Signs of Spring
In cold, snowy Upstate New York, my brothers and I would put on our dress clothes for Easter and pile into the station wagon. We dodged shallow, muddy patches of snow to avoid messing up our good shoes. After the hour-long drive north, we’d get out of the car and follow our parents up the worn wooden front steps of my grandmother’s house. Grandma’s house was even further north than her childhood home in infamously snowy Tug Hill. I trailed behind when we got out of the car, stopping to look at the lingering piles of snow. Seeing daffodils push up through the Easter snow was my proof that spring had arrived. I knew that tulips would follow shortly. Here in San Francisco’s more moderate climate, I watch for daffodils to come up in late February. My instinct for tulips was in April or May as a child, but here in California I have to remind myself to check in March so I don’t miss them. Sure enough, it’s mid-March and not only are daffodils in full bloom all around, but the famous tulip garden in our neighborhood is now bursting with color. Seasonal weather and varieties of flowers may differ by region, but any burst of floral color is welcome. Whether it’s a carefully planted garden, blossoms that have grown through cracks in the sidewalk, or wildflowers on a mountain trail, enjoy the simple pleasure of the flowers you find around you! Keep putting one foot forward! This week’s HikingAutism Hike Notes from the archives is Queen Wilhelmina Garden, a garden by a windmill in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, known for its spring tulips. This week’s Hike Notes from the Archives: (Original Hike Notes 129): Queen Wilhelmina Garden Click Insights/Hike Update News for inspiring reflections. Browse hikes on the main Hikes page or on the Hike Search by Area page. Check out selected articles and interviews under Media. Click World Walks to see or share favorite family-friendly walks! Stay in touch with Lisa Louis and HikingAutism via Contact. See products with inspiring designs that support the efforts of HikingAutism under Support/Shop. The Links page lists a loose collection of helpful information links. Check the Home page for the broader background story. If you’re not able to take one of these Northern California hikes, hopefully you can enjoy the photo galleries at the bottom of each hike page! Feel free to share and follow on Facebook at HikingAutism, follow on Twitter at @HikingAutism and Instagram at lisalouis777
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Choosing to Feel Lucky
I was afraid of insects as a child, but everyone said that ladybugs were a sign of good luck. Ladybugs were the one type of beetle I didn’t mind walking on my hand because I had a positive feeling about them. In the spirit of “glass half full” versus “glass half empty,” optimism is a choice we can make. There are well-to-do people who look at the ultra-wealthy and say with envy how lucky the richer people are. Conversely, there are people with limited financial means who feel they are the luckiest people in the world for having a roof over their heads, food to eat, and loved ones around them. When my parents’ health failed in recent times, I appreciated that they had lived good long lives, and knew how lucky we were that they had loving caregivers with them until the end. When loved ones have faced major health challenges, I acknowledged the good fortune of having capable and compassionate care teams bringing them back to health. We can choose to see the positive. Gratitude is a powerful healer and a great equalizer. May we all find the joy of being thankful for even the humblest of good things in our lives. This week’s Hike Notes, Spreckels Lake-Golden Gate Park, introduces readers to a small lake in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park known for birds, turtles, and model yachts. Check the Home page for the broader background story. Click Insights/Hike Update News for inspiring reflections. Browse hikes on the main Hikes page or on the Hike Search by Area page, and scroll to the bottom of each hike page to see full photo galleries. If you’d like to support HikingAutism, check out the Support/Shop page! Check out selected articles and interviews under Media. Click World Walks to see or share favorite family-friendly walks! Stay in touch with Lisa Louis and HikingAutism via Contact. The Links page lists a loose collection of helpful information links. Feel free to share and follow on Facebook at HikingAutism, follow on Twitter at @HikingAutism and Instagram at lisalouis777 New this week: Hike Notes 199: Spreckels Lake-Golden Gate Park Hunting for Treasure
