Diablo State Park in the future. The East Bay Skyline National Trail is part of the 1968 National Trail Systems Act. It begins at the Alvarado staging area in Richmond, and ends at the Proctor Gate station in Anthony Chabot regional park. We’ve hiked most of both of these trails and have found them quite interesting.

Other local trail systems include the scenic San Francisco Bay Trail, which is a planned 500 mile walking and cycling path around the entire bay, going through all nine counties, 47 cities, and seven major bridges. 350 miles are already in place. This project is also restoring wetlands around the Bay. They have a really cool navigational map that shows existing trails (whether paved or dirt) and planned trails. We’ve walked much of this trail system, too, including two bridges, and always enjoy these walks on days when it’s prohibitively hot in our neighborhood and we need the cooling influence of the Bay. The Bay trails are often flat, as well, offering an easier but longer walk, and there is always good wildlife viewing with shorebirds.

The Bay Area Ridge Trail, however, offers a completely different kind of hiking experience, taking walkers over the peaks that ring the Bay. This trail was the vision of William Penn Mott, Jr, who was Director of our National Park Service as well as EBRP and California State Parks. He wanted a 550 mile trail encircling the ridges of the Bay Area. 393 miles of trail have been established and they are all great, challenging miles! They have some neat trail maps and tools which include ‘curated’ trail adventures such as wheelchair accessible loops, or training ridge to bridge trails for those who want a challenge.

There is an interesting state trail system that we are just recently learning more about. This is the Mokelumne Coast-to-Crest Trail, which is planned to go all the way from the Bay to Yosemite. Currently three sections are complete: the East Bay/Contra Costa County section, the Camanche-Pardee Reservoir section, and the Upper Mokelumne River Canyon section. We have been on the Contra Costa section many times, as it winds through and over Mt. Diablo, Black Diamond, and Contra Loma parks. We are hoping to eventually get to the sections east of here and explore those, as well.

There are two interesting interstate trails here, one being (of course!) the Pacific Crest Trail, which runs from the Mexican border to the Canadian border, through California, Oregon, and Washington. We have been on a very short section of this trail when hiking in Yosemite, but other than that, this trail has been beyond our reach, as it runs through the interior mountain ranges and is primarily in wilderness. It has long been a dream of mine to hike this trail, and maybe we’ll have more time in the future to section hike portions of it, at least.

Another interstate trail which I have just recently discovered is the Juan Bautista de Anza trail, which is part of the National Park System and is a National Historic Trail. It runs through Arizona and California, following Juan Bautista de Anza’s route in 1775 as he established (colonized?) a settlement in San Francisco bay. I don’t know how much we should be celebrating the takeover of land from California Native Americans, but while we don’t need to honor questionable historic activity, we should certainly learn about it and face the truth of it, and what better way to do that then to walk those same paths?

The final trail that I want to bring to your attention is the American Discovery Trail, which runs from the West Coast to the East Coast, 6800+ miles of continuous multi-use track. It does run on some roads, but the organization is working to make the trail completely off-road in the future. It is not a wilderness trail, like the Pacific Crest Trail. It passes through cities, towns, farmland, and wild areas. It is meant to be a voyage of discovery of our country as a whole. On the website, you can find the trails in your state (if it passes through your state); the California portion starts in Pt. Reyes National Seashore, and goes right over Mt. Diablo, over to Lake Tahoe, so we’ve found ourselves on this trail many times.

We are lucky to live in the San Francisco Bay Area, a place that celebrates outdoor living year-round. That doesn’t mean the conditions are always idyllic (see my previous post), but it does mean that we are provided with a lot of opportunity to get out into nature, and explore. We have come to realize that this is extremely important to us, and it will dictate how we move forward into retirement (which isn’t happening anytime soon, but that doesn’t mean we don’t think about it). We don’t necessarily see ourselves living in California forever, but we do want to live in a place that offers a lot of outdoor recreation, no matter the season. That might mean that we need to get good at snowshoeing! But that’s years in the future, anyway. Right now, we are just happy to have plenty of adventures located right outside our front door.

