Forest Magic in the City

[jarandhel]

I elfed today. Found the forest hidden in the city. Went walking in it. Some people look like they've made it their home. Don't blame them, it makes sense. I stayed away from their domiciles, turned back whenever a trail started looking like it would take me to their tents and lean-tos. Had the weirdest feeling of being deeper in untamed nature there, where the rush of road noise never left me and where evidence of man's habitation was all around and in some cases inter-strewn, than I felt at Four Quarters last Thresholds. Perhaps it's because Four Quarters has become deeply familiar, while this place was new and wild and untamed by me. This wasn't urban exploration, I didn't go anywhere that established paths and trails did not take me, but yet at the same time it was. When I stepped off the paved path and onto the foot trails where a new forest people have made their home... it was.

Edited 9/4/07 - something was missing in that last line.

Comments

[jolantru.livejournal.com]

Beautiful. :)

[jarandhel.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :)

[primaldog.livejournal.com]

I elfed today.
*perks up ears* Did you kill anything? I heard elf tastes mighty good.

I miss rambling in the woods. My favorite haunting grounds have been all dug up by developers. Its quite depressing. I should walk there sometime and see how much of it is left.

[jarandhel.livejournal.com]

*smirks* Depends on the elf it's attached to. And killing generally doesn't improve the flavor. ;-)

Maybe next time you come down and spend a while around here I can take you out there and show you the place I found. I think there might be other places like it off along the same paved trail too, I want to explore it in the other direction next, and also further down the trail in the direction I was going (towards DC).

[primaldog.livejournal.com]

I'd love that. I wonder if coyotes lurk there. They have been spotted around D.C.

[jarandhel.livejournal.com]

I think there are too many two-legged people occupying this section of forest... but I think there may be other sections of forest along the same trail. Still need to explore more.

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

This wasn't urban exploration, I didn't go anywhere that established paths and trails did not take me, but yet at the same time it was.

This happens to me all the time. "Where did you come from, little world?"

[jarandhel.livejournal.com]

It wasn't hard to find, either... there's a bridge that leads to the area from a paved trail. But it seems like most people don't cross the bridge. It felt like the only people that had come there in a long while were the people living there, in their tents and lean-tos and sleeping bags. I didn't see any of them, at first I thought it was just a site where trash (the sleeping bags and some boots) had been dumped, then I saw the rather makeshift (but definitely sturdy and serviceable) lean-to and tent and finally put everything together. I kept my distance from their areas after that out of respect... I know I wouldn't be too happy if someone went traipsing through my home while I wasn't there, after all. And there was still a good bit of forest to explore even with that self-imposed restriction. I didn't go as far as I could have...

[kitten-goddess.livejournal.com]

*pppprrrppprrr* Congratulations on finding untamed wilderness!

[jarandhel.livejournal.com]

I think I'm going back there... either tonight after work (if I'm not exhausted from working overtime) or maybe this weekend. It was a unique experience, a little piece of forest hiding between two major roads and behind a housing development, apparently visited only by me and by those people who have made it their home.

[historychick49.livejournal.com]

I elfed today.

I just love that phrase. May I steal it, pretty please?

[jarandhel.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure I stole it from dancinglights myself, actually. I think...

[jarandhel.livejournal.com]

And I like it too. Elf should be used as a verb more often. :)

[lupabitch.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of the last chunk of old growth forest in urban Seattle, which Taylor and I discovered just a couple of weeks before moving to Portland. Very nice :)