About a year ago I was driving in Marin hoping to see big puffy clouds of pinkish purple heather. I confirmed from an old hike date that I’d seen it blooming in full glory in late February. I don’t know the standard blooming period for heather, but going again in late February seemed like a smart bet to see tiny purple blossoms collectively create giant puffs of purple cotton candy. As we walked the road toward our trailhead, I looked past some eucalyptus trees and beyond the crest of a distant ridge. A bright patch of purple flowed between the hills. That was the treasure right there. Distant brushstrokes of purple proved that the heather was in bloom. As we got closer to our trailhead, the giant swaths of purple I remembered came into view. My quest to re-experience those beautiful clouds of purple blossoms was fulfilled. The hike was good, too, but wouldn’t have felt the same if we hadn’t seen the heather. May we all chase our dreams, even something as simple as finding a magical patch of flowers. Keep dreaming, and keep moving! This week’s HikingAutism Hike Notes from the archives is Heather Cutoff Trail, a trail near Muir Beach Overlook that features a series of switchback turns leading from a coastal ridge down to a meadow and creek area. This week’s Hike Notes from the Archives: (Original Hike Notes 177): Heather Cutoff Trail Click Insights/Hike Update News for inspiring reflections. Browse hikes on the main Hikes page or on the Hike Search by Area page. Check out selected articles and interviews under Media. Click World Walks to see or share favorite family-friendly walks! Stay in touch with Lisa Louis and HikingAutism via Contact. See products with inspiring designs that support the efforts of HikingAutism under Support/Shop. The Links page lists a loose collection of helpful information links. Check the Home page for the broader background story. If you’re not able to take one of these Northern California hikes, hopefully you can enjoy the photo galleries at the bottom of each hike page! Feel free to share and follow on Facebook at HikingAutism, follow on Twitter at @HikingAutism and Instagram at lisalouis777 Empty Bench
A weather-bleached bench on a windblown bluff, lone icon facing the infinite Pacific horizon. A wobbly wooden bench, hidden under a copse of trees on an unnamed trail, looking across the Golden Gate toward the San Francisco skyline. A new plastic bench sitting primly in its place along a small pond off a forest trail, waiting for someone. Benches are an invitation to sit, to look, perhaps to chat with a companion. They stir the imagination when they sit unoccupied. I see an empty bench and remember people who are gone. I’ve lost several loved ones in recent years, and have come to sense their absence as a group. I imagine them floating together somewhere in the ether, and yet I feel their spirits here. Next time I find a welcoming bench, I will invite the essence of those loved ones to sit with me for a while, and remember. This week’s Hike Notes, Windy Hill-Hamms Gulch and Spring Ridge Trails, takes readers on the descending leg of a loop hike in the Windy Hill Open Space Preserve, these trails highlighted by leafy shadows and tree tunnels that lure walkers onward. Check the Home page for the broader background story. Click Insights/Hike Update News for inspiring reflections. Browse hikes on the main Hikes page or on the Hike Search by Area page, and scroll to the bottom of each hike page to see full photo galleries. If you’d like to support HikingAutism, check out the Support/Shop page! Check out selected articles and interviews under Media. Click World Walks to see or share favorite family-friendly walks! Stay in touch with Lisa Louis and HikingAutism via Contact. The Links page lists a loose collection of helpful information links. Feel free to share and follow on Facebook at HikingAutism, follow on Twitter at @HikingAutism and Instagram at lisalouis777 New this week: Hike Notes 198: Windy Hill-Hamms Gulch and Spring Ridge Trails Talking About the Weather
If I find myself blathering on about the weather with someone, I figure it’s time to wrap up the conversation. And yet, weather can bring good things, and is worth talking about. I grew up in an era when my friends and I actually sang, “Rain, rain go away, come again some other day!” during long rainy stretches of our Upstate New York summers. Plenty of Adirondack camping trips in my youth were spent trudging around under a rain poncho. After a week of only bathing in cold lake water, my brothers and I carried the mixed aroma of sweat, campfire smoke, and the damp-induced mold and mildew of the canvas tent fabric we slept under. Here in California, we often have the opposite complaint, suffering varying levels of drought for decades. During the driest stretches, the weatherman mentioning even a ten percent chance of rain was enough to get people excited, only to be disappointed again. Climate change has brought greater rainfall in the last couple of years, which is great for countering the drought, but it would be nice if it didn’t fall all at once. Atmospheric rivers that blast through one after another wreak havoc. One benefit of rainfall is that waterfalls flow again. I’ve been on many a hike in the Marin Watershed to visit waterfall sites, only to see barely a trickle, and sometimes dry creek beds. With greater rainfall this season and more storms on the way, I know the local waterfalls will be flowing at full blast. Staying warm, dry and safe during the storms is a comfort, but going out after the rain to feel the freshness of the air and see the bright post-rain colors is always uplifting. Check out a local waterfall if you can. Keep putting one foot forward, whatever the weather! This week’s HikingAutism Hike Notes from the archives is Tucker