Meditation Hike, March 24th

By Ruth Blackwell Rogers

Fourteen hearty hikers from seven cities and towns as far as four hours away gathered on one of the iffiest of iffy March days. Rain/snow fell generously. Cold breezes nipped fingers and toes. We had planned the hike for the Forks of Cranberry Trail in the southern Monongahela National Forest, which begins at an elevation of 4600 feet. The trailhead is on the Highland Scenic Highway, which is not plowed and which the Gauley Ranger District advised callers to avoid at all costs -- over a foot of snow covered the area.

The low-elevation substitute is just four miles from Elkin’s Stuart Recreation Area. We walked the beautiful trail from the group campground to the park, mindfully and silently trying to concentrate on our boots meeting the ground, sounds and sights around us, and allowing any thoughts to filter up through the trees. The Shavers Fork rushed beautifully below the trail; tall straight trees surrounded us; rain/snow fell quietly; hikers walked without sound.

At the far end of Stuart Park we entered a pavilion near the river. Hemlocks and poplars sheltered the pavilion, sleet began to fall. We sat on picnic tables and meditated for a period of time. Then Chung and Young Moon of Huttonsville, WV, made green tea in the relatively informal Korean-style tea ceremony. Our wide variety of teacups were lined up and Chung filled them from his impossibly small pot three times, telling tea tales while waiting for the tea leaves to steep.

We continued on steep rhododendron trails above the Shavers Fork, climbed up, and circled back to our vehicles. Some hikers said they would not have appreciated the beauty of the trail and surroundings unless encouraged to notice, but not analyze, every sound, color, feel of soil and moisture on the trail as we hiked mindfully and silently.

Back at the vehicles, hikers talked in two or three groups for another forty-five minutes or so. Clearly, the substitute hike was too short and folks wanted to get to know each other! One might ask, why have a "Meditation Hike" with a group of people? Why not just go into the forest alone for the same purpose? I think both sitting and walking meditation is often enhanced, at least in the initial stages of meditation practice, by doing it in a group. These fourteen hikers keenly felt the beauty of the chilly, wet, full forest and river, the perfect balance of soil, trees, birds, water and wind with our calmed minds.

But balance is always dynamic and changing! One hiker sped past the turn-off and wound up at a much higher elevation, trying to find the group, plowing dangerously through deep snow high above Stuart Park, impressed at what he thought was the group’s courage at meditating at such heights, finally heading for the Forest Service headquarters to call for rescue help, then finding the correct turn-off and joining us at the very end of the hike. This hiker had his own "mindfulness" adventure!