Walking With Senses Open

To really experience nature, I need to have all of my senses working. I want to be aware of the large, carnivorous animals moving through the woods before I run into them, of course, but I also want to see beyond the generalities of woods, sky, and river and see their specifics.

I want to look at the individual trees, and see how they are different — the roughness of the bark, the shape of their leaves, and if they have nuts. I want to watch the interaction between the river and its bank and see what creatures live there. I want to listen to the quieter sounds of what is going on around me, and find the creek that is trickling somewhere nearby. I want to watch the movements of a vole walking under the leaves that is making them twitch. I want to have a feeling for the landscape, so that when I come around the bend I will instinctively know if it is going to rise or go down, be in sunlight or in shade.

Too often if I’m outdoors in a familiar place, I overlook what is around me because I think that everything is the same as when I came through here the last time. But nature keeps changing. And I limit what my eyes see today by deciding what I’m going to see. For example, once I headed out to see what Half Dome looked like in the early dawn, and I was so focused on getting a good view of the dome that I didn’t notice the coyote resting in the meadow, a ten-point buck under the oak tree, and a harlequin duck on the river.

Next time you’re outside, don’t focus on anything. Just open your eyes and try to see everything at the same time. Be aware of movement on the periphery of your vision. Notice the birds flying overhead without looking directly at them. It’s an unfocused looking because what we’re doing is trying to see everything at once and react to what is going on before we decide where to put our focus.

I’ve found this helpful when trying to see owls in the woods behind the house. The trees and leaves create so many crisscross images that it’s hard to spot an owl. But as I look carefully, a pattern begins to emerge, and I see an owl sitting motionless on a branch.

Another important sense is smell, and this is where your mouth comes in. When you’re outdoors, open your mouth a little and breathe in using both your nose and mouth. You should be able to flood all of your smell receptors by doing this. Have you ever seen an animal with its mouth slightly open sniffing the air? That’s what it’s doing.

I discovered this one day when I was hiking in the highlands behind Eagle Peak. It was hot and I was tired after hiking ten miles so I took a break. I happened to be breathing with my mouth open because I was out of breath, not used to hiking at 8000 feet, and I began to pick up a variety of scents. I closed my mouth and sniffed, but the scents were faint. I opened my mouth, breathed in again, and picked up the scents of pine trees, granite, moisture from a nearby creek, and also something musky. So I waited. A minute later a deer walked out of the woods fifty feet ahead me.