Berry Enlightened.

I spent all day yesterday at Big Basin State Park with the hubby and a group of girlfriends, hiking the Berry Falls Trail!

Stats

Time: 5-ish hours?
Distance: 13.5 miles of HILLS
Attitude: Smashingly good.

It was such a great hike and left me feeling like ... well... I'll say it. A superhero!

The hills didn't kill me. The distance wasn't miserable. And I'm not sore today! (Although, I skipped my scheduled "easy 3-mile run" in favor of a quick, tough KB press/pull up workout to give my knees a break.)

We hiked in about 2 hours to Golden Falls, where we stopped to eat lunch...



Then hiked about 10 minute further to Silver Falls, where we clung desperately to the guide wire to maneuver down a steeply descending trail of wet, slippery rocks...


And finally found Berry Falls, which looked like something out of a movie.



Then hiked the 3 hours out... which - frankly - was a bit brutal for the last 2 miles uphill to get ourselves back to the car. But we made it back with just a few blisters and big smiles!

The hike was definitely NOT for beginners. It's long. It's steep. It's long. But it was absolutely beautiful and the falls were well worth the hills and the distance.

(please don't take that to mean I didn't whine at least 3 times on the way out. My feet friggin' hurt!)

Being down in the ravines, staring up from the bottom of Redwood Trees that were thousands of years old was a really cool reminder of my own impermanence.

I am listening to a book on Zen meditation and change during my commute (review to follow) and my favorite quote thus far has been from the Buddha himself.

"What I do matters. But I am not in charge."

And those huge ass trees and falls eased out by time and falling water were a beautiful example of how passing the human condition (confusion and suffering and trying to find peace despite those) really is.

In the area and want to check it out? Hike info at FindingYourZenPulse !