Trail, featuring the Tucker Trail and Tucker Cutoff Trail in the Marin Watershed. These trails offer special pleasures of their own, but also connect to the wonderful Bill Williams Trail and Eldridge Grade (see Bill Williams-Tucker Trail Waterfall Hike and Eldridge Grade-Windy Ridge Hike Notes.) These lesser traveled trails offer some of the best treats the Marin Watershed has to offer. This week’s Hike Notes from the Archives: (Original Hike Notes 117): Tucker Trail Click Insights/Hike Update News for inspiring reflections. Browse hikes on the main Hikes page or on the Hike Search by Area page. Check out selected articles and interviews under Media. Click World Walks to see or share favorite family-friendly walks! Stay in touch with Lisa Louis and HikingAutism via Contact. See products with inspiring designs that support the efforts of HikingAutism under Support/Shop. The Links page lists a loose collection of helpful information links. Check the Home page for the broader background story. If you’re not able to take one of these Northern California hikes, hopefully you can enjoy the photo galleries at the bottom of each hike page! Feel free to share and follow on Facebook at HikingAutism, follow on Twitter at @HikingAutism and Instagram at lisalouis777 Gnarled Wisdom
Rising along a tree-covered trail, I stepped from leafy canopy to bright blue sky over an open ridge, with distant mountains in view beyond blue bay waters. Another short turn of the trail, and I stopped in my tracks. I hadn’t seen a mountain lion. I didn’t stumble over a rattlesnake. I saw a gnarled old oak tree bending its arms over the trail. The heavier branches were black against the intense blue sky, like an old paper silhouette. Smaller nearby trees featured similarly twisted branches, but the big old tree had clearly earned its crooked limbs. My grandmother used to stand at her cat claw wooden table, mixing dough for her perfectly crisp-yet-chewy chocolate chip cookies. She cradled the ceramic bowl in one arm, fingers sticking out feebly below, while awkwardly grasping the wooden spoon handle with the other hand. Her fingers and knuckles were so distorted by arthritis that I thought of them as bird claws. It was a mystery how she gripped anything. Despite her contorted joints, her hands still did the work she wanted them to do, and she had wise insights to go along with the cookies. I was fascinated by my grandmother’s hands, not afraid of them. The serpentine curves of ancient branches have always entranced me. We will never know all the twists and turns that made a branch or a hand look the way it does over long years, but there are many stories behind those shapes. May we all honor time spent with trees and people who have gained the wisdom that comes in tandem with aging bodies. This week’s Hike Notes, Windy Hill-Betsy Crowder and Meadow Trails, takes readers on the ascending leg of a loop hike in the Windy Hill Open Space Preserve, a place that mixes forests of fir, oak and redwood with open ridgetop views. Check the Home page for the broader background story. Click Insights/Hike Update News for inspiring reflections. Browse hikes on the main Hikes page or on the Hike Search by Area page, and scroll to the bottom of each hike page to see full photo galleries. If you’d like to support HikingAutism, check out the Support/Shop page! Check out selected articles and interviews under Media. Click World Walks to see or share favorite family-friendly walks! Stay in touch with Lisa Louis and HikingAutism via Contact. The Links page lists a loose collection of helpful information links. Feel free to share and follow on Facebook at HikingAutism, follow on Twitter at @HikingAutism and Instagram at lisalouis777 New this week: Hike Notes 197: Windy Hill-Betsy Crowder and Meadow Trails Worth Repeating
Edged by towering trees, blue sky and puffy white clouds, a grand lawn is dotted with people lounging as if posing for a pastoral landscape painting. Giant pink petals framed by geometrical branches blaze against a blue sky. The fuzzy bud of a magnolia blossom-to-be is backlit by the sun. A river of pink and white blossoms flows toward us from above. These are things I see every year at the San Francisco Botanical Garden. Each year around January and February, the impressive petals of magnolia blossoms put on a grand show at scattered locations around the garden grounds. We don’t write it down on a calendar. Driving around town, we spot magnolia trees blooming here and there, and are reminded to make our annual magnolia visit to the Botanical Garden. The trees continuously grow and change. The weather and lighting is different for every visit. Some years many trees blossom all at once and others there’s a trickle of one variety blooming to the next. My fellow hiking/nature/disabilities blogger friend Marjorie Turner Kuhl Hollman often shares posts marked, “Worth repeating,” I make sure to stop and take a look. Sure enough, she’s found something worth appreciating, thinking about, and remembering. The magnolia trees are always worth making a repeat visit for, even for a quick half hour stroll. Though I like to try hiking at new places as often as I can, I also love going back to old favorites. There’s a comfort