PS: If you like to hike and get outdoors, and you’re looking for a new adventure, let me know - Tom and I have plenty of suggestions for great walks all over the Bay Area!

Forest Bath

I generally don't eat too much on Thanksgiving (even though I very much like food and very much like my mother's oyster stuffing), but at some point I'll take a walk today, just because it seems like the right thing to do. Many of us will do this. Some will charge up a hill, or speed-step around a lake, making sure they've burned enough calories to make up for the later feast. Some will take a full-bellied, slow walk around after the meal, just trying to make enough room in the abdomen to breathe - or maybe room for more pie. Nothing wrong with either of these methods, but I'd like to suggest a little something different this Thanksgiving. How about a forest bath?

Ringtail Cat trail, Las Trampas Regional Wilderness

Have you heard about forest baths? This is a fairly new trend. I recently read about it on the NPR website. There are certified guides who take you on a forest experience. It's not about exercise exactly, though that's a nice side effect; it's about being mindful and in clear awareness of what's going on around you. Letting all of your senses fill with the forest. Looking for the little things, the treasures you often find on a walk - a striped acorn, or a birds-nest mushroom, or a woodpecker pattern in a tree trunk. Listening to the sounds of the forest, hearing a hawk call overhead, or a chickadee in the oak next to you, or the rustle of a lizard near your feet. Smelling the dryness of the leaves, the wet rot underneath, the salt of a coastline, the bark of a Ponderosa pine (vanilla!). Rubbing a smooth stone or a rough leaf with your fingertips.

Oak Harbor, Whidbey Island, Washington

I think it's great that there are certified guides that can take you through this process and remind you to be mindful, but I honestly don't think you need to pay anyone to teach you how to do this. It takes some practice, sure, but that's a task easily set and easily accomplished - just let yourself wander. It can even be on your regular trail. Maybe there's something you've been missing all these years, walking along a well-known path. You could even do this in your neighborhood or in your own yard. 

Wildcat Cove, Samish Bay, Larrabee State Park, Washington

For some folks, today is a very stressful day, filled with family that you might not enjoy talking with, or with whom you have heated arguments. I think this is probably happening more and more in the tense political climate we live in. Well, what better time than now to get out and do some deep breathing? This kind of walking, in a mindful way, is scientifically documented to lower your blood pressure by up to 40 points. Charging up a hill is great for your heart in one way, yes, but it turns out that slowing down and tuning in to your environment is also extremely good for your health. So if you aren't exactly thrilled to go climb a mountain, or you can't get motivated to do that, perhaps it'll be easier to motivate yourself just to get outside and notice things.

a huge Aminita muscaria under an oak tree, in downtown Danville, California

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. I hope you eat lots of lovely food, spend lots of time with your favorite people, and get a chance to wander in nature. 

Searching for Grace

This poem is helping me this week. Maybe it'll help you, too.

“When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
Who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.”

— Wendell Berry

Combating Depression Naturally

The summer after Adam started treatment for leukemia, when he was two years old, and Kate barely one, I started having terrible dreams. Every single night, I'd wake up terrified after dreaming of the kids dying in horrible ways. One night we'd all be walking through an ice cave, having to make our way across a slick wooden bridge, and one of them would slip and fall into a crevasse. The next night we'd be boating on a lake, one of them would lean over to look at something, fall into the water, and get trapped and drown under the boat. This happened every night. My days were already filled with real-life terror; I didn't need my nights to be filled with it too, though I understood my brain was processing our new reality of hospitals and chemotherapy. Eventually I saw a doctor, and she sent me to a psychiatrist, who diagnosed me with depression. This started me on drug therapy which was part of my life for many years. It's easy to say, "Of course you were depressed! look at what was going on in your life!" but it was really more than that. Looking back, it was easy to see that I had been suffering with depression since I was in my late teens; it just hadn't come to light until the whole leukemia mess began.

