When the last bit of the afternoon used to the sun on a grass patch outside the Elysee Park, the hikers deployed yoga mats and stretched along a busy street. The dogs threw from their straps.
William Vázquez moved through the crowd, greeting family faces and welcoming new ones. He asked for a hand sample: “Who is here for the first time?”
William Vázquez, founder and president of We Explore Earth, a non -profit organization dedicated to promoting individual well -being and environmental administration.
At least half of the group raised his hands. The local Vazquez, who founded We Explore Earth, a non -profit group outdoors, welcomed and appeared.
“It is the perfect time to appreciate, admire, but also to harvest,” he told the group, referring to Sturgeon Moon Rising later that night. The name of the giant fish once abundant in the North American lakes, the Sturgeon moon is the full moon of August and for a long time it has been associated with seasonal crops.
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The garbage grips were delivered when the group crossed the street together to start the short walk. Like most outdoor experiences on Earth, it included a cleaning component.
The group houses free community walks, cleanings and experiences of nature in Los Angeles. Its most popular event, a full moon walk crowned with yoga, a sound bath and a stars cat, occurs every month, timed to the moon's rise already often attracts dozens of newcomers. These experiences rotate between Elysian Park and Griffith Park.
At the top of the walk, attendees participate in 30 minutes of yoga led by volunteers.
Meetings are open at all ages and experience levels and are free of substance by design. Vázquez Caps RSVP numbers at 100, although participation usually lands between 50 and 60. The walks are short, usually a rise mile, a mile below, with 30 minutes of yoga and a 30 -minute sound bath below the ascending moon.
“I think many people find their tribe here,” said Vázquez. “Many of them are taking their first steps to nature with us.”
Before founding the group, Vázquez worked in the music industry, producing events for artists such as Steve Aoki and shows such as “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” But after a few years of exhaustion and depression, he moved away, insecure from what would come later.
He began organizing cleaning and group walks only for fun at the beginning. But the answer was so strong, the demand so clear, that it began to build something bigger. Now, we explore the hosts of the Earth up to 14 events per month. There are introduction workshops, herbal walks, camp trips, trail maintenance projects and more. The group has chapters in New York and San Francisco, and Rei, Patagonia and Arc'teryx account among its sponsors.
Attendees participate in the yoga directed by volunteers in the upper part of the walk. Free monthly events are also friendly for dogs.
Even so, Vázquez directs everything as a volunteer, covering his own invoices with secondary concerts such as instacart delivery and marketing work, while requesting subsidies with the hope of doing this community work full time. It is also a first Wilderness certified response, which adds an additional layer of preparation to the outdoor events of the group.
Vázquez has found a greater purpose in leading this group and says that he will always provide these experiences for free.
“Our goal is to put a good experience and transmit knowledge of exploration, conservation and full attention,” he said. “At the end of the day, nature is free. Why would we charge people?”
Yvonne Tempal, Vice President of We Explore Earth and head of her Women's Department, was still recovering her breath while climbing the hill during the walk. Tepal met Vázquez a few years ago while directed his own female hiking group. They merged efforts under the earth we explore.
The August Esturion Moon rises over Los Angeles during a community walk in Elysian Park.
“As we age, I feel personally as if it were a bit more difficult to find space, also the level of comfort when you are in nature,” Tepal said. “I have heard many stories of women who do not feel safe in the environment, so being able to provide a group just for women really helped.”
Tempal has found a purpose to give women the tools to feel safe and empowered outdoors, tools that you want to have had when you were younger.
During a break in the middle of the walk, the new volunteer and the first rookie of the full moon, Aria Middleman, took a seat in a nearby rock. She said that before joining the earth, she had been completely disconnected from nature.
“I send an email all day, every day. I am behind a screen all day, every day. It suffocates,” said Middleman. “The screens have not existed forever. What has existed forever is Earth.”
When a university friend posted on a walk, Middleman decided to join. Although her friend canceled, she was anyway. “I welcomed with open arms,” he said. “I felt that I had the space to be a beginner and the space to be ignorant.”
Since then, he has helped with the group's social networks and says that events have transformed how the city sees. “It simply makes me better familiar with the topology of the great Los Angeles,” he said. “And it gives me a little spirituality.”
At the top of the walk, the participants placed yoga mats when the roar of the crowd in the Dodger Stadium resonated in the background. During the next hour, they were driven through 30 minutes of yoga followed by a 30 -minute sound bath when the moon slowly rose on the horizon, and Vázquez began establishing his telescope.
Nicole Johnstone leads a sound bath for participants in yoga mats during a full moon event in Elysian Park.
While Twilight settled, the sisters and explored the rookies of the Earth, Abigaille and Sarah Leon sat in a rock, looking towards the city. “I loved it. There was no pressure,” said Abigaille. They discovered that we explore the earth on Instagram, insecure what to expect.
Now, the premises, the sisters are originally from Yucatán, Mexico, where they say that the moon has a spiritual meaning. When they were children, their grandmother asked them to talk to the moon, sharing what they wanted to let go, and what they expected to welcome. “It's really good, because now we can do it with other people,” said Abigaille. “That is energy, at least for me.”
Sarah, who sometimes gets anxious to hiking, said he would do it again. “There is no pressure to do anything,” said Sarah. “It's very cozy.”
While the sun got completely and people waited in the row for the telescope, sound practitioner Nicole Johnstone packed her instruments. She often offers her voluntary time with which we explore the earth.
“He felt like an exhalation group,” Johnstone said. “Listening to the sound of the Dodgers game and having 100 people meditating at the top of the city, I was smiling from ear to ear.”
When she fought with pain and mental disorder after losing her father, Johnstone discovered that sound baths helped her reconnect with herself. Now, she sees that the same peace settles on the group every time.
“I feel that everyone, when I go over his face, I can see a little smile,” he said. “I would do this day in the day. It feeds me.”
She also believes that representation is important in the sound bath space. “It really feels good to be a black woman in this space, a black and tattooed woman,” he said. “It is important to appear and be myself, not try to fit in the world of cookie yoga beige.”
Among the group was Rico Coria, who said that the full moon walks and explored the Earth's events have become a base routine on their sobriety trip. Now, three years old, Coria said that having a social experience that does not focus on alcohol has made the difference.
“I was looking for things to do that they didn't involve drinking, but also to help mental health,” Coria said.
A participant looks through a telescope aimed at Luna Sturgeon during a night walk in Elysian Park.
He is now a usual and has met with friends in the group, even inviting those of a lifetime to join.
As the event concluded, Vázquez began taking people to return to the path. Some hikers remained in their mats, watching the moon get up.
He has seen the group grow every year, especially during the pandemic, when more people began to look for meaning and fresh air.
“The perfect person to come,” he said, “is someone who wants to learn more about nature or connect with the community, someone who wants to find his tribe.”
Some come for the views. Others come for yoga, telescope or garbage cleaning or a night of sobriety. But most return for the meaning of the community.
The next full moon event will be Sunday, September 7. Reservations are filled quickly. Monitor We explore Earth's Eventbrite page For updated information.
