Slow Down!

Trail Wood #116 Earl Plato

At Marcy Woods some years ago I lead a small group of botanists from the Buffalo Museum of Science. We took them on the Upper Trail. This is a winding narrow path and more rigorous than the Lower Trail below us. Have you walked with keen botanists?. Every step was slow and methodical. They would often stop to examine a plant and a healthy debate might follow. What normally was an hour walk ended two and a half hours
edLater. Edwin Teale shared a similar recollection.
“ Years ago I talked with someone who had been a companion of John Muir’s walks in Yosemite Valley. His pace, I was told, was unhurried. Muir stopped often to enjoy a view or examine a tree. For ten or fifteen at a time he would sit down beside some favorite wild flower along the way. It might take him ten hours to walk ten miles.”
On my next nature walk I intend to slow down more and enjoy creation in May!