in mixing the familiar with the new. Enjoy opportunities to repeat things that lift your heart. Smell that favorite flower, read that favorite book, drink your favorite tea from your favorite cup! Keep putting one foot forward! This week’s HikingAutism Hike Notes from the archives is Magnolia Stroll-San Francisco Botanical Garden (reshared each year), highlighting the Botanical Garden’s collection of 200 magnolia trees representing 63 species. The magnolias are just a fraction of the wonderful plants on view at the garden, but are a special treat in the early months of the year. This week’s Hike Notes from the Archives: (Original Hike Notes 46): Magnolia Stroll-San Francisco Botanical Garden Click Insights/Hike Update News for inspiring reflections. Browse hikes on the main Hikes page or on the Hike Search by Area page. Check out selected articles and interviews under Media. Click World Walks to see or share favorite family-friendly walks! Stay in touch with Lisa Louis and HikingAutism via Contact. See products with inspiring designs that support the efforts of HikingAutism under Support/Shop. The Links page lists a loose collection of helpful information links. Check the Home page for the broader background story. If you’re not able to take one of these Northern California hikes, hopefully you can enjoy the photo galleries at the bottom of each hike page! Feel free to share and follow on Facebook at HikingAutism, follow on Twitter at @HikingAutism and Instagram at lisalouis777 Across the Water
Standing on the San Francisco side of the Golden Gate Bridge, I look north across the Golden Gate—the water beneath the bridge that connects the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay—and think longingly of what Marin hike I might do next. There are plenty of great walks filled with natural wonders—plant, animal and mineral—on the San Francisco side. Yet familiarity dulls our vision of the treasures at our feet. The thought of battling traffic to cross the Golden Gate Bridge becomes a mental obstacle, but in truth crossing the bridge to the Marin side usually takes only a few minutes. Standing at any of countless Marin side vista spots, I look back across the water and see the San Francisco skyline and the contours of its western edge. “Look, Sean,” I say to my autistic son, pointing toward Ocean Beach in the distance. “Our house is over there.” “House!” he says. We enjoy a Marin hike, long or short, and drink up the views whether we’re at beach level or high in the mountains. And every time we drive back along the curves and through the tunnel that frames a postcard view of the Golden Gate Bridge, I look forward to being on our side of the water again. Going a short distance that offers a different vantage point can give us a fresh appreciation of our everyday stomping grounds. If you can’t go out, try looking out a different window to see the world from a different angle. May we all make opportunities to freshen our perspectives! This week’s HikingAutism Hike Notes from the archives is Fort Baker, a historic site in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area just north of the Golden Gate Bridge, offering iconic views back to the San Francisco skyline from a cozy cove by a fishing pier, marina, and historic military sites. This week’s Hike Notes from the Archives: (Original Hike Notes 126): Fort Baker Click Insights/Hike Update News for inspiring reflections. Browse hikes on the main Hikes page or on the Hike Search by Area page. Check out selected articles and interviews under Media. Click World Walks to see or share favorite family-friendly walks! Stay in touch with Lisa Louis and HikingAutism via Contact. See products with inspiring designs that support the efforts of HikingAutism under Support/Shop. The Links page lists a loose collection of helpful information links. Check the Home page for the broader background story. If you’re not able to take one of these Northern California hikes, hopefully you can enjoy the photo galleries at the bottom of each hike page! Feel free to share and follow on Facebook at HikingAutism, follow on Twitter at @HikingAutism and Instagram at lisalouis777 Unexpected Memories
Our autistic son Sean had a magical young teacher who passed away suddenly (In Memory and Thanks). We were devastated. My mind swirled with memories: activities he’d done with Sean, his words of wisdom, the hope we experienced through his work with Sean. I learned that grief is not a predictable force following an orderly progression. Just when I thought I had no tears left, a flickering shadow, a leaf skittering across the sidewalk, or a song on the radio would bring on a wave of renewed pain. This past year I lost both my parents. In contrast to the sudden loss of a young person, though the initial shock of knowing we’ll never hear a person’s voice again is still jolting, when an aging loved one has been suffering with health troubles, there is also some relief that the person will be at peace. The grieving starts before they’re actually gone. My dad was a best friend who I loved talking to about everything under the sun. Hearing a Dave Brubeck tune or a Beethoven piano sonata on the radio can bring a wave of memories: my dad playing the