A Sleep Hike Through Mud Creek

It's Mud Season here, not just at The James Cave Instagram Feed, but across all of the northeast.

And for this relaxing Sleep Hike, I thought it would be peaceful to take a restful walk through Mud Creek, in Hudson, New York. Mud Creek is a part of the Mud Creek Environmental Learning Center, located on the property of Columbia County Soil & Water Conservation District office.

They host a variety of hands-on, inquiry based, environmental education programs, and here, we take a Sleep Hike through its marshy landscape. Mud Creek is home to beavers, muskrats, rabbits, coyotes, lots of birds, potentially ticks, and even a bobcat.

But because it's a Sleep Hike, you don't have to worry about running into any of that wildlife. Just sit back, relax, and let me take you on this peaceful path to slumber.

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OK – good night!

Transcript

James Cave: 0:05

Oh, we are hearing those relaxing sounds. These are the telltale signs that you've just entered another sleep hike. Sleep hike, in case you haven't slept through one with us yet, is when I guide you on a meditative hike through the picturesque Hudson Valley, while you drift off into a restorative slumber. All you have to do is sit there, drift off to sleep. That's right, I do the hiking while you do the sleeping. And so far we've had 43 relaxed sleepers tell me just how restful their hike was. They slipped right through it. It's wonderful. Let me tell you, today we've got an extremely relaxing hike for you. We are at Mud Creek. It is mud season after all, and Mud Creek is located in the Bucollock property of the Columbia County Soil and Water Conservation District Office. Turn left at the Columbia Medical Park, and it's right across from the dialysis center, so you know you've made it. It's a loop trail that traverses fields and a wetland habitat, and we're currently at the trailhead just to the left of the garage near the rain garden, which appears here on this map as a little dotted square. The garage is got a little bit of a porch. There's a garden hose and uh looks like a workbench out there, maybe a repurposed dining table. And um looks like it's just just me, you and me here today. And the car is driving by. Well, let's get started. Let's go walk through. Oh, what's this? First, it looks like we see a commemorative bench to the actor Walton Goggins. I always love seeing those. Okay, first. Um I can't believe I almost forgot. Before we start any sleep hike, we have to get ourselves situated. So first, I'm gonna ask you to sit there and look inside yourself. Look deep within yourself. And uh as you're doing so, think about all the birds of Mud Creek. And do you see yourself as one of these birds? Are you a yellow warbler with a song sweet, sweet, sweet, I'm sweeter than sweet? Or perhaps you're a ruby-throated hummingbird, tiny hummbirds that beat their wings about 53 times a second? Or perhaps you're an American batern. Maybe you hear you you like to make the gulping sounds blonc in the springtime. But do you like to spend time in the reeds or other vegetation, standing motionless? Or of course the green heron, a little stocky waiting bird, that you use insects, feathers, and bread crusts to create lures and attract small fish. Is that you? Just think about it as you assume the sleep hiking position. And um, so what we're gonna do is get into the reverse granola position. I think that's what we need for this one. Reverse granola. So that one we're gonna lay down gently. Lie lie on your back and strap a backpack to the top of your head. Now, I'm gonna ask you to bend one leg behind your head with the other extending toward a direction that only you could understand. Oh, okay. Yes. If you're feeling very confident now, as you thread your right arm through your left backpack strap, then under your body and back out again. Okay, now that's where the granola comes in. Scatter some granola around you in a circle, complete circle, so important that it's unbroken, and then put a little leftover granola in your hand. And then take that granola and put it in your mouth. I want you to notice that this mud creek is right next to the Columbia County airport. Oh, isn't that so relaxing? Just the beautiful sounds of private airplanes. Zooming in and out. They're just aloft on the air. Just like you right now. Don't don't chew the granola, just let it sit there and breathe in. Breathe in, your mouth full of granola, feeling equally liberated and exhausted already. That's when you know we're ready to begin. Okay. Well, the outer loop of the Muddy Creek hike features an overlook of the county airport that we'd previously noticed. But we also might see beavers, muskrats, rabbits, coyotes, a bird, maybe even a bobcat, if we're lucky. Oh, and look over here, look at this. Looks like we've got some skunk cabbage. Did you know? Skunk cabbage generates their own heat to melt the snow in really early spring. They're always an harbinger of the springtime. It's true, the flowers appear before the leaves, and skunk cabbage is characterized by this mottled maroon hood-like leaf called a spade, which surrounds a knob-like structure called a spadex. And the spadex is actually a fleshy spike, isn't it something? The skunk cabbage can live for twenty