“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.”
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
A Quick Introspective
It’s amazing how, if one believes, they can accomplish anything. This post I am writing now is more about the power of your heart and mind, than a stroll through an enchanted forest. It symbolizes to me, the power of what one can accomplish, if one only is to believe. To believe in yourself, your faith, your trust, that life will now and forever be ok. To believe that I can and will find a way. That life should be a question that one must chase the stars to answer and it should never be a statement.
How do I go to this place, how do I accomplish this goal, how do I? We to often fill our lives with I can’t and I don’t. I don’t have enough money, I cant get time away from work, I can’t, I won’t, I don’t. One day I decided my life would no longer be a statement, but an ever evolving question that I would never stop trying to answer.
The Picture
So one day about 2 months ago I sat down to my computer. As I booted it up a random photo popped up on the log in screen. I have my computer set to show random nature and landscape photos from anywhere in the world. Almost always I look at them. I think well, that place is beautiful. That’s interesting but I’ve seen something like it before and sometimes I’ve even been there. But this time was different.
On the screen was this enchanting, misty, forested, boggy moss ridden space. lush, young and green, yet cool and ancient. I looked at the caption and searched the location. Ang Ka Luang nature trail, Northern Thailand. The first thing that popped in my head was Diem and I had discussed a trip elsewhere in Southeast Asia. We had already discussed Thailand. I wasn’t keen on going to Bangkok, to much noise, and Diem didn’t want to go to Phuket as she’s not the biggest beach fan. I get it, she lives in one of the most beautiful and fun beach cities in the world.
The Decision
After a bit of research I sold her my pitch, and with surprisingly no resistance the state of Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand was our next destination out of Vietnam. Through a lot of greenback magic and stars aligning we would be going to Thailand In, by this time, less than two months. I procured guides and private transportation and a room at an inn. If we were going to Thailand, we were going all in.
And so after a couple of weeks running around the central highlands of Vietnam, Diem and I hopped a plane for Chiang Mai. The rest of the Thailand story I’ve already told, and so here we were headed down the hill and stone steps to the entrance of the place that inspired this entire trip, Ang Ka Luang Nature trail.
The Trail
The Ang Ka Luang trail is a beautiful place. Beset in a primeval forest and completely raised from the forest floor. Just over a mile of raised wooden walkways help to protect the delicate ecosystem of this ancient cloud forest. Relying exclusively on the few springs that emerge in this elevated range combined with the moisture from the clouds that condense here, the forest remains moist, cool and enchanting year round.
Sometime in the late 60’s or early 70’s, Information is difficult to find on the subject, A Canadian zoologist by the name of Michael Walz came to Doi Inthanon. Strictly through organizing volunteer work he pioneered the raised trails that protect the forest floors throughout the park. Michael (Mac) Walz devoted his entire life to the preservation of these ancient cloud forests. Walz was so dedicated to the forest that he ultimately died here, still working on the trails, from heart disease on June 29, 1993.
The trails I walk now are the very same Mac began some 50 years ago. Though the floor boards are replaced every few years, as the wet, fertile forest often consumes the wooden structure. The path it follows and the design he created remain the same.
It’s Beauty
The nature trail here at Ang Ka Luang is breathtaking. Vibrant moss covers everything. As a condition of the altitude and weather, most trees and plant species are smaller here. Save for two species. The Wah Anghka and the Needlewood, nicknamed the giant of the cloud forest.
Wah Anghka
The Wah Angkha is a tree that you will not miss. Broad leaves with a base that spreads out like buttresses supporting the massive tree in the altitude winds. Always covered in a blanket of thick moss, the tree and its colonizers help give these primordial forests their ancient and worn look. Like something from a fairy tale of old.
The Wah Anghka is also known as the stepfather to the fungus root. As its locations are the only places on earth were the rare, parasitic, ground flowering fungus root, grow. Its power and majesty are unquestioned as a lesser tree would succumb to the constant covering and leaching by all the parasites and hitchhikers that call this tree home.
Needlewood
The giant of the cloud forest, the Needlewood is the most abundant of trees here in these mountain cloud forests. Strong trunks and hardwood interiors, smooth leaved conifers dominate the canopy. Producing massive white flowers with strong pheromones, these flowers contrast greatly against the lush shamrock green of the landscape. Allowing the Needlewood to draw pollinators into the thick forests from miles around.
The massive trees of the forest also draw in quite a number of bird species. Doi Inthanon park alone is home to over 383 bird species making the park a global destination for birdwatchers. Diem and I spent the better part of two hours just meandering through the beautiful lush cloud forest. It truly was like walking through a fairy tale. Natural springs, moss covered rocks and trees, babbling brooks. It was a scene one has to experience for yourself and I’m truly grateful I experienced it with Diem. It was just an unforgettable walk in the woods.
Click Here to see a video of our walk through the nature trail
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