February 2005 Collective Walk
For the second Sunday of February, we went for a walk to the Escondido Canyon in the Santa Monica mountains. The walk was led by Komal Rao. The other participants were Seetarama, Debashish, Sangi and Lalita. Sangi took the photos. We had visited this same trail in Augut of last year, when it was quite dry. Now, after the rains, it was a completely different experience. The hills were full of vegetation, the ground was muddy, there were rushing streams all along the way with a number of trail crossings and wildflowers, ferns and varied foliage were everywhere. Though it had been raining just the day before, we were graced with a clear day with light clouds giving a pleasant shade. It was an idyllic walk with a distinct other-worldly flavor to it, the presence of the Nature gods always close.
We gathered at the parking lot by 9:30 and took in the verdant hills all around us. The initial walk was a hort ascent on paved ground leading to a Santa Monica Conservancy sign and path leading into the wilderness through a grassy downslope. Soon the trail narrowed between bushes and tall grasses and we came to our first stream crossing. The path continued among trees and bushes. We stopped briefly in front of an old tree that had fallen across the trail and rested for a few moments. The gnarled bark structure of the tree was extraordinary. All around were wildflowers - lupins and others, while plants with ornamental foliage demonstrated Nature's creativity.
Soon we arrived at a small clearing from where we could view afar a hill with a cataract streaming from its head. Then this view disappeared and was lost among the press of tall trees. The train continued and meandered through two more stream crossings until we came upon an elevated ground and stod face to face with the cataract. Against a steep rock, the water streamed in white lines like the beard of a sage collecting in a clear pool below with rocks protruding from it like the celestial Chinese island Penglai. We sat for awhile in meditation on one of these rocks. In front of us the water thundered down. We walked across to the bank of the pool and viewed the fall from one angle, then another and then a third. We then walked over to the foot of a great tree overlooking the waterfall and read from Savitri. Finally, after a long wait in silence with the hills and the roaring cataract around us, we set out to return to our cars and human habitation. On the way, Sangi picked up a large bunch of edible leaves (anise) and flowers (mustard). We returned to our cars and proceeded to Pepperdine University, to have lunch at their cafetaria and view an exhibition of glass sculpture by Chihuly - of which more later.
