Hiking Natural Bridge Rock Garden Trail

Early morning hike beginning at 6:30 AM in August 2024. rswfire is at Natural Bridge State Park, navigating challenging terrain in warm conditions. He appears to be in a phase of physical reconditioning and reconnecting with familiar outdoor spaces after a period of inactivity.

Energetic Signature

determined

Field State

capacity restoration

Orientation

toward physical coherence

01J49KM6Y8MBENN5XC1CTSEH1S

August 2, 2024

24:22

View on YouTube

Author

rswfire

Status

ARCHIVED

Type

TRANSMISSION (CAPTURE)

Temperature

0.00

[0:00]it wouldn't be me without the Mountain

[0:02]Dew but I did bring plenty of water got

[0:04]my backpack so I'm prepared let me just

[0:08]show you what we're doing today so we're

[0:10]here we're going to take the original

[0:13]Trail to here and then we're going to

[0:14]get onto this Trail called The Rock

[0:16]Garden Trail I'm sorry let me try this

[0:18]again so here's the hemlock Lodge we're

[0:20]going to get on the original Trail then

[0:22]we're going to go to the Rock Garden

[0:23]Trail and then we're going to take this

[0:26]Trail called the sand cap

[0:28]Trail um The Rock Garden Trail is about

[0:30]2 mi and the sand Gap trail is 7 and 1/2

[0:34]miles that's going to bring us out over

[0:35]here on the road and we're going to have

[0:38]to go walk back to the Jeep that's

[0:40]probably another I don't know maybe a

[0:42]half a mile so I'm thinking around 10

[0:44]miles

[0:46]today it's 6:30 in the

[0:48]morning and the sun is coming up so I

[0:51]think it's time to go Trail has start

[0:54]right

[0:58]here doesn't take long to get to the

[1:00]Rock Garden trail from here and that's

[1:02]one of my favorites I do love the

[1:04]original Trail because it's just nice

[1:07]you can see they put a lot of work into

[1:09]it it's a nice little

[1:13]Trail i' had forgotten how steep it is

[1:18]already i' had forgotten you had to take

[1:21]the battleship Rock

[1:22]trail to the Rock Garden

[1:26]Trail

[1:28]so might be a little bit bit

[1:31]more um longer than I

[1:34]thought I did I forgot how steep this

[1:36]stuff

[1:38]is it's been a while since I did this

[1:41]it's impossible to show the scale on my

[1:44]phone but we're going way up there and

[1:47]that's where you'll find the Natural

[1:49]Bridge the namesake of this place then

[1:52]we're going a whole lot further so most

[1:56]people come here to see the Natural

[1:58]Bridge it's you know we'll go up there

[1:59]and we'll check it out but that's not

[2:01]why I come here I don't know I love I've

[2:05]always loved the intersection between

[2:07]trees and geology but I'm not like a big

[2:10]fan of like rocks don't really inspire

[2:14]me which is why I don't think I would

[2:16]like

[2:18]um being out west

[2:22]but um I don't hate it either I do like

[2:26]it when they're when they blend together

[2:29]there's so much here that it is

[2:30]impossible to show you but that's why I

[2:34]love this place features like this are

[2:37]why they caught the rock garden Trail we

[2:39]already passed

[2:41]one but there's they're all

[2:44]over we're going to encounter a lot of

[2:46]obstacles like this on the sand Gap

[2:48]trail only much

[2:50]worse I definitely remember that

[2:54]so that should be interesting

[3:10]we're still waiting for daylight pretty

[3:12]much

[3:34]so we got one and a/4 miles to go to get

[3:36]to the top of the Natural Bridge that's

[3:38]where the sand gap TR starts

[4:23]about the low Gap trail I've taken that

[4:25]taking all the trails here though now

[4:27]we're climbing

[4:30]to rock

[4:58]garden remember the spot U me and my

[5:01]nephew took a break

[5:03]here I had a little

[5:20]chat we climb up that little slit

[5:24]there my mother hiked this with me

[5:27]once actually surprised

[5:31]that was difficult for her I think it

[5:34]was on the way down though I don't think

[5:37]she climbed up it that would have been

[5:40]it was on the way

[5:41]down this

[5:44]is

[5:45]um a little treacherous it's a little

[5:48]bit wet have to put this down 7 in the

[5:52]morning up up up we

[5:55]go we got quite a way to go still

[6:02]these

[6:03]TRS they are not for the Fain of heart

[6:06]we're just going to rest for a minute

[6:08]I'm

[6:09]older definitely older I didn't take

[6:12]breaks before that's okay though do what

[6:15]you have to do are layers and

[6:18]layers going down it's hard to see in

[6:21]the camera

[6:22]but that's a long hike

[6:25]up you can feel the temperature

[6:27]difference down there it's quite nice

[6:29]very cool

[6:30]Co pretty hot and sweaty up here

[6:33]already um you know part of a but part

[6:36]of it my age but I don't think that's

[6:39]the main thing I think it's just that

[6:40]I've been

[6:42]inactive

[6:43]I I've seen men a lot older than me and

[6:49]women

[6:50]um I said men cuz there's one in

[6:53]particular I'm thinking about saw him on

[6:54]a mountain once that man was inspiring

[6:59][Applause]

