A Walk in The Sublime

On Friday I went with my Ecology Interest Group to the Vía Verde, which is basically an old train route that has been turned into a hiking trail. The trail actually reminded me of “Tunnel Trail” as throughout the hike we walked through 6 very long tunnels. The highlight of the hiking however, was not the tunnels, but instead the views.

I already know what the reactions of my roommates at home are going to be when they read this, but the hike reminded me of my American Environmental Studies Class and William Cronon (also know as Genius) and his theory on sublime landscapes. Matt, I can see you now, shaking your head in disbelief. Pam, you are sitting on the edge of your seat eagerly waiting to hear about the god of environmental history. And Margaret, well, Margaret you are laying on the couch half dead eating an airhead.

So anyways, in my class we learned about how in the past when humans viewed wilderness, they saw it as sublime- a landscape that struck fear in the hearts of all good Christians, an awe-inspiring landscape, but never beautiful. These landscapes were always painted the same way- a towering mountain with dark clouds looming overhead, framed by vegetation. Well, aside from the fact that I wasn’t in America, I felt like I had stepped into one of those paintings. I can easily see how years ago people believed God loomed above those peaks, waiting to strike them down. I can also see how they inspired fear. As we walked along the Vía Verde, our voices accompanied by the low braying of sheep and the bells tied around their necks, sights of tall cliffs with vultures circling came into view. I would say it was beautiful, those living in the Romantic era would have run in the opposite direction.

One of the most bizarre moments was when we stopped at this rest station and paid money to watch live footage of vultures with the cameras they have mounted on the cliffs. For some reason, people here are absolutely obsessed with vultures. The American students couldn’t really figure the whole thing out and one student said in disgust “They are the filth of the earth!” After watching both live and taped footage (they have 8 hours of footage for every day) we headed back to our starting point. When we arrived, our professor excitedly told us that we would be going to see a 500-year old tree, a tree that Spain has made a National Monument. So we walked the 15 minutes to get to this National Monument, and all another student and I could think of as we were looking at it was how badly we wanted to climb it. We then got to discussing how we would probably be sent to jail for messing with a National Monument, especially if a branch broke. As we circled the tree my friend reached up and grabbed onto one of the branches. Our professor actually screamed. He looked terrified, I swear, the world almost came to an end. Our prediction was right, you mess with a 500-year old tree and a National Monument and you may actually be sent to jail. Wouldn’t that be the headline: “Two American College Students Sent to Jail for Braking Branch of National Monument”. I hope you have some bail money ready Mom and Dad, we are planning a midnight climbing party soon…