Straight Line (Entry 12)

 I was intrigued by Hunter's idea related to walking in a straight line, so I decided to try the activity for myself. I visited a portion of Joe Pool Lake's trail system that I was not familiar with, and I knew that this was the perfect opportunity for such an exploration. I jogged for a bit until I was away from the rest of the park guests, and once I no longer heard any conversations or footsteps, I decided to begin moving forward in a straight line. The terrain was much more hostile than the well-kept trails that I usually visited, so I knew this hike would offer many new experiences.

It did not take long for me to reach an obstacle that I would normally avoid: a long stretch of tangled, thorny vines that reached from my feet to my shoulders. I wanted to do minimal damage to the natural areas in which I was exploring, so I had to slowly maneuver and contort my body through the slim gaps that were left between the menacing spikes. Once I had made it through, I picked out the thorns that had hoped to join me in my travels, and I was glad to see that there was nothing more than tall grass to contend with for quite a while. 

While in this yellowing meadow, I had to elevate my knees in an unnatural manner while walking to make it through the thick overgrowth, and I ended up doing a bit of rushing through since I had deluded myself into believing there were snakes hiding in this patch of tall grass and awaiting an opportunity to strike. Thankfully, no such attacks took place, and I was able to make it to the next stretch of forest with no damage. 

This next segment of the woods was far more populated with trees than the first. These trees did not have as many leaves still attached, and they were much thinner at their base. After walking for a short while into this piece of the forest, there was an endless number of identical, thin trees that surrounded me on all sides which made it quite difficult to maintain my orientation and sense of direction. Luckily, I was interested only with moving forward rather than going in any particular cardinal direction, . 

After this, I was able to cross over a creek, move through a swampy area, and even scoot my way down a steep and jagged cliff. In each of these cases, I was fully aware of the alternative routes that existed which would have made my trip easier; however, I was glad to have gotten back to my car with muddy shoes, wet socks, and scrapes up and down my arms since they were only made possible by my willingness to embrace nature as it presented itself rather than try to work around it to protect my human sensibilities.