Adventureye

I wish there were a way to put smells on the computer. My favorite 6 mile trail run through the forest is a panoply of sound and smell. First the spicy scent of eucalyptus hits accompanied by the sound of their creaking boughs. Warm, wet earth beneath my feet and the rustling branches remind me of the first time I saw my sister's new property on Kaupakalua Rd. way back when there were no houses for miles around. We laid out the floor plan of her dream house with fallen eucalyptus branches. Farther along the trail I smell before I see wild ginger, rampantly blooming, filling the air with sweetness so intense that I stop and sniff and sniff, nearly hyperventilating. Whip out the phone, snap a shot. Wish Facebook had scratch and sniff. The next stage of smells is a pine forest taking me back to Northern California hiking in the Sierras. When I first moved to the mountains in high school to a lot at the edge of a forest I thought there was a highway nearby. I asked my mom what that traffic noise was. I was mistaking the wind in the pines for the far off drone of cars on the freeway by my childhood home in Oakland. I've come a long way from that city girl. Now all I want is to run on a lonely trail being assaulted by the sound of birds and smells....even the occasional aroma of horse pucky wafting into my nostrils is a welcome scent along the way.