I went hiking with my coworkers Liz and Megan yesterday. And it was a place I’ve wanted to hike for a long time: Giggle Hill. I had been curious about it, and drove to find it about a year ago, but I didn’t take the trails.
As it turns out, the trails I saw weren’t very good. They were blocked by trees and branches that we had to climb over. Perhaps there was some other trail that was better, but we didn’t see it. Despite the roadblocks, the trail we took was mostly easy to see.
When we got almost to the top, we heard dance music and a crowd of people shouting. It was all happening on the other side of a barbed-wire fence.
I was too chicken to go on, so we turned back. We did see what looked like a participant off in the distance. We also saw an older man who was hiking on a trail to the side of ours.
When we got to the bottom, the older man had come down too, so I asked him if he saw what was going on up there. He said it was “ecstatic dancing”. He said the trail he was on went straight up and was unblocked. He even told me when and where the group danced each week. I think he was part of it maybe. After reading about ecstatic dance on the internet, I think I would be curious to see it, but only if I could stay in the distance.
Still, I don’t think I’ll be going up there again. The noises were intimidating.
Well, that was quite the adventure! I just watched a video one static dancing and it looks fascinating. I don’t think I could ever be that free around other people. Fascinating. I’m glad you got to go on a hike – even if it was full of roadblocks and surprises! (It makes for a great story! 🙂 )