Daniela chavez preciado

An Escape Route

Written and Designed by Daniela Chavez Preciado

o T d e t a c i d De

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n est gra b e h T do, Precia ld ask for. e i s o J and cou Alfred arents a girl p

Acknowledgements My parents for their unconditional love and support.

Corinne and Benji, for always believing in me.

Mrs. Latona for helping me get to this point.

Mr. Jack for spending his time to help me write.

All the teachers at freestyle for giving me the oppertunity to share my message.

Brenden, my trail buddy.

Abi, for being my favorite person in the world.

Table Of Contents Foreword Introduction Exploring the Unknown Bridging the Silicon Valley A Creative Outlet Preserving the Wildlife The Path to Serenity Conclusion

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Foreword All my life I’ve been exploring, hoping to find a special place that I’d be able to escape to. Then one day I stumbled upon an unfamiliar fence. I ventured inside and soon found myself in a palace of trees.

Beyond the gates lay the wondrous world I had been looking for: the Stevens Creek Trail. I spent a good portion of my days there, exploring, until October of this year when I moved away, no longer a walking distance away from the trail.

At first, I faced some challenges feeling motivated to write. Getting myself to sit down and start typing was a struggle; often I felt unmotivated and doomed to fail. Consequently, after many visits to the trail, I remembered why I loved it so much in the first place: the trail is like a home for me to explore and understand the world on a deeper level. It’s my getaway from the constraints of the modern world. I can once again rejoice in the artistic nature of what it means to be alive. I intend to remind people how important it is to be in touch with nature by sharing my experience with the trail as well as my research.

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Introduction

Beams of sunlight spill through the glistening leaves and shower the ground below. The majestic sound of chirping birds echoes through the towering sanctuary of trees, carried by the gentle wind into the vast open abyss. A delicate leaf gracefully falls to the ground, but its peaceful descent is disrupted, torn away from its path and swept onto the ground by a passing jogger. Now imagine that this person is someone who could be stuck in traffic, starring long hours into the computer screen, and cramped inside their cubicle for hours.

It’s easy to feel aggravated and stressed when we are caught in traffic, tired of working on electronics, or aching to get up from our desks and stretch. Here in the Silicon Valley, taking a true break from the bumps in our day-to-day lives that stress us out is rare.

However, the Stevens Creek Trail provides our community with an opportunity to escape from the busy modern-day world, where we can commute from city to city without waiting in traffic or spending loads of money on gas. It’s a place we can set aside the distractions of our stressful every-day life and once again reconnect with nature, bringing together our soul and body in their natural state, and becoming one with the earth.

Sadly, not a lot of people know it exists, let alone use it to their benefit. If people were to take advantage of this awesome trail our community provides us, it could greatly improve their quality of life.

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“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better�

- Albert Einstein

Exploring The Unknown 12

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rom the meadows, to the flat lands, to the salt lakes and the marshes, the Stevens Creek Trail brings the beauty and art of nature back to the Silicon Valley. The trail starts all the way in San Francisco, and ends at the corner of Dale Avenue and Heatherstone Way (Mountain View).

Along the way you experience many different types of habitats, and it’s all beautiful. efore the trail existed, the creek was anonymous, a place where walkers and passerby would throw

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their trash. In December 1992, a small group of people who all wanted a trail to take place along the creek gathered, calling themselves by “Friends of the Stevens Creek Trail”. Their goals were to reinforce the communities efforts to have a trail in spite of arguments claiming that no one would use it and it would be a waste of money. They gathered more and more people who believed that having the trail would

greatly benefit the community. Aaron Grossman, Executive Director of the Friends of the Stevens Creek Trail states the involvement the friends have in the existence of the trail “We are the voice for the trail, really we are the reason the trail exists cause the city only does what people ask for, so we help organize the support and bring together the voices of people that want the trail”(Grossman) In 1993, the Friends of the Stevens Creek Trail was incorporated as a 501(c)3 public benefit non-profit corporation. One year later, in 1994, the TrailBlazer race started as a fun way for people to discover and use the Stevens Creek Trail. At the time, the trail was only about a mile long, reaching along the east side of Shoreline Park.

