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After our readings in Wanderlust and the prompt of desire lines, I first wanted to go on a longer, more uncomfortable walk and see some footpaths in the snow. I wanted to document how I thought of these lines and how they wander through what is all of our backyards.

Before this prompt came about, I had serious frustration on the trails around here as with the rain; people have been avoiding the puddle and muddy bits on our singletrack trails. When people avoid them and go around, the puddles actually grow, as does the trail; these are in turn, desire lines that destroy what can be a small and manageable trail to a scar that causes more water erosion on the trails we have created.

I started the day with my Technology telling me not to go for a walk, yet my desire persisted. Immediately the new parking lot had lines made with bike tires breaking from the path and water even eroding the main path. I then capture myself in the movement on a hard route over the stream. While this large desire line may look like a trail it is burned in just due to the snow that was blocking the main trail I continued on. From there, the trees that have fallen that have not touched the ground grabbed my attention, as do the trails that go beneath and around the trees.

I do come upon the snow I was seeking that would disrupt the main path. Here I encountered little kids learning how to cross these sections with their bikes, just as I learned growing up here. I was able to see the tiny trail turn into a mess of footsteps as the avalanche caused continued havoc for the user, who had to face an ever-changing obstruction to the path. And once over that, I jumped across the creek to the south side of the trails and enjoyed the hidden singletrack path surrounded by flowers as rain, lighting, and thunder took my place as I made my way home.

I am spending the summer across the street from my childhood home. Nostalgia comes through the air in the form of sulfur due to the hot springs steps away from my home, where I used to spend each night dipping in under our vast dark skies. Taking the smells as I find place on a loop that captures moments in a map where I lived, recreated, trained, and worked all in under thirty minutes in my tiny town of twenty-four hundred people. I will utilize new yet now traditional GPS mapping throughout the project as they create similar functions as we carry into our non-geographical maps. Beyond The app screen grabs, we have a pictorial map of smells as seeing myself as a child would create, then we have physical artifacts also connected with scent but with sounds heard in their space as to connect senses further.