IN THIS TIME of lockdown, Meika Beaudoin-Rousseau finds freedom and solitude on the logging roads of the upper Sierra foothills around Dorrington, California.
The wide soft dirt paths seem endless as they wind through the pines of Calaveras County at 5,000 feet. Any higher and the snow encroaches, first in traces, then in dirty patches covered with pine needles, and then whiter and thicker as the roads climb higher and the forests begin to thin.
The Stanford sophomore savors the crisp air on runs of up to 15 miles on Sunday mornings, part of a high-volume training regimen that was to prepare him for the 10,000 meters this spring. Though he continues to follow the plan left by distance coach Ricardo Santos, the opportunity for racing on the track this year seems slim.
But while running for miles in the dappled sunlight, Beaudoin-Rousseau can look at the trees and appreciate their strength and beauty.
When the family comes down from the mountains – they share time between their cabin in Dorrington and home in Sunnyvale – Meika continues to savor the outdoors and appreciate plants, trees, and their sustenance.
At age 13, Meika looked over their suburban backyard and asked his parents if he could re-landscape the third-of-an-acre plot. Five years later, Meika applied the finishing touches of mulch on ground now graced by 26 fruit trees, 400 square feet of organic vegetables, and 50 square feet of raspberries.
"I can pretty much grow anything that we need," Meika said.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Meika has even more time to devote to the garden, 10 miles from Stanford's Cobb Track and Angell Field. The garden produces about 25 percent of the fruits and vegetables his family eats in a year.
The varieties of fruit trees are apple, apricot, avocado, cherry, fig, lemon, nectarine, orange, peach, pear, persimmon, and plum.
Depending on the season and timing in a system of crop rotation, Beaudoin-Rousseau has grown beans, beets, cabbage, carrots, chard, coriander, cucumbers, kale, leeks, lettuce, onions, parsley, peas, potatoes, radishes, tomatoes, and zucchinis.
"You name it," he said.
Photo by Aaron Shepley.
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LONG BEFORE SUNNYVALE became the heart of Silicon Valley, the region was known as the "Valley of Heart's Delight." Framed by the Santa Cruz Mountains to the west, the San Francisco Bay to the north, and the Diablo Range to the east, the Santa Clara Valley was awash in blooming fruit trees and orchards, products of rich soil nourished by an artesian aquifer.
Sunnyvale's major landmark, a water tower painted to resemble a Libby's fruit cocktail can on the site of the city's first fruit-packing factory, is a reminder of that history.
Among Meika's oldest memories are weeding in the garden with his great aunt, Esther Beaudoin, who lives with his family half the year and in Canada. Meika remembers that at age three, he felt so bad for the weeds, he would try to replant them. After the weeding, they would plant lettuce and vegetables together.
"When I was younger, any outdoor activity was appealing to me and she was really passionate about gardening," Meika said. "Those are definitely some of my fondest memories as a kid, just gardening with her."
Meika's parents are French Canadian, who came to the U.S. for graduate school – father Paul Rousseau at Stanford and mother Marie-Nathalie Beaudoin at Palo Alto University. French is Meika's first language and spoken at home.
Every weekend meant excursions to the Mountain View farmer's market to buy vegetables, and greeting the familiar farmers and fishermen who sold their goods. The outings ended with the purchase of a small potted plant they would re-plant later that day, or a cactus that Meika kept in a collection.
Once Meika entered Bellarmine College Prep in San Jose, weekend commitments with racing and other activities limited his ability to continue the farmer's market tradition. Meanwhile, Beaudoin-Rousseau excelled on the running scene, winning two Central Coast Section Division I cross country titles and earning two top-21 finishes at the Foot Locker national high school championships.
At home, Meika stared at a wild stand of bamboo and considered how he could transform the backyard. He drew a garden on a piece of paper and mapped out what he wanted, and measuring the spacing for his first fruit trees.
Meika spent two summers working for his aunt, Solange Duguay, who ran a landscaping business in Quebec. He returned home with an eye toward aesthetics and design, incorporating ornamentals and flowers, as well as rock paths. During one month, he brought in six tons of rock -- some for a rock deck, and some for paths -- and a mountain of gravel.
Photo by Meika Beaudoin-Rousseau.
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THE YARD REMAINS dynamic. A few months ago, Meika started experimenting with Jerusalem artichokes, a perennial that produces a tall stem with yellow flowers. He's building a third compost box to join ones filled with green and brown matter decomposed by worms, pill bugs and other small creatures.
Whether this remains a hobby or a career, Beaudoin-Rousseau is unsure. He will declare a major of human biology, considering a focus of human performance, animal science, or botany.
If he's not studying, Meika is likely outside, perhaps on his kayak in the ocean, deepwater fishing for rockfish or snapper. You may also find him at his favorite saltwater spots in Marin, Santa Cruz, or Monterey counties chasing the migrating salmon, halibut, and striped bass, or roaming through the sierras trying to hook bass, trout, or catfish.
Of course, Beaudoin-Rousseau could be running. He was in Stanford's NCAA cross country lineup his first two years, on teams that placed fifth and sixth. He placed third at the 2019 U.S. under-20 cross country championships to earn a spot on the national team for the World U20 Championships in Aarhus, Denmark. Beaudoin-Rousseau placed 39th.
"I'm in a privileged situation right now, having the garden and the cabin where I can go outside and not have to worry about the effects of the coronavirus too much," Beaudoin-Rousseau said. "My heart goes out to all those who are suffering, but as long as we're healthy I've tried to think about this as an opportunity. We're always so busy, but there are so many things we can do and discover that we didn't have time before."
Maybe that means exploring new worlds no farther than our own backyards.
Photo by Image of Sport.