{"id":4524,"date":"2016-10-28T17:43:08","date_gmt":"2016-10-28T21:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/james\/?p=4524"},"modified":"2016-10-28T19:09:12","modified_gmt":"2016-10-28T23:09:12","slug":"kerrys-ditch-a-hidden-doorway-to-wilderness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/james\/2016\/10\/28\/kerrys-ditch-a-hidden-doorway-to-wilderness\/","title":{"rendered":"Kerry’s Ditch: A Hidden Doorway to Wilderness"},"content":{"rendered":"

The First Visit:<\/strong><\/p>\n

With my yellow field journal in hand, I slipped out the back door of Grey Court in search for adventure. \u00a0My mind was teeming loudly with the thoughts of the day and all the journal articles that I knew I would have to include in this reflection were beginning to jumble together.\u00a0 As I rounded the west side of Westhampton Lake, the brazen hip-hop melodies booming from the enormous baseball field speakers violently collided with my whirling thoughts. \u00a0I knew I could never reflect here.<\/p>\n

Speeding cars whipped around the bend and came hurtling towards me as I walked to the lake\u2019s input by foot.\u00a0 The road narrowed right at the spot where the water passed onto campus grounds, so I jumped down off the asphalt and onto the slippery banks of the stream on the west side of the road.\u00a0 I was hoping to find a slice of serenity here at Kerry\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0Ditch, but instead I only got a view of a cement riverbed, nearly stagnant water and brambles.<\/p>\n

I sat there in the mud waiting for Cronon<\/a> to descend from the treetops and remind me that nobody can \u201cflee into a mythical wilderness to escape\u201d society.\u00a0 Although I was crouching in a thicket of jewel weed by the stream, the road, mere feet away, seemed to suck all the natural peace from my surroundings.\u00a0 What kind of reflection spot was this?<\/p>\n

\""To<\/a>

“To improve water quality and help reduce erosion, the buffer of trees, shrubs and groundcover along this stream was planted by: (…)”<\/p><\/div>\n

As I began to grope my way up to the road in preparation to leave, I spotted movement in the corner of my eye. \u00a0To my astonishment, I spied two does standing in a patch of mimosa upstream from the road.\u00a0 All of us instantly froze and gazed at each other for quite some time before one deer flipped its tail up and bounded deep into the woods, only to be followed by its friend.\u00a0 \u201cThere\u2019s some wilderness for you, Cronon\u201d I thought as I emerged back on the road.\u00a0 That\u2019s when I noticed a small green sign titled, \u201cCommunity Stream Project.\u201d\u00a0 The text on the sign explained how the stream\u2019s riparian zone was restored in 2006 in order to improve water quality and reduce erosion.<\/p>\n

As I trudged my way back onto campus, I admitted defeat.\u00a0 Sure, I saw some flora and fauna, but was it really wilderness?\u00a0 Clearly, the sign showed how this side of the stream was no secret to others.\u00a0 My reflection spot proved to be busy, exposed and influenced by human factors so much so that I could not find calmness.\u00a0 Maybe Cronon was wrong.<\/p>\n

But how long is the stream\u2019s riparian zone?\u00a0 How deep does it penetrate into the woods?\u00a0 If it had a sign, then it\u2019s watershed must extend somewhere, right?\u00a0 And where did those two deer run off two anyways?\u00a0 After posing these questions a few days later, I knew that there must have been more for me to experience.\u00a0 My adventure wasn\u2019t over yet\u2026<\/p>\n

The Return:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The stream’s banks were too overgrown for walking.<\/p><\/div>\n

The overgrowth was too thick for me to walk upstream on the water\u2019s banks, so I headed north on Boatwright Drive, turned left onto New Fraternity Row and slipped through a gap in the back fence of a lodge.\u00a0 As the music from the baseball field faded away and the asphalt parking lot gave way to forest floor, I forged into the woods in search for the stream that feeds into Westhampton Lake.<\/p>\n

\"Pipes<\/a>

Pipes can unnaturally alter the route of water within a watershed.<\/p><\/div>\n

The thin trees and leafy ground underfoot expanded broadly before me and I could easily make out trails of erosion.\u00a0 Water from the nearby residential areas poured into trenches that lined the streets and ultimately flowed directly into this patch of woods via tin pipe.\u00a0 My long desired revelation finally came as I understood exactly why the erosion marks streaked down the small hill towards my original reflection spot. \u00a0All the rain that fell in this expansive residential area either percolated into the ground or made its way to this patch of woods, wearing away the earth on its journey to Westhampton Lake. \u00a0My meek, nearly stagnant stream from last week was actually a massive funnel for the runoff of all this land. \u00a0Campus has no boundaries and is instead connected to these adjacent woodland and residential areas.\u00a0\u00a0Now that I perceived my reflection spot as a doorway to so much more, my understanding of\u00a0it had drastically changed from my first visit.<\/p>\n

\"Wilderness<\/a>

Wilderness is always surrounding us.<\/p><\/div>\n

While brooding on my new sense of scale, I gathered my notes and prepared to head back to campus; however, there was a large figure blocking my path to the road.\u00a0 A regal buck with a full rack of antlers was patiently gazing right at me.\u00a0 Cronon was right: wilderness surrounds us everywhere.\u00a0 I had stumbled upon a sublime patch of pure and rugged nature that was mere steps away from busy roads and loud baseball music.\u00a0 Face to face with the majesty of wilderness, I could finally reflect and reach harmony.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The First Visit: With my yellow field journal in hand, I slipped out the back door of Grey Court in search for adventure. \u00a0My mind was teeming loudly with the thoughts of the day and all the journal articles that … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2956,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6246,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reflection-point","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/james\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/james\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/james\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/james\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2956"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/james\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/james\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4524\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/james\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/james\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/james\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}