Featured in Hudson Valley Magazine
Check out the interview with guide John Polemis in the online edition of Hudson Valley Magazine! Go on a Self-Care Retreat in a Hudson Valley Forest
Breakneck Ridge Is Staying Open Through Peak Season
While not a prime candidate for forest therapy walks (although I’d accept the challenge for a private session on it!) this may be good to know for the more strenuous hikers in our community. While construction plans for the area nestled between Beacon and Cold Spring are being finalized the trail will remain open for the remainder of the year, to officially begin in early 2019. Besides a new welcome center, planned improvements will include a new twelve-foot wide bike and pedestrian trail between the trailhead and the Metro-North pedestrian walkway, making the trek to the trails in the area much, MUCH safer. Also planned is parallel parking and designated…
Identifying Poison Ivy, Poison oak, and Poison Sumac
While catching up on my landscaping today I had a surprise encounter with some poison ivy. I think I will be ok since I treated the contact area quickly but time will tell! During forest therapy walks I make a habit of pointing these plants out when I see them, but some locations are better than others for finding them. To help, I wanted to share a website I stumbled across recently with a great write-up on how to identify these plants: https://gardenerdy.com/how-to-identify-poison-oak-poison-ivy-poison-sumac-plants
Time to check out Fort Tryon Park
I’ll be in the city Friday, July 20th scouting out spots for forest therapy walks so decided to open the event to our NYC meetup. The plan is to do a forest therapy run through in one of these spots. The Meetup event can be found here: Scouting and trial forest therapy run at Fort Tryon park Friday, Jul 20, 2018, 10:00 AM Entrance of Fort Tryon ParkFort Tryon Park New York, NY 3 Members Attending This is technically intended for me to scout out places to do forest therapy but I think it would be nice to open it up to the group since 1) it is a nice…
Sunday (7/15) Walk Postponed Due to Thunderstorms
Alas the weather forecast has been increasingly getting worse and now shows thunderstorm risk all morning. There will be a walk at same location next weekend. Check the Hudson Valley meetup group for details.
Trial run of Hybrid Forest Therapy – Esopus NY
Technically I was only planning to scout out Black Creek Preserve in Esopus to plan a session here but since I am already bringing a member and doing a full run through of a hybrid hike with forest therapy I may as well open it up to a few others. Just keep in mind I am getting a feel for how to make this all flow so I will be winging this a bit more than usual. Still, it’s a nice walk that leads to the Hudson River, and lots of hemlocks – my favorite tree – so let’s enjoy it! ***There will be hiking – it is considered a relatively…
First Public Walk on the Calendar!
Time to get things started. Our first Forest Therapy walk in the Hudson Valley area is a 10 minute drive from Cold Spring NY. This is the first official public walk! I’m both nervous and excited since I normally host these events privately. As the first event I am keeping it to an optional donation of $10. What would be really appreciated is your feedback (what worked, what did not work) since I am always looking to improve. RSVP here
A Word on Invitations
During a forest therapy walk, your guide will periodically invite you to consider or try something. Sometimes it may be a quest to find a leaf or tree that resonates with you, other times it may be to become aware of movement as you walk – the options are endless! These invitations do not actually come from the guide but from the forest. I don’t mean this in a necessarily esoteric way, just that the guide will intuit the invitation that a specific location seems to call for with those particular participants. Thus every walk is unique. Invitations are designed to help open participants to the forest therapy experience through…
What to Bring to a Forest Therapy Walk
You don’t need too much to have a great walk, but a few essentials packed in a knapsack or small backpack can make all the difference. Dress appropriately for the weather. You will be spending some time walking slowly and some time sitting. Usually you would be in shade, but sometimes we may make use of a field or other open space. Wearing layers is a good way to be flexible for times when, for example, you may get chilly when sitting and warm when walking. You may get dirty so dress like you would for a hike – decent shoes and clothing you don’t mind getting dirty. If you…
Website Live, Walks to Follow
While it can use some formatting tweaks, the website is now live and we will begin opening walks to the public later in July after a few more trial runs to smooth out the flow. https://hudsonvalleyforesttherapy.com