Anyone with two brain cells to rub together can pull out a map and find Yosemite, say, or the River of No Return Wilderness. It takes an open, inquisitive mind to find a pocket of wilderness that isn't officially designated, particuarly in the city. Here are three hints.
Redefine 'wilderness' and the time you spend there. Instead of reserving hiking for the times you manage to travel to a quarter-million contiguous acres of pristine Alaskan forest, relish every chance you get to stroll around the pond in the park a few blocks from your office.
Wear blinkers. Pretend you're a horse wearing one of those peripheral-vision-blocking devices. Extend the blinkering to other senses if you need to. When you're strolling at the aforementioned pond, ignore the traffic sounds; focus on the redwing blackbirds and the frogs.
Think like a Kiwi. I remember reading once that at some of the New Zealand filming locations for Lord of the Rings, the camera angles had to be extremely precise because otherwise they would inadvertantly show a bit of playground equipment or another human artifact. Try to get into the vision-mode of the person who scouted those locations. Could you find a piece of Middle Earth in the middle of the city?
This is Olema Marsh, one of my own favorite pockets of wilderness. I cropped a parking lot, a road and several powerlines out of the photo.
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This is an incredibly insightful piece, Shelby. Many of us are bogged down with what can be called the confines of society- school, work, etc. Because of this, it is easy to lose sense of ones place in the world. To let that little seed of depression plant inself in the subconscious.
But if we all took the time to find our own piece of wilderness - or should I say wildness - in this vast concrete jungle, it would, for lack of a better term, do us quite well.
For me, it is a small stretch of creek a few miles from my Univeristy. Whenever I find the weight of the world weighing down on me, I'll grab my fly rod and spend a couple of hours there, trying to re-center myself. It doesn't seem like much - but it is my own small piece of heaven.
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