Mercer Slough Nature Park Hike and Yoga

2101 118th Avenue Southeast,Bellevue WA 98005

25 September, 2022

Description

Join us for a leisurely stroll through the Mercer Sough Nature Park, Lake Washington’s largest remaining wetland, in the heart of the city and end with a restorative yoga session. This hike is suitable for all age groups and fitness levels. You don't even have to travel far, or wake up early on a Sunday morning for this one. For this event, we'll meet at the Ballfields Trailhead Parking at 8am, and start hiking the Ballfields loops at 8:15am. Along the way we will stop at a grassy spot for a yoga session with Ashok Rajagopalan at around 9:00am. For some additional mileage you could also start at the Mercer Slough Environmental Education Center parking and meet us at the Ballfields trailhead or start earlier and complete the 1.1 mile long Heritage loop and then come meet us at the Ballfields trailhead for another mile or so around the Ballfields Loop Trail and yoga. You can find more details about the trail at this link: https://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/mercer-slough-nature-park-trails After a 45min yoga session starting at 9am and 15min of relaxing / wrapping up time we'll start hiking back to the trail head at around 10am. Free Event: 8am Meet up at the Ballfields trailhead 8:15am Hike the Ballfields Loop 9am Yoga led by Ashok Rajagopalan 10pm Hike back What to bring: please bring your own yoga mat, a snack, water and sunscreen in addition to the 10 essentials for hiking. This is a free event. Sometimes we get asked about donations for instructors. If you feel inclined, we suggest booking a donation ticket so we can buy an Adventures for Everyone branded piece of gear for the instructor and for future events. About the Instructor: Ashok Rajagopalan: Ashok has been a practitioner of yoga and the classical tradition for over 15 years and completed his studies from the renowned Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram which was over 700 Hours in the classical techniques and traditions spanning across philosophy, Asana techniques, pranayama, meditation, physiology and psychology. He is also a certified Ayurveda Marma Practitioner from the Art of Living Sri Sri Ayurveda Institute. Marma is a subset of Ayurveda, the oldest holistic healing system, which uses energy healing methodology. He continues to study and research the various tools that Yoga has to offer. His mission is to make the classical teachings easily available to everyone and his teachings focusses on the application of the various tools of Yoga in everyday life aligning to an individual's needs. He uses unique methods from the classical teachings around breath ratios and mantra as a medium of movement. About the Organizer: Preeti Suri: Preeti is the founder and CEO of AdventureTripr, the go to place for affordable and inclusive domestic outdoor experiences in the US and international adventure travel. After having experienced the transformational benefits of outdoors on her physical and mental recovery post child birth, she embarked on the mission to making the outdoors more accessible to everyone by bringing down the economic, social or cultural barriers faced by a huge cross section of people in getting outside. She does so not only through her company AdventureTripr but also through volunteering for Asha for Education as a hike and a climb lead and by running the Adventure For Everyone facebook group to organize free events to get more people outside. Disclaimer: Activities hosted by Adventures For Everyone may involve some element of risk. As a pre-condition to participating in any events organized by this community, you agree to release, hold harmless, and indemnify the Group / Meetup / Community, its organizers and other members from any and all liability. You alone are responsible for your safety and well being.