[7:01]still is do absolutely love this

[7:06]place with any luck we left early enough

[7:08]that we'll be the only ones at the

[7:10]Natural Bridge so might be a nice little

[7:18]experience imagine this place in the

[7:20]Autumn it's so

[7:24]beautiful spider we

[7:31]should be

[7:45]close looks like we still got a ways to

[7:49]go y we do we still got to get up quite

[7:52]a

[7:55]ways yeah we're about to do some

[7:57]climbing again

[8:01]go away

[8:05]Bean I'm not that

[8:12]interesting all right

[8:14]oh what's happened here oh

[8:21]nothing up up up we

[8:24]go this is a geologist

[8:27]Paradise I've always thought

[8:31]that we're not even close I don't know

[8:34]what I was thinking wishful thinking

[9:06]Everything feels the same here

[9:09]still this place is timeless

[9:33]those are some expansive

[9:36]rocks see if I can get a good view for

[9:39]you

[10:02]this always looked like a man to me and

[10:09]outside gave up

[10:12]there maybe

[10:45]we're getting to all the interesting

[10:46]bits

[13:35]I guess for that's

[13:41]leading

[13:44]yeah up and up and

[13:56]up dripping waterfall

[14:03]he just dripping right now it's crying I

[14:05]guess

[15:23]we found the sky

[15:27]left takes you all the way up there to

[15:30]the Natural

[15:33]Bridge I've taken it once with my mom

[15:37]I'm so afraid of heights I right here

[15:42]contemplated jumping off of that thing I

[15:44]was like I think I can make that jump

[15:47]think scared the crap out of

[15:49]me almost took it with my last boyfriend

[15:51]too like 15 years

[15:54]ago contemplated it and contemplated it

[15:57]just looking at it finally took another

[16:00]clown pen and I was like let's do it we

[16:04]didn't have enough money to get on it so

[16:07]didn't work

[16:10]out yeah Miss is quite a trail

[16:30]we're getting there we're getting

[16:32]there this isn't going to be an

[16:34]introspective hike it's not what today

[16:37]was

[16:39]about I'm in a Lial state where I

[16:42]just I need to push myself physically

[16:45]I'm kind of mentally

[16:47]drained and I wanted to experience this

[16:50]place I haven't been here in so long I

[16:52]love it

[16:53]here

[16:55]so different kind of video for you today

[17:19]I'll probably be over on those Ridge

[17:20]lines if we take the sand Gap

[17:22]trail that's what it's like up on the

[17:25]ridge

[17:26]line got some fog over there very

[17:44]PR still got a ways to go

[18:06]my younger self never noticed they don't

[18:08]put any park benches on these

[18:10]things oh we're

[18:13]here there it is

[19:23]fortunately we're not the only one I saw

[19:25]someone just walking up

[19:26]here it's always a tight sque EAS

[19:44]here you have a vot of me being

[19:47]Spider-Man between these

[19:49]things that was a long time

[19:54]ago the valy of Youth

[20:00][Music]

[20:10]many pictures there in my youth of

[20:12]course like every kid

[20:15]probably keep off here's my picture

[21:11]closed what's

[21:12]this I thought the problem taking

[21:16]though wild fire

[21:24]damage oh you can take it if you want to

[21:26]get to this hand Gap TR we do have to go

[21:28]that way

[21:31]okay

[21:32]cool yeah I'm forgetting how long that

[21:34]TR is there's all these other TRS you

[21:35]have to take the get to

[21:41]it right that's coming out there he know

[21:46]this tree he's getting bigger too I love

[21:49]that

[21:51]tree 10 years

[21:59]nice nice

[22:02]Sunrise

[22:04]fog very

[22:09]beautiful but yeah I know that

[22:12]tree I know

[22:14]you I know all of

[22:23]you yeah it's

[22:26]beautiful wow

[22:30]that is

[22:36]beautiful there's a Overlook over there

[22:39]where you can see the bridge

[22:43]from very far down

[23:06]wish my camera could show you the depth

[23:08]that is

[23:24]incredible he told me he took the

[23:26]original Trail how he beat me up here I

[23:28]didn't tell him I took the long

[23:30]one this is

[23:37]wonderful this is why people come

[23:55]here well we pked maybe 20% of what I

[23:58]had

[24:02]planned we are up on top of the ridge

[24:04]now though so it shouldn't be too

[24:06]bad I think I'll

[24:13]go I want my old self

[24:18]back I have to push myself

Summary

rswfire embarks on a 10-mile hiking route at Natural Bridge State Park, starting at 6:30 AM with plans to take the Original Trail to Rock Garden Trail, then Sand Gap Trail. He documents the challenging terrain, steep climbs, and rock formations while carrying Mountain Dew and water in his backpack. The hike proves more difficult than remembered, requiring frequent breaks due to being out of shape. He reflects on previous visits with family members and reaches the Natural Bridge formation, discovering the Sand Gap Trail is closed due to wildfire damage. The transmission captures the physical challenge and his connection to this familiar place, ending with him expressing desire to regain his former physical condition.

Signal Analysis

Substrate

This transmission documents a deliberate somatic-land interface designed to restore physical capacity and renew embodied connection to known terrain. The architecture is one of intentional physical challenge as a pathway back to coherent embodiment, using familiar geological features as anchor points for self-recognition and capacity assessment.

Dominant Language

push myself physicallymentally drainedI want my old self backtimelessI know youdifferent kind of videonot introspective

Symbolic Elements

bridgeridgeascentfogtreestonewater

Ontological States

•
embodied
•
transitional
•
coherent
•
grounded

Subsystems

•
somatic
•
cognitive
•
emotional

Transmission Details

Source Type

youtube

Duration