After…

After the race, after I saw the results, after I wandered through the park a bit, I turned and walked up the Bull Creek road. A pretty little pea was blooming in the fennel. I hadn’t noticed it before. A little further along there was a lupine in bloom — I hadn’t see it either.

On the left a little stream came down the hillside and was half hidden by redwood branches.

And then I dove into the redwoods themselves. It was very calm now, and peaceful. The road was still closed so there were no cars, and it was about 5 hours after the half had started so there were no walkers either. Just me and the trees.

I pass a pair of gloves, carefully placed on a tree. Someone had forgotten them. They looked rather mournful. A GU wrapper. Someone left that too. I picked it up. And several other bits of trash (though I left the used kleenex).

Up ahead a raven is picking up something too. I think it is a raven, it looks too big for a crow.

Lots of ferns grow on the forest floor. The Avenue is lined with wood sorrel, but there’s not much here. It looks much drier here than there.

There’s a path on the right which meanders down to the creek and then back up. A fisherman’s trail perhaps? On it I see a blooming Iris. And a little yellow violet.

But my legs are getting tired. It’s time to turn back.

Which is downhill, and a little harder on my poor quads. Cars are starting to come down the road now. It’s still a fairly untraveled road… but the peace is fading. Time to return to the real world.