“In the middle of the bustle and rush of Silicon Valley and urban development you’ve got a pretty natural stretch here, and its wonderful.”

- Aaron Grossman, Executive Director of the Friends Of the Stevens Creek Trail.

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Bridging The Sillicon Valley Now, with its growing amount of commuters, the city plans for the trail to become an intercity transportation route. Margaret Abe-Koga, A Mountain View city council member, gives a sneak peak of where the Trail is going in the future. “The neat thing about the trail is that it connects. We’re working on an overall plan to connect it through our neighboring city of Sunnyvale, and then Los Altos. Cupertino is actually already working on their segment of it. We’re pretty much done with ours so now it’s up to other cities to take it”(Abe-Koga). This is the type of city planning that allows us to have nature in urban environments.

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“In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous�

- Aristotle 16

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reativity flows through the veins of the Silicon Valley.

Companies are constantly buzzing and whirring, spitting out fresh ideas. So where are all these creative juices coming from? What allows them to keep flowing? Whether we realize it or not, the citi-

A Creative Outlet zens of the Silicon Valley have an accommodating asset in our backyards. Mr. Grossman states that “Companies that live near the trail have a huge benefit of being able to bike to work in the nature; we get donations from workers all the time who appreciate being able to bike through the trail on their way to work. Companies actually encourage their workers to use the trail” (Grossman).

What most people don’t realize is that the Stevens Creek Trail is not only a transportation route for workers but also serves as a creative outlet for those working in the Silicon Valley. The thought-provoking effects that nature has on the human mind are discussed in an article writ-

ten by Richard Louv, titled “Health Benefits of Being Outdoors.” Research done by the University of Michigan confirms that being in nature stimulates the brain to increase creativity and higher work performance: “After just an hour interacting with nature, memory performance and attention spans improved by 20 percent” (Louv).

In addition, the study found a “50 percent boost in creativity for people who were steeped in nature for a few days”(Louv). Rob Baskin, A Recruiter at G-tech Division at google, shares his own: “Its more enjoyable to bike and get out here versus just being frustrated sitting in traffic”.

Imagine being trapped in the car for hours, the only sight outside your windows are dark, grey streets, lined with tall buildings. How would it be possible to think outside the box?

When you bike, you can come to work mentally and physically refreshed, and ready to go.

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“Art is man’s nature; nature is god’s art”

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-Philip James Bailey

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Preserving The Wildlife

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o you remember the excitement you had as a kid when seeing a wild animal in nature? As human beings, its one of our natural instincts to want to touch a squirrel or chase a flock of birds. As the Silicon Valley becomes more and more populated, it’s important to our society to maintain our connection to nature. The only way to do that is too keep it in good shape for future generations to enjoy. Aaron Grossman, Executive Director of the Friends of the Stevens Creek Trail, explains how the Stevens Creek trail features one of the only creeks in the Silicon Valley that contains nature in and around it. He explains that his organization helps encourage the city to restore the native vegetation and get rid of the invasive species that have been taking over throughout the years.

Mr. Grossman states, “we have to help save it, because once it’s gone, it’s not coming back”. The fact is that our resources are limited, and as the world continues to increase in popu-

lation, we are losing our connection to nature. Thus, a deeper sense of ourselves that we need to have in order to maintain our mental, physical, and psychological well being. Just by having this awesome trail in our heavily urbanized community, we are saving so much wildlife for future generations. Aaron Grossman describes the current wildlife living in the trail: “There’s a range of wildlife depending on which part of the trail you are talking about; up by the bay you get shore birds, burrowing owls, squirrels, the kinds of creatures that are in the bay lands as you get more upstream, you get a different type animals, when there is enough waters you will see salamanders and also salmon, and migratory fish that are starting to come back”.

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The Path to Serenity

newly written article by Sandra Levy reveals the unexpected fact that nowadays more texting accidents have been caused by people texting while walking rather than texting while driving. In this article, Jack L. Nasar, A Ph.D., professor and program chair of regional and city programming at Ohio State University, says that “they are a hazard to themselves and others, as their distraction makes it more likely that they may walk into someone else and knock them over.” Are we so fixated on our technology that we are losing our spacial awareness? Obviously we are in need of a true break from the distractions of daily life. So where do you go when you need to escape the things that keep us trapped in our heads? n the backyard of the Silicon Valley lies the Stevens Creek Trail. The fact is that as we get more and more advanced we are losing our touch with nature.

