Olema Valley Trail

Olema Valley Trail
6 miles
3 hours
Start: Five Brooks Trailhead
End: Five Brooks Trailhead
Includes: Five Brooks Trailhead, Olema Valley Trail, Randall Spur Trail, Highway One

Hike 40
September 24, 2013
Ace of Pentacles
Wealth

Traditionally, the suit of pentacles signifies the physical world. In my system, it specifically symbolizes the world as made by humans; human constructs can be ideas or physical objects and include money. The area of human need under inquiry in this suit is wealth.

I started this hike at the Five Brooks Trailhead. It was a cloudless day. A day moon shone in the blue sky as turkey vultures soared overhead.

I headed onto the Olema Valley trail. It was steeper than I anticipated. Instead of going through the valley, it ascended toward the ridge. I found unexpected views of rolling brown hills.

Warmth and light filtered through the forest made of bay and fir. Warmth lulled me, but the traffic on the highway below was surprisingly loud.

Oaks created living mosaics of color and light flowing gently through myriad windows of fantastic shapes as I gazed through branches toward the sky.

I took the Randall Spur trail. It was a gravel road cutting out of the forest toward Highway One.

I headed onto the highway to loop back to Five Brooks Trailhead.

I saw some old friends from earlier hikes along the roads: clover, cows and California poppies.

I passed old Randall House. It looked like the cows had moved in, since they grazed to the porch steps, but it is maintained by the National Park Service and occupied by Townsend's Big-Eared bats. I would love to go in and see what those bats are up to.

Instead, I headed down the highway. My feet hurt from walking on hard pavement and my nerves were jangled by passing semi-trucks and egregiously loud crotch-rocket motorcycles.

I was so happy to return to the soft whisper of wind rustling leaves in the trees near Five Brooks.

Nature creates things which are soft, inherently beautiful and alive, for example: humans. Humans create things which are hard, ugly and dead. We create without regard to our own soft bodies and our connection to the rest of nature.

I felt the difference. My soft human body went into a hyper-alert, survival mode while walking the highway. In the forest, my body unfurled, feeling safe and nourished. We walk through our civilized life stressed by our own cultural creations.

Human constructs made without regard for our natural connection are not a source of wealth, they are a source of stress. It is time for us to use our creative genius to create true wealth by working with our true nature to create objects and ideas which are life-affirming.