Sweet Summer Days on Vashon Island: Hiking

Posted on August 12, 2011 by alexiswilliamson — Leave a comment

One of the many ‘sweet’ things Vashon has to offer, are the abundance of: land, nature and parks. There are over 18 parks, and hundreds of acres of trails just waiting to be explored. I feel so grateful that I have a forest (literally!) in my backyard…well, about a mile away. 🙂

Dockton Forest is the second largest forest on the island, boasting 125 acres. There are a mix of hilly and reasonably flat hiking/walking paths. Dockton is also dog and equestrian friendly!

So, c’mon…check out the pics and if you get a chance, visit Dockton Forest (and make sure to let me know whatcha think!)…

Trailhead entrance

Check out the moss on this guy!

Being in nature is 100% blissful for me, but today I found myself feeling a lil’ bit of fear. Walking along the trail, I realized: I was alone – on a new trail – in a new State – and utter stillness was all around me. The vastness of the forest was everywhere I looked. Thoughts started to trickle down, “do I know my way back to the car?”…”what about bears…?”

This is when the message “stay present” came into my awareness. The ego loves to play minds games…it loves to fuel fear! One way to not feed into it, is to stop ~ recognize the thoughts and whatever is coming up and then let them go, bringing yourself back to the present moment. It’s also nice to come back to your breath. Sometimes when fear (fight or flight) kicks in, we can begin to hold our breath ~ in defence. Taking a couple deep breaths and moving forward with positive thoughts is a great way to reframe and rebalance. Once I actually did this, I was able to stop and look around more closely…and boy o’ boy, am I glad that I did. These are the beautiful, magical things I found: