The next walk for those who are blind or visually impaired, is scheduled from 10 a.m. to noon on May 5, at Rider Park, Caleb Creek Road, Trout Run.

As Beth Jones, director, explained, “It’s very different than a typical hike in the woods. First of all, it’s much slower than you would normally go, which sometimes is difficult for any of us in a fast paced world.”

“But the guide will invite the participants to experience the natural world through all of their senses. Many of the senses we already know about. We’ll invite them to really listen deeply, to breathe, to be aware of the different welcome sensations, maybe that they feel beneath their feet, or the breezes or the temperatures on their body. What do they smell,” she said.

Typically, participants are asked to look and notice what’s in motion on the walks, but for the visually impaired, Jones said, the invitations are modified to accommodate for their impairment. She noted that what she has experienced in past walks is much different because of the lack of visual input.

“What I experienced through them is much richer, because what they hear, what they sense, is much deeper than those of us that are sighted, so it’s really a unique experience,” she said.

The invitation to the walkers is focused around hearing, touch, sensation, smells. The forest therapy guided walk always ends with tea that is foraged along the way.

“That’s part of the training. You make sure that you pick something that’s safe but there are so many things here that if you just pour some boiling water over them, allow it to steep a little bit, and you get some tea that we can share together, and that’s a way of ending our walk together,” she explained.

“That tea also is like they experience that aroma. It’s another taste, another sensation that we can then bring out in the walk — black birch or Eastern Hemlock or winter green. There’s so much out there that we can use along the way,” she added.

Jones has trained as nature and forest therapy guide since 2017 with the Association of Nature and Forestry Therapy guides.

“It is a specific training. It is a practice that if you are guided by a trained guide, you will experience much of the same invitations and much of the same experience that you’ll have along the way with different people,” she said.

Typically the walks last two to two and a half hours, even though they might only go no further than a couple hundred yards.

“So it is really slowed down, and we pause often for people to go off and experience an invitation and then to return. And then we have some time. I invite people to share, if they want what they experienced,” she said.

The invitations she offers her walkers changes with the weather conditions and seasons.

“I was walking this path today, the ferns are still out, and so I’m going to invite people to go and find a fern. And you know what? What is that sensation like? What do you think it’s been like for the fern all summer? And I’ll even say things like, what do you think the fern would like to share with you about their experience,” she said.

“Oftentimes I find that part of forest therapy, or forest bathing walks, (which) is also something else it’s called, is that it opens people up to allow them to feel feelings, experience emotions, in a way that maybe they won’t in everyday life. And so if I say something like go and find a tree, and I will often say, maybe share with that tree something that you’ve never told anyone else, or what is that tree sharing with you? And it’s amazing the depth of experience that people come back with when they’ve experienced something like.

Originally, Jones said Deep Green Journey was started as a non-profit as a business, but since then the focus has changed.

“I really felt more and more called to create space for people for whom there are barriers to being out in nature. Now they could be physical barriers or even emotional barriers. So I just got a grant to purchase two GRIT chairs, which are all terrain wheelchairs. A lot of these paths you can go with a regular wheelchair, but so many of them, we could extend the opportunity so much more if we just had the equipment,” she said.

Her hopes are that she will be able to purchase more of the chairs to expand that experience to other groups.

“I’ve done forest therapy walks with our local hospice support group. So it’s a wonderful opportunity for people to share who are experiencing grief. It’s just another avenue for them to be open to those feelings, but in a safe space. And that’s what I like about these walks. It feels like a very safe space to share,” she said.

“I did a walk specifically for the West Branch Pride group, because it just feels like a year that they’re experiencing a lot,” she added.

She has guided senior citizens on a shorter two-mile backpack trip with an overnight stay in the woods. For that excursion, she said that she had purchased a potty chair that weighed less than a pound.

“I think everything that we’re trying to do as an organization is trying to think about, what are some of those barriers? And then just a mantra that I have always been using is there’s always a way, like, let’s figure it out whatever it is. Let’s not just say no, let’s figure out what it is,” she said.

She shared that after a hiking accident a couple of years ago, she was told that she couldn’t backpack again.

“That’s what I do, you know I figured it out. I can still shoulder a pack, but it has to be under a certain weight. But I have a pack now that I wheel behind me. You know, there’s always a way,” she said.

“So I think that kind of ignited the direction of the Green Journey, to say, you know, we can. We can figure it out for people. So I’m always open to organizations if their group would like to experience the healing of nature, reach out to me, because I don’t know how we’re going to do it whatever the barrier is, but we’ll figure it out,” she said.

To register for the Deep Green Journey’s guided walks, visit deepgreenjourney.com.