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Yogic Hiking Meetup #1


I am leery of Meetup groups. For one thing, they tend to skew towards a young demographic. For another, whatever their stated purpose, many of them seem to have an undercurrent of being singles groups. Two new groups popped up recently, each of which explicitly countered at least one of these concerns and which therefore caught my interest. One is an outdoor activities group for "experienced life veterans", that is to say, middle-aged people. That group had a bike ride this weekend. My family forgot that I had signed up for this event and scheduled me to do other things at the same time - notably, to pick David up from his SAT (no worries - family comes first). So, I'll have to defer until later to report on this Meetup.
Great Falls

The second group is called "Mindful Yogi Hikers" and hosts events which combine yoga, meditation, and hiking - exactly my cup of chai tea. The organizer of the group is a guy my age, married with three kids, so I figured at worst there'd be at least one other person my age there. I also figured he wasn't out to create a singles vibe.

Today was the first Mindful Yogic Hike, on the Billy Goat Trail at Great Falls, MD. I can't believe I had never done this hike before. What a great trail - lots of fun rock scrambles, and a better view of the falls than on the Virginia side. A whole bunch of people signed up, but only five of us showed - the rest probably dissuaded by the coolness of the morning combined with an early start on Daylight Savings morning. The attendees included the organizer (Fred), me, and three women ranging in age from 30-ish to 40-ish: two Asian women who were both very quiet and one woman who seemed to have lived in every country in the world. As I figured, with the exception of the organizer the group was indeed younger, but it didn't really matter: we were all shared the bond of being hikers and yogis.

After a quick detour to the falls overlook we hit Billy Goat Section A. This trail, while not as strenuous as Old Rag in Shenandoah National Park (the best known rock scramble hike in the area), is nicely challenging. We stopped a couple of times along the way to contemplate the scenery - mindfully, of course. As with my recent West Virgina trip, the day warmed up and we shed layers at each stop. At the first stop I traded in my fleece hat for a ball cap. At the second I packed away my jacket and gloves. By our third break we were all hiking naked.
Shells

Just kidding. This isn't the Naked Yogic Libertine Hiking Meetup (note to self: Google "Naked Yogic Libertine Meetups").

As we headed back we ran into more and more people on the trails. The park had a feeling of joyful rebirth, filled as it was with people emerging from winter hibernation to enjoy a warm early spring afternoon. When our group returned to the parking area we all got out our yoga mats and did a quick practice - some sun salutations, tree pose among the trees, and so on. Then we sat and meditated a bit. Slowly the group members melted away to their other commitments. I was the last person there besides Fred: the experience of sitting in the sunshine, looking out over the river was one which was hard to leave. Finally I hit the road for home, feeling like I had just spent half a day totally removed from my regular life. Part of it was the new location, part the new people. I returned home better prepared to face the (unfortunately abundant) stresses of my everyday life. Namaste.
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