Searching For What’s On the Other Side

Beautiful view of the Pacific Ocean for the first mile

Hello and welcome to my first official blog post! I’m super excited to get going with this new idea of mine – writing about those untold yet important stories that need to be acknowledged.

Often when I’m hiking or on a walk, the thing that keeps me going is the desire to know what’s on the other side. Sometimes I’m anticipating that spectacular view I heard about to appear so I can revel in its beauty. For example, on one of my favorite hikes up in Point Reyes on the Palomarin Trail, my friend Tracey and I were trying to find a beautiful lake smack in the middle of this trail that wove in to the Pacific coast and then away from it. Bass Lake was supposed to be four miles in from the trail head, but after walking so long along the ocean, away from it among several hills, onto a rocky path in between two more hills – we thought we were almost there, surely the lake should appear. But no, instead there was a forested area. We were determined though and kept hiking for another 45 minutes through the thick forest and into the sunshine. Still no lake and only shrubs to our right and left.

What we saw for a little while before finding the lake

Right when we were about to give up, we spotted some birds flying overhead and followed their flight path to… YES, lo and behold, Bass Lake, this perfectly blue shrine out in the distance! All our hard work paid off.

So what does this have to do with digging up stories? Well, this is what I feel like a lot of my work will be on this blog. I know there’s a story out there to be told – one that isn’t commonly heard and celebrated every year – and it’s going to take hard work to find it, but if I stay with this part of me that naturally loves to explore and find that view, that nugget of information, I’ll get to it. I know it.

Bass Lake at last!