We are hiking in the New Jersey Highlands
A short drive to go there from where we live
Saturday morning on the holiday weekend
The start of summer brings out the nature lovers.
Two young women ask us for trail information
Telling us they live near Exit 8 as if we should know
That geography based on the Garden State Parkway
Locations where the names of towns get lost.
A smiling young couple happy to be starting out
Tell us their plan is to wander about
Following whatever trails whichever way they go
Enjoying the day being together.
A frowning older woman returning disappointed
Tells us she prefers the Delaware Water Gap
After viewing the Highlands Natural Pool
Though it seems she didn’t even find the trailhead.
Nothing is pristine in the Anthropocene
Second and third growth trees in the state forest
A limited parcel bounded by roads and development
And yet the trail takes us to a wondrous place.
We climb up and over the ancient Appalachian bedrock
Gaining expansive views from massive granite outcroppings
Giant erratic boulders left by the receding glaciers
Bear witness to a time before we humans were here.
A prairie warbler sings so sweetly from the treetop
A scarlet tanager is heard and then glimpsed
The sunlight filters down through the leaves casting moving
shadows
While we walk along delighted listening and looking all around us.
If you are looking to experience wilderness anywhere on this
earth
No such place exists not impacted by human activity
But there are places that are being conserved as parkland
Where the pleasures of vegetation and wildlife can be
enjoyed.
Here we walk on trails maintained by dedicated volunteers
In what amounts to a kind of rustic garden
The future of this habitat requires overall land management
Keeping alive what can survive in this new epoch.