piano at night with the sound wafting upstairs, an unintended lullaby for my brothers and I listening from under our blankets. I don’t have as many everyday memory triggers for my mom. Today, though, suffering from a bad cold for the first time in ages, I felt frustrated, tired and ready to cry, just like I did when I was a child staying home from school with the flu. All I could think of is that I wanted a bowl of hot soup, and we didn’t have any. My mom was kindest to me when I was sick. I don’t know how many cans of Campbells Chicken and Stars soup she served me over the years, but she knew that specific soup with some saltine crackers broken over the top made me feel better and she always had it on hand. The memory of her bringing me soup when I was a kid brought a bigger wave of tears than I’ve allowed myself in all the four months since she passed away. Maybe fear of the overwhelming pain of losing a parent leads us to suppress the grief. Our autistic younger son doesn’t really understand that his grandpa and grandma are dead. By the same token, he doesn’t really understand when we explain that his big brother has gone far away on an airplane. I don’t know what sets off his memories of grandpa, grandma, or his big brother, but he says their names and looks at photos of them on the computer. Is loving someone without understanding the finality of death easier? Is not understanding the concept of someone living far away harder? I don’t know. My son’s language challenges mean we can’t have a conversation about it, so we plod forward with our unique views of how the world works, finding a way to make each day a good one in some way. I still talk cheerfully about grandma and grandpa when my son looks at old photos, and that makes me feel better, too. I wish everyone the occasional cleansing cry and the ability to keep moving forward! This week’s Hike Notes, Old Mine Trail- Mountain Theater to Pantoll, takes readers on the descending leg of a loop hike from Pantoll Campground to the Mountain Theater (Cushing Memorial Amphitheater) and back, featuring some of Mt. Tam’s most stunning view spots. Check the Home page for the broader background story. Click Insights/Hike Update News for inspiring reflections. Browse hikes on the main Hikes page or on the Hike Search by Area page, and scroll to the bottom of each hike page to see full photo galleries. If you’d like to support HikingAutism, check out the Support/Shop page! Check out selected articles and interviews under Media. Click World Walks to see or share favorite family-friendly walks! Stay in touch with Lisa Louis and HikingAutism via Contact. The Links page lists a loose collection of helpful information links. Feel free to share and follow on Facebook at HikingAutism, follow on Twitter at @HikingAutism and Instagram at lisalouis777 New this week: Hike Notes 196: Old Mine Trail- Mountain Theater to Pantoll Behind the Mist
Many cultures have a tradition of reflecting on events of the past year and expressing hopes for the coming year. I heard, “Hoping next year is better,” more often than usual this time as we celebrated the transition to the New Year. Every year has devastating challenges. Every year has positive highlights. If terrible things happen toward the end of a year, we tend to remember the whole in that negative light. If it ends with a big positive bang, we feel hopeful. The future lies behind a misty veil. We can make educated guesses about the paths of our lives, but there will always be surprises. That makes life both challenging and exciting. There is a beauty in that mysterious fog obscuring our view. Appreciating the spot we’re in right now and accepting that the future is hazy by nature is a skill we can practice for living with less anxiety. May we all learn to embrace the moment we’re in, and to walk through the curtain of the unknown with a positive spirit. Keep putting one foot forward! This week’s HikingAutism Hike Notes from the archives is Devil’s Gulch, where hikers experience mossy, damp, shady trails, as well as open sky spaces with grassy spaces sometimes covered in mist, and turkey vultures flying overhead. This week’s Hike Notes from the Archives: (Original Hike Notes 123): Devil’s Gulch Click Insights/Hike Update News for inspiring reflections. Browse hikes on the main Hikes page or on the Hike Search by Area page. Check out selected articles and interviews under Media. Click World Walks to see or share favorite family-friendly walks! Stay in touch with Lisa Louis and HikingAutism via Contact. See products with inspiring designs that support the efforts of HikingAutism under Support/Shop. The Links page lists a loose collection of helpful information links. Check the Home page for the broader background story. If you’re not able to take one of these Northern California hikes, hopefully you can enjoy the photo galleries at the bottom of each hike page! Feel free to share and follow on Facebook at HikingAutism, follow on Twitter at @HikingAutism and Instagram at lisalouis777 |
Lisa LouisSharing insights and hiking highlights (Hikes, Hike Search by Area) from the special needs caregiver front in San Francisco. Archives
March 2024
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