After our church picnic last Sunday I had some time on my hands and I was overdue for some exercise, so I decided to take a walk around the lake, but somehow I missed the place where the lake trail veers left after crossing a stretch of road.

I realized fairly quickly that I was not on a path around the lake, but the road led by a place I had camped a couple of years ago and it brought back happy memories. The late summer wildflowers were blooming and I wanted to see how many of them I recognized. The road climbed higher and higher, eventually reaching a dead end.

But it was a dead end only for motor vehicles; a foot path continued up the slope.
The trail grew softer, more faint. I was following a dry wash. Had anyone else ventured this far? I was walking up a dry wash which may not have been a path this far up the mountain.
It was a beautiful sunny day, but only dappled sunlight filtered through the dense forest canopy and the temperature was probably only in the mid-70's.

I passed ferns and wild mushrooms growing in profusion among the wildflowers.
The solitude was warm and inviting. I crossed over a fallen tree trunk many yards uphill of the last traces of the foot path and here it became patently obvious to me: the necessity of clothes had totally vanished at this juncture.

I found a thick green mountain laurel bush and I peeled off shirt, shoes, socks, shorts, underpants and even my cap and wristwatch. The mountain laurel gave good cover for my clothes. I continued uphill about 30 feet or so and took one last look backward to memorize the place I had stashed my clothes and just for good measure, placed an empty water bottle a few yards uphill in plain sight.
For a few minutes I was hyper-aware of the comfort of bare skin; my feet delighted to walk on soft leaves and moss, the mountain breeze tickled and soothed chest and flanks. but that self-awareness softened and I became more focused on the wildflowers, herbs, ferns, trees, and mossy rocks. This truly was a wonderland, but was there not something familiar about this place as well? I think so.

As a teenager, I had ventured into the woods near my home. As I explored deeper and deeper into the woods, I realized that I was in another world, lush and green, a world where nudity was normal and clothing was an aberration. It was as if all those years had ceased to be and I was very young once again, wandering in a slightly different corner of that same paradise world. I rambled over mossy logs, hopped across rocks, stopped to look at strange red mushrooms and wildflowers in myriads of colors. There was a creek nearby that made music with the rocks as it danced over them.

After I had tasted the fullness of this enchanted place, I turned back the way I came, found the little marker I had left and my clothes were still nearby in the sheltering thicket, untouched.

I dressed and emerged from the forest seeming outwardly the same, but I was smiling, aware that a lot had changed. I had re-engaged with God, with nature and my natural self. I am a social nudist, but my journey to social nudity began with moments exactly like this. I had come full circle. For me the experience is a sacred communion of body, mind and spirit with creation, walking with the Creator in the cool of the day, as it was in the beginning.

My experience with nude hikes is not an essential intermediate step for everyone; God speaks to each of us in our own language, doesn't he? But I certainly got the message.

We are only a few steps removed from the life that God intends for us. It is your choice and it should be an easy choice, but our resistance to nudity and our resistance to moments with God are two aspects of the same stubbornness. Let that reticence go! Step out!

Nice post!

I always take some time to connect with nature at the resort; just hiking around the lake or wading and watching the aquatic lifeforms scurrying about. After all that was the "original" idea behind nudism. Returning to nature.

Wow. Thank you for a well written and expressive Journaling of your experience. It seems many naturists (Sunnyday included!) get there start as young folks rambling in the woods harmonizing with nature. Me too. Getting back and touching base with that is a good thing, a form of prayer at times.

Nudony, having nude trails on your resort property is wonderful. No one is going to call the forest ranger on you. Of course Shane Steinkamp wrote the guidebook on how to defuse an encounter with rangers on patrol, but off-trail it is not likely to happen and at your resort too of course.

Thanks, Tom!

Yes, a lot of us get our start with nudity in secluded places deep in the woods.
My first co-ed skinny dip was at a lake in pitch darkness with a sweet nature girl friend of mine.
It was a great way to get started.

I think that people would not find social nudity so daunting if there were intermediate steps rather taking the big leap.

For me, social nudity was still a leap, but one I could handle thanks to a lot of wise people and confidence-building situations.

Now, I want to pay it forward saying a word of encouragement every chance I get.