Clematis in our garden

The medicine helped a lot, and I spent many years trying different therapies along with a few different medications. I figured I would be taking medicine every day for the rest of my life.

Then about five years ago, I was at a dinner with a group of moms that I had known for a while - our children had gone to preschool together. (We still get together every few months.) Somehow the topic of medication came up, and it turned out that every single one of us was on one anti-depressant or another. This struck me as strange. I started discreetly asking around, and it became clear that most of the women I knew were in treatment for depression or anxiety, which was astounding to me.

Dichelostemma capitatum (common name, Blue Dicks), in Briones

Now, before I go further into this subject, I want to make it clear that I think medication can be a very good thing. I have two kids whose lives have been either quite literally saved, or have become much better, with medication. Kate takes an anti-depressant for her anxiety and depression and it has improved her life immensely. I would never say that medication has no place in the treatment of mental disorders. I'm not a doctor, after all. However, for me, something about those informal statistics that I had collected made me very suspicious of the overuse of depression diagnoses and treatments. And I decided to do a little experiment.

a California poppy in our garden

I decided to go off my medication. 

I did this without telling my doctor, which was idiotic. The side effects of withdrawal were not pleasant; I was dizzy every day for nearly a year, despite having tapered down the medicine very gradually before stopping it altogether. However I was clever about three things that I decided to take action on at the same time: Eat a diet high in whole, nutrient-dense foods, without worrying about calorie counting (something I have done all my life, with varying success); exercise as often as possible, in the great outdoors rather than in a gym; and try to get a decent amount of sunshine every day. I had read that these three things are natural anti-depressants, and I figured that adding them might just work.

Cattle grazing in Briones amongst native and exotic grasses, and native buttercups

Again, let me stress that I am not a doctor and I am not suggesting that anyone else just go off medication. BUT: For me, it totally worked. I haven't taken any anti-depressants for five years. 

It's not always perfect. It can be tricky in winter; if it's very rainy, or very dark and cold, I do struggle a bit. Spring has become my new favorite season because I know the sun will be abundant and that automatically helps me feel good. And when I do count calories, as I am doing now, I have to be very careful to get as much nutrient-dense food in my diet as possible; if I eat too much junk, I start to feel very bad indeed. And if I slack off, and don't get outside in some way every day, I really notice my mood slipping. So I have to treat these three things just like I treated my medication, as a daily dose. I have to be somewhat religious about them.

About a third of our big, beautiful tomato starts

But as long as I keep up with those things, it really does work. I realized yesterday that I am in a very good place at the moment. I'm in school, studying subjects that interest me, rather than working in a job that is emotionally draining; I'm getting outdoors every day, either in the garden or in the open spaces, and getting plenty of physical exercise; my diet is very dialed in, and Tom and I have both shed quite a few pounds recently; and all of this combines to make me a much happier person. I'm busy, yes, and managing everything can be difficult, but I'm enjoying myself too. And that is such a good thing.

An artichoke has appeared in one of our plants, hooray!

I say all this just to encourage anyone who has a history of anxiety or depression, or struggles with health problems of any kind, that this might be a 'prescription' to help you, too. There are times in our lives when we must take medication in order to keep on going. I have friends that will always be on anti-depressants. That's ok, that's good, thank heavens for modern medicine. However, anything can be improved by the addition of nutritious food, daily walking, and some sunshine. It certainly can't hurt, and might really help. It's such a beautiful time to get outdoors here in California, too. The wildflowers are out in full force and the sun doesn't yet have the power to completely sap our energy, as it will in the 100 degree days of high summer. And have you seen the studies about the benefits of digging in the dirt, cultivating a garden? See here, and here, and here for more about that. And here for information on how having your hands in the soil helps your immune system. Google 'the health benefits of gardening' and see how much information you find.

Not to mention that the addition of a market garden right outside your back door can make it a lot easier to eat healthful foods. 

Beautiful California Oaks

So why not get up and go outside right this very minute? :)