However, for us residents of the Silicon Valley, the trail can restore our connection. Not enough people realize what they are so desperately lacking. As the world is increasingly revolving around

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materialism, it’s no wonder why achieving true happiness is nearly impossible.

In the Steven’s Creek Trail, We are not only reconnecting with nature but also with parts of own beings that have been neglected over time. As Grossman says, “It’s physiological. You could say that that’s a part of exercise but it’s different than just working out; you’re connecting with nature-- I think there is a spiritual quality to the trail”. This completely makes sense to me; being in on the trail makes it feel as though I’m connected to something bigger, and that is Mother Nature. ristina Tudino, a health magazine writer, reveals that just being in nature actually activates a part of the brain associated with happiness. South Korea Chonnam National University concluded that this is true: “fMRI scans showed that when subjects saw images of mountains, forests, and other landscapes, they experienced heightened activity in the anterior cingulate gyrus (which is linked to positive outlook and emotional stability) and the basal ganglia (an area that’s been tied to the recollection of happy memo-

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ries)” (qtd. In Tudino). Ramin Gabeshram states the symptoms shown by people who spend too much time staring at the computer include back pain, anxiety and insomnia. In contrast, An Article written by Naomi Lubick titled “Green Fix” discusses the effects of biophilia, a term describing the need for humans to be close to nature. Some of the benefits include “Heart rates slowed, levels of the stress hormone cortisol dropped and blood pressure was significantly lower than when measured in the city.”

After reading both articles, it’s clear that spending time in nature is the solution to the many of the issues we have been facing. Psychologist and Boulder-based author Dr. Jerry Lynch says, “Trails just have a way of closing off the rest of the world and all of the chaos.” Since we are constantly bombarded with the world of our smart phones and technology, it’s easy to forget how important being in nature is. Allowing ourselves to disconnect the phones and enjoy the outdoors is a huge benefit. In the Stevens Creek Trail, you can once again experience peace in the bare necessities of life.

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Conclusion The fresh smell of rain water fills the air as the grey clouds separate, revealing a vibrant rainbow painted across the bright blue sky. As I walk this trail, I realize how much it matters to be able to escape the urbanized world we live in. Now days it is easy to overlook our moments of joy, often the pressure to stay connected gets in the way of us living in the moment.

However, here in the Stevens Creek Trail, we have a place to reconnect with nature, and therefore remind ourselves what is truly important in life.

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Works Cited Abe-Koga, Margaret. Personal interview. 28 Mar. 2014.

“About the Stevens Creek Trail.” About the Stevens Creek Trail. Friends Of the Stevens Creek Trail, 17 Mar. 2014. Web. Friends of the Stevens Creek Trail. MV_Plan_ECR-Sleeper-Dale-Heatherston.

2013. PDF file.

Grossman, Aaron. Personal interview. 21 Mar. 2014.

“The Hazards on Stevens Creek Trail.” The Hazards on Stevens Creek Trail. Embarcadero Publishing Company, 04 Jan. 2002. Web. 09 Mar. 2014.

Levy, Sandra. “Texting While Walking Causes More Accidents Than Texting and Driving.”Healthlines RSS News. Healthline, 10 Mar. 2014. Web.

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An Escape Route Made by Daniela Chavez Preciado

Daniela Chavez Preciado is a 16 year old Junior in Los altos High School and Freestyle Academy, She is a free spirited individual and a big cat fanatic. More than anything, she enjoys going on adventures with friends, wandering about the universe and making art. When Daniela grows up, she plans to run free in the wild for a couple of years and then come back with a bunch of wisdom and crazy stories to tell. Danielas main goal in life is to help create a better world for future generations and her dream is too find people like her who see the bigger picture in life and want to make a change.

So far, Danielas won two awards for an environmental film she made, under the category of best call to action.

An Escape Route Written and Designed by Daniela Chavez Preciado