Do you have any "hidden" places known only to you? I don't just mean like a secret crawlspace in your house or something like that. I mean like a place out in the world that most people don't know about or can't get to easily that is special to you?

Back in high school, there were these bike paths that went along a canal that led to nowhere. The farther you took your bike, the more nothing you would encounter. But a ways down there was a field between the levy and the canal, and in the field was a thick copse of trees.

It was there in those trees that my girlfriend showed me a secret spot with a comfy log where the shade of the trees would keep you cool on a hot summer day.

It had to be known by others, due to the trails that had been walked through it, but we never saw another person out there.

In Tucson, I would sometimes go out into one of the desert parks on the far east side of town that went right up into the mountains. I would wander down one of the trails until I came to a wash (a dry riverbed) and walk up through the sandy canyon until I came to a fairly climbable cliffside. I would climb to the top, about 20 feet up, and there was this rock that was perfectly shaped for sitting, where I could see the open landscape all the way to the jutting spires of downtown. It would be eerily quiet, with only the wind to keep me company.

I would go there sometimes to enjoy a place that only I was able to find. I sometimes wanted to get away from everything but found that wherever I went, there I was.

One day in the winter (which is to say it was around 50 degrees out) I took a different way back to the main trails, walking down the hill and found myself in a field of spider holes, large burrows in the ground with webbing in them. Being a bit of an arachnaphobe I ran, despite seeing no actual spider. As I rushed through the untread grass I found an animal trail of some kind and followed that, still running.

Suddenly I heard a loud hissing and I instinctively jumped backwards, narrowly avoiding a coiled rattlesnake. It was exceptionally angry to see me, and took a few lunges at me though I was a safe distance away. I carefully navigated around it, and did not return to that spot again.

Not too far from my house now is a bike trail through a forest by the river. Connecting to it is a wetland owned by the university. I am out there often when the temperature is above freezing, as it is my chosen running route. It is well tread, being a very popular area for just taking a walk.

There are two places within though, that while are often tread upon, feel like mine.

In the wetland itself is a fenced off area with barbed wire. It's to keep people out so they don't disturb any ongoing research, but I have my own ways in, where I've taken a couple people.

In the summer the area is overgrown with swamp grass and walking along narrow planks can feel very harrowing. In my time in the area I've had the privilege of seeing many wonderful creatures, including a bald eagle flying over the river, and a family of wood ducks.

The other place within is a spot nearby one of the parks along the trail through the heavily wooded area. There is a confluence of trails within, that when the stand in the center of, you can see no end to the forest.

It's been a long time since I have been out in nature for an extended period. I grew up in a forest, and standing at the center of this looking out around me and seeing no end through the trees, in spite of the city being present just a few mere steps away, it is heartening.

So I hope you keep your secret places as well, places known only to you, even if they are not known only to you. Places of power to call your own.