Dust and Tribe is proud to feature this guest post by Safiyyah, a woman who found herself in the woods of North Carolina. You can find her on Instagram (@outdoorwildlings) where she hopes to document her adventures, share her discoveries, and learn from others with the intention of inspiring her visitors, especially other young women, for whom nature offers a special resonance and peace.

I took off in the morning to hike a minimum of five miles into the bush where the only trails are those made by trampling hooves and the only signs are those left by the wild ones. This was the first challenge in the Dust and Tribe eight-week Virtual Adventure Series, D&T Steps. It was a challenge that I was very familiar with: a walk in the woods.

Simple, right?

Wrong.

I wanted to make this a challenge. A five-mile hike on a trail would be way too easy and I wouldn’t get nearly as many opportunities to score those sweet bonus points. Plus, I would run into people and that takes away from the whole idea of wanting to be completely secluded.

For those of you that hike often but always stick to the trail, I encourage you to grab a map, download a GPS app, and get off that trail. Depending on your environment you might have to take extra considerations into account. For example, I wouldn’t recommend going down a mountainside if you are not trained for it. Nor would I recommend going into thick brush and tall grass without boots that cover your ankles and clothes that protect your skin.

Start in small increments and I guarantee that curiosity will get the best of you. You will slowly go further and further. Don’t be deterred by the spider webs in your face! The spiders are used to animals running through their homes and know how to quickly make an escape and start rebuilding.

I cannot count how many spiders I have forced to relocate on this hike, let alone all my other hikes. Sometimes I notice them early enough and I gently use my spider/snake/hole-poking stick to move the web while keeping it mostly intact.

I wonder if spider silk has any nutritional value?

It’s also quite astonishing how quickly environments change. Before crossing the creek on this particular hike, the forest was a mixture of hardwood and pine trees. The forest floor was mostly dead, decaying leaves, there were mushrooms at every turn, and I could see my feet.

Once across the creek, however, I was hit with dog fennel as far as the eye could see.

Dog fennel (Eupatorium capillifolium) is a tall, fuzzy, and feathery plant that tickles when you walk through it. Some people don’t like the smell but I quite enjoy it, and the best part is that the mosquitos hate it. On this side of the creek the air seemed more dry (but still very humid because it’s North Carolina) and when I got past the dog fennel I found myself in an exclusively pine forest.

The most noticeable difference, however, is that of color. From one side of the creek to the other was like stepping into a whole different painting, like editing a photo by lowering the saturation and increasing the brightness.

The rest of the hike was all fine and dandy until mile five where I found the blackberries.

Now you might be thinking, “how is that a problem?”

When fruiting, the blackberry bush is a magical plant with lots to offer. But at all other times of the year they are nothing but thorns that prick you and hooks that grab you, clinging to your clothes and leaving you to pluck at your skin for all the miles to come.

I had two choices at this point: to double back and make this a nine-mile hike, or to suck it up and cut through the blackberries for about a third of a mile after which I knew it would clear up for an easy finish.

I chose the latter, and I would choose it again. But I paid the price in sweat, blood, and thread.

And this brings me to a final reflection.

Every single decision in life, even the little ones that we don’t think twice about, has a price.

Sometimes it’s you that gets paid.

And sometimes it’s you that has to cough up the cash.

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