years. By the way, it gets its name from the unpleasant odor it emits away from the plant to attract pollinators that are attracted to the rotting meat smell. Are you relaxed yet? Oh, we've got a dead end here. Something's happened. There's a sign saying that uh the partial trail closure. The closed portion of the red trail is highlighted in orange. The beaver have flooded the trail and boardwalk. Oh my goodness, beavers have been busy, okay? Let's go find another route then. Walking? As we do that, let's think about this skunk cabbage. Skunk cabbage reminds me of a quote I read from Jay Shetty, the motivational speaker. And apparently, this is a real job, I guess. The chief purpose officer at the Calm app. Here's what Jay Shetty said, and I hope it helps you as we're walking. Uh you were really close to the highway down this trail. Here's what Jay Shetty said, and I hope it helps you. Self-love is how you feel about yourself when you are by yourself. Choose people who choose you. Read that again. End quote. Your life doesn't need to line up with everyone else's. You might not be married at 30. The one thing that stays with you is your breath. And in case you're still awake, here are some other topics from Jay Shetty's Instagram feed, where he has 16.4 million followers. Here are some of the things he talks about. The biggest relationship mistakes. The wrong person. The perfect person. Pay attention to this. Aging backwards. Think about it. And manifestation. Now we're walking through this trail. I'm seeing what do we have here? An interpretive sign. What does it say? Dogwood. It's a sign that says dogwood. Here we go. There's a white pipe in the ground. Watch your step as you lay there on your couch or your shalong drifting off to sleep. Oh, here's another s another interpretive sign. Fragmites. A non-native invasive reed found throughout most of the United States. Non-native invasive. Wow. You learn something new every time you take a sleep hike. You know what I mean? I do, I certainly do. And say non-native invasive at the same time. We're turning the bend here in the trail. The clouds are just breaking open, revealing wonderful sunshine. And what I'm seeing here is a wooden boardwalk. You can hear I'm walking. And there's birds, a red-winged black bird flying above it. Trying to find a place to land. There's nowhere it can land because there's just so much uh standing water because the beaver created this it's just a whole ecosystem. There's a goose on the gazebo. There's a goose on the gazebo. It's just a vast wetland ecosystem here created by who can only be assumed to be a very busy beaver. That is what they do. And you know, in her book, Beaver Land, Layla Phillip writes about how beavers have constructed dams so vast that they can be seen from the outer space, if you can believe it. I don't know about this one, but apparently there is one in Canada that you can see from space. During the Pleistocene era, North America was home to Castoroides Ohioienses. I don't know if I'm saying that right, but this beaver was as large as black bears, apparently, just walking around with mastodons and saber-toothed cats. Isn't that something? Isn't that something? Just think about that. Now breathe in, breathe in. As this airplane flies dangerously close to my microphone. Drifting up. And you've been relaxed into a complete trance now that that airplane flew over. Here's a little information about wetlands. You know, contrary to popular opinion, they're more than watery landscapes. But do you know just how they benefit the environment, these wetlands? Well, by maintaining the filtering, storing, and recycling functions of the landscape. There's pollution prevention, there's productivity, there's sediment control, and because we live in capitalistic society, there's dollars and cents. Yes, wetlands support commercial fishing, recreational fishing, and hunting. Think about this. Now the trail is getting a little soggy. So we came to Mud Creek. Of course we're gonna see some mud. Think about no mud. There's no mud in a sleep hike for you as far as you're concerned. And we're back on the boardwalk here, just reflecting on all that the beavers do for us. They're recognized as keystone species because they've got this ability to transform landscapes. Dams create wetlands, increase biodiversity, improve water quality, and help mitigate the effect of climate change. Oh, hold on, there's actually a sign here that uh let's take a moment. And look at this sign depicting a great blue heron. Now I I don't personally see one. I'm looking around, I don't see a great blue heron. But I do have this sign, and the sign is a black and white drawing with a big description that says the majestic slate bluebird stands about four feet tall. Isn't that something? Well, I don't see it here, but I am grateful for that black and white drawing. This is what it sounds like to be near the beaver pond. It's also what it sounds like to be standing directly under somebody's private airplane, going who knows where. Probably Great Barrington. Well, it's getting dark now, so I guess we'd better head back. This concludes another extremely relaxing sleep hike through the muddy creeks of Mud Creek. Thanks for listening to this episode of Sleep Hike from the Jiffy Audio Newsletter Podcast. Sleep well.