Saturday, September 11th 2010, 10:00 am

A single couple accompanied me on this one.

A great day for a hike with light winds and lots of bird activity. Even from the day before, I could hear a difference in the leaves. I forgot my walkie talkie this time so ran back during the meditation to grab it and was amazed to return to find the two hikers still standing with eyes closed listening. They were both very intense listeners and this time, my friend Chris who is our drummer for the weekend, was already waiting by his drum as we hiked out which I think even distracted them a bit. Each corner we rounded seemed to have its own bird dominating the landscape this hike. Crows at first, in pairs, then other birds I can't identify but it seemed there were always pairs in different locations calling to one another. This made the character of each valley quite apparent as the distances allowed for echoes to resonate throughout. Once we reached the turn around point, it seemed that one of each of these birds had followed us and was presenting kind of a mixture of all the regular calls we had heard creating a long and slow poly-rhythm that I think the whole group noticed. A prop plane then flew by in the distance (this had also flown straight overhead earlier as we were stopped listening to bird and water sounds) as wind picked up and left a trail of falling leaves behind it.

A family of four hiking near us often became audible in the distance and a little girls voice really filled out certain parts of the valley nicely. Then the drum, in the usual place, became very audible around the valley.

We took our time climbing the stairs, but once we arrived there was a nice resonance carried by the wind. After the drums stopped, I was told by the couple that a hawk flew by, cawed a few times, and then dove straight into the valley. I was afraid it had gotten Chris. Quite a prize for a hawk.