Seeing Through the Grey Mist of Cal Poly :: Descriptive Essays

Seeing Through the Grey Mist of Cal Poly On an early Monday morning my sleepy classmates and I met at the gate to Poly Canyon. The thick marine layer circled around our group as our professor led us into the dense grey fog. A crisp breeze stung my bare cheeks sending a chill down my body. We walked past the Cerro Vista apartments, the last buildings of Cal Poly that I would see for two hours. A feeling of excitement ran through me as we began our walk down the service road and into the canyon, a place just down the street from my dorm that I had never known existed. As we trekked deeper in to the thick mist, a hidden part of Cal Poly began to reveal itself. Walls of serpentine rock rose on either side of the road and the creek below began to fill with water. Four does and a buck looked down on us from the steep slopes above. Eucalyptus trees sent a sweet fragrance through the air, and chirping birds provided soft background music for the hike. Worries of school began to fade away. The trail got rough as we started climbing up Poly Mountain. My eyes were glued to the ground. Rocks were constantly sliding under foot waiting for an opportunity to take my feet out from under me. My breath was getting shorter and my legs began to burn from the first real exercise they had gotten since leaving home. I did not know if I was going to make it up the hill. When we finally stopped for our first break, I collapsed onto the nearest rock and took some time to observe the land around me. I realized I had not looked up once throughout the first quarter of the hike. When we sat down to write I had nothing to describe or to meditate on. The thick fog had erased the trail behind us and everything surrounding it. I was filled with regret. As we continued, I made certain to look around more often. Golden grasses, patches of yucca, grand rock formations, and a solitary tree dotted the landscape. We took our second break in a community of yucca. When I sat down, one stabbed me in my thigh. Its green leaves sat motionless as though nothing had happened.