UCLA Today
March 22, 1999
Reserve offers some respite from city
din
By Andrea Leigh
One beautiful mild winter day recently, our Sierra Club group ventured to Stunt Ranch Santa Monica Mountains Reserve. The idea was that by immersing ourselves in a landscape of oak woodland, chaparral, and grassland, we would tune into nature and focus on our immediate surroundings. Thoughts of phone calls and business deals were off-limits; the outing geared to those seeking quiet and solitude. We were prepared to following the footsteps of Sierra Club founder John Muir, who had the capability of disappearing so completely into a natural setting that the concept of time flew away as easily as the wind.
The reserve's openness and diversity immediately struck me. Even though the notorious 1993 Malibu canyon fire had swept through the area and destroyed ranch buildings, nature was taking the space back superbly.
The most visible remnants of the blaze were the scorched trunks of oak trees. Yet even those seemed majestic in an area that had now returned predominantly to the birds. In fact, the bird songs so filled the air that we sat quietly to allow the chorus to take command.
Not long after we began our short hike around the ranch, our peace was disturbed by aircraft noise. Maybe one plane, perhaps two, but at least it wasn't a full squadron. We had spread out enough so that we spared ourselves the disturbing sound of shuffling of each other's footsteps.
Then came the almost deafening sound of a few dirt bikes. It was until I reached Cold Creek that any urban noise became drowned out by the soothing sounds of the babbling water. This part of the hike proved to be the quietest and most beautiful. Within a few steps, a vista of the natural terrain opened up completely before us. We could view mountains on all sides of us, and a grassy meadow down below. Homes could be seen, but at such far distance they were barely noticeable. Still, even at this nearly pristine spot, the echo of motorcycles roaring past could not be entirely ignored.
Unlike the Jeep Cherokee television add a few years back, where a selling point of the vehicle was its ability to block out the blissful sounds of nature with the windows shut, the point of our exercise was to demonstrate the unique opportunity to be listening to natural sounds and silence it provides.
We stopped to literally smell the flowers and touch the manzanita and listen to the rustling of birds. In fact, at one point, it proved difficult to collect the group once we had separated to sit alone, undistracted and lost in the environment.
The rush of the bikes and the airplanes above made a few hikers complain, "If a person is unable to find total peace and quiet in a place like this, then where in Los Angeles is that possible?"
Although we may not have experiences of true natural silence, we did demonstrate how much more special this place would be if we could experience it.