Updated Worsham County Trail
As I walked out of the creaking door it almost felt like I was transported into another world with my teeth grinding on top of one another, while my hair fell over my eyes due to Whittier being 15 miles inland of the Pacific Ocean. The breath of fresh air was illuminating as I took my first steps on this intriguing excursion. As the fresh air was enlightening it was just as furious as leaves on the ground moved from one end to the other. I kept walking, but every step I took came with a little bit of extra strength due to my shivering bones. During the beginning walk the smell of the past week’s lunches were as prominent as the clouds in the sky that day. Once the walk hit the incline from old, antique, Whittier College, which was established in 1887 in the honor of the quaker poet and abolitionist John Greenleaf Whittier, to the new, rich neighborhood there was a change from head to toe. The flowers became powerful as they sat on the very long trees that turned the Central Park and Hadley-Greenleaf neighborhoods into almost nighttime Alaska. The colors of the trees and flowers just overtook my vision as we turned every corner due to the number of trees that seemed to be there for many years around the area known as College Hills. However, it almost felt eerie as we went on the walk because as the trees seemed to get older, they also seemed to be greener as well.
This inverse relationship was just so peculiar, because as we walked up the incline the more trees that we saw the more inclines or sharp hills would pop up right after. Looking from left to right there was not one normal garage that was built to withstand the force that almost took me out of my shoes as the walk went up hill. As we got closer and closer to the trail known as the Worsham Canyon Trail the clouds seemed to be in my grasp as they laid on the hill with ease. Once we started on the trail which gradually rises 243 feet over just about a half mile it became silent enough to hear my own heartbeat as the ruffling in some leaf’s made my heart sink. As I looked to see where the sound originated from there was no source to be found. This happened a few times, but the results were the same, there was no source to be found each time. Additionally, during this excursion as we walked around the trail there was only a sound of two birds coming in and out as the sounds of the any other animals was nowhere to be captured which was ironic because this trail is a part of the Puente Hills Habitat Preservation Authority which works to preserve the space of Puente Hills and protect the habitats of the animals that reside there.
Walking step by step on the trail taking in the hills that that came over us all as we went more into the trail showed us what the world really is when it is not taken care of. Branches to my left and graphite to my right took away the serene moment not only from myself, but from the hill as well. Due to this the Puente Hills Habitat Preservation Authority offer outreach programs to engage students and residents with wildlife preservation. Anything when it is not kept in top fashion becomes less and less intriguing over time and this hill is no different. The grass being all over the place crowded by dead branches here and there with my grinding teeth and shivering bones made the experience almost unbearable to the point where I thought I had aged to 45. Well, that was until we reached the pinnacle of the excursion where the view was more amazing than anything I had ever seen before.
Once we reached the end of the trail it was covered with white clouds as they overtook the sky, which highlighted the hills as greener than ever before. With this contrast as I looked out ahead there was this mist that covered the background and if you looked close enough there was a point where you could see Long Beach covered in the fog of the clouds. From this view the clouds became goliath, and the city of Whittier became David. That view in that second allows one to stop and think how great the world is and can be. However, there are parts of the world that almost look like the opposite of this and more like the trail leading up to the view. Though the view was amazing it almost felt like it was incomplete. It felt like the view was missing a friend or a companion. What the view was missing was the heart and soul of the hills, the animals. The Habitat Authority manages approximately 3,780 acres of preserved public open space and this trail is only a small amount of that which goes to show that animals could be missing not only from this trail but from others as well. From the beginning of this excursion to the end it felt like a ghost town when it came to any type of animals excluding those two early birds. Animals not only give life to humans, but they also give life to the nature surrounding them. Without them the view almost becomes dry. Though there were no animals the excursion itself was not a failure. Anytime anyone can experience their surroundings whether it is a walk to the classroom or a walk to the mountain it is not only successful for them, but for the world itself.
