Signal Fire: Opal Creek 2011 from willowonder on Vimeo.
I am out of the woods!
My seven days in the Opal Creek Wilderness were incredible. It’s an ancient, old growth forest and the trees are so big! And the creek is so clear! And the ferns are so charming! And the stillness is so complete!
Our group was amazing as well. There were 13 of us, of which 11 were women. There were visual artists, musicians, dancers, designers, and writers. And one second grade teacher/fitful blogger. We all had highs and lows on the trip but one thing I really appreciated was how respectful everyone was of each others space- mental and physical. There was no drama, no major complaining. Instead there were jokes, quiets, musics, book talks, trail talks, and nature talks. It was very companionable.
We gave and got trail names. Mine was Lil D because I brought a little deodorant with me. Later someone suggested it be changed to Teapot because Teapot is a funny trail name so there was some experimentation with Lil Teapot, Lil D-Pot and the like but mostly I was just Lil D. Other trailnames that I enjoyed: Battleaxe, Pajama Jeans, Liam, and Gisella. It’s so fun to be like, “Hey. PJ-J, want some more couscous?”
I documented this trip like crazy and I’ll post some photos as I go through them, along with more specific stories from the trip. I also kept a video diary. I’m going to release one video a day on facebook but you can watch them all here if you like:
My Video Diary
It was such a beautiful experience. I was not ready to come home.