Walking through the ages

T

oday, it happened again. I was walking home from the bus stop, listening to music and looking nowhere. I somehow felt being observed by someone but there was no one on the street, so I continued. The wind was facing towards me, so I turned my head to the left to get my hair out of my face and there they were; two young deer looking at me. I saw them just by chance but if I would have paid more attention to where I was at, I would have seen them before. It really took me off-guard. Why? Because we don’t pay attention and as a result we miss lots of things, and not just animals, but landscapes (last field trip proved me right). Anyway, last Thursday we revived Kamloops in the past, and admired Kamloops in the present; it really seemed that I was walking through the ages.

The week flew by so fast that when I realized we were heading off to the hoodoos. That would be our first real field trip. It took 30-40 minutes to get there; located past Tranquille road as you head out to Kamloops Lake there it was, Cinnamon Ridge. It is one of the living proof of Kamloops history, the result of volcanic eruptions. The gigantic rocks piled up together were once a volcano in eruption spitting out smoke and lava.

The moment I stepped out of the car and looked at my surroundings I could tell two things: bushes dominating the landscape and colossal rocks on top almost touching the sky. The weather didn’t like us very much but at least it didn’t cry.

The beginning of the hike was pleasant, not steep nor slippery. Dozens of sagebrush accompanied us as we were walking on by, however it got to the point that only the bravest individuals were capable of getting there. It was very clear to see how all the historic events had conditioned the type of life that grows in there nowadays (glaciers for instance). It got steeper and slippery, but the views were worth it. At some point, I recall being in “The Lion King” movie as the landscape was so alike. If you looked towards the lake, you would see all the expansion of land that defines this country and all the history that is underneath each one of the rocks that builds it (volcanos, glaciers, lakes, etc). Whereas, if you looked backwards you would see the remains of the volcanos that once dominated this land. I tried to imagine how different it was now from then, and how much time it took for all these events to convert the landscape to what I see now, and suddenly my stomach turned upside down. It is a pity that most of us don’t even think about that, our anthropocentric point of view always makes us blind and blurs our minds, but yes, the Earth existed before we came in to destroy it.

The final stop of the trip was the canyon. We walked into the canyon itself, walls of rocks observing us as we pass by, stones and some logs left on the ground by the action of the water. The narrow and deep hallways of the canyon, the hoodoo spires rising above it and the loud crows made the ridge the perfect scenario for a horror movie. I sat down and observed for a little while everything, tones of mudstone building those huge monuments, wild roses growing from nowhere, the wind rattling against barren vegetation … The nature was at peace.

I sat on the rear seat of the car and as we leaving that place I thought: I have just walked through the ages.