In a post I wrote last year, Maybe We Need A Few More Tourists on Public Lands, I mentioned hiking behind a young couple in bright yellow rainsuits who spontaneously began singing in a joy filled moment along the Spruce Trail in the Hoh Rainforest in Olympic National Park.
Have you ever had that happen to you? You are walking along in the outdoors, listening to the sounds of the forest and a melody starts a soundtrack in your mind? You find yourself humming along or quietly uttering the lyrics under your breathe?
For me, sometimes that tune is simply the last song on the radio when I got out of the car. Heaven forbid it be a brain worm like Shake It Off (Taylor Swift), Final Count Down (Europe) or Don’t Stop Believin’ (Journey). And I love Journey. But who wants to be wandering the woods with those songs stuck in your head indefinitely? Especially on a backpacking trip??
Luckily that doesn’t happen often and it is more likely that a particular song will pop into my head, one that has long become associated with my time outdoors. Like Third Day’s “Everywhere You Go” that was my soundtrack for my 2013 Pacific Crest Trail section hike.
But even more likely it will be a tune that often comes to mind when I am out wandering in the wilderness, a song we used to sing when I was at summer camp on the Puget Sound. Some of my fondest memories are from my time at that camp, whether we were sitting around a blazing campfire in communion with others, huddling under a tarp in the pouring rain or intentionally capsizing small sailboats so we could right them again. It is only fitting that it has stuck with me on all my future outdoor adventures like a familiar mantra.
I Know A Place is a classic campfire song. Maybe you sang it, too, in your younger days?
I know a place
where no one ever goes
there’s peace and quiet
beauty and repose.
It’s hidden in a valley
beside a mountain stream
and lying there beside the stream
I find that I can dream.
Oh, what a place
such beauty to the eyes
snow peaked mountains rising to the skies.
And now I know that God has made the world for me.
One can imagine herself as in a dream
climbing up mountain or
down a small ravine.
The magic of this peace and quiet will always remain
to make this place a haven
each and every day.
Oh, how I wish I never had to leave
And all of my life, this beauty to receive
Now I know that God made this world for me.
And just in case you are not familiar with this little nugget you can find many amateur guitar players and singers on You Tube rekindling their childhood,too. This young lady was one of the best sung outdoors I could find, you can tell there are several versions of the song.
You can thank me later if this tune becomes your next favorite brainworm, too. Sorry, not sorry!
Have you been stuck on a hike with a brain worm before? Is there a familiar song that slips into your head as you are walking in the outdoors? Do you “know a place”? Tell me in the comments below!!
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