Antonio Machado walked the Guadarrama Mountains from the time he was a boy on excursions with his teacher Francisco Giner de Rios.  The poet walking along making new paths was the most famous line in Antonio’s repertoire, “Caminante no hay caminos...” (Walker there are no paths...) He claimed that you make the path by walking.  I have followed his footsteps from Fuenfria Valley up and over the Guadarrama Mountains, as noted in his brother’s notebooks.  For many, Machado only walked in Soria, but his youth was spent in Madrid, and looking out on the horizon was Guadarrama.  Later in life he looked up at Guadarrama from Valsain, a village close to Segovia.  Machado reminisced about his old friend Guadarrama of his youth in a poem; “Eres tu, Guadarrama, viejo amigo?” For this poetic canvas I arrived from Segovia to Valsain, to see his point of view.  It was truly a spectacular sight.  I walked along the river through the forest of the wild Valsain Pine that attracts you as soon as you enter the forest.  Its radiant copper trunks are magnetic.  I was lucky enough to stumble upon a decomposing Valsain Pine.  It showed me its brave heart in a quiet moment alone.  This was my first tactile walk that changed by poetic style.