Yesterday’s Walk

While I rave all the time about the convenience of having state park land right behind my house, I think the woods up there are less than exciting. There’s a spot we call the Scenic Overlook, but it doesn’t overlook much, nor is it particularly scenic, unless you enjoy a view of cell phone towers. There are some old stone walls, a couple of old stone foundations, and reportedly an old quarry, though I haven’t discovered it yet. There’s a sort of scary spot with an abandoned truck and a marsh I call the Oil Can Swamp (because someone dumped dozens of old oil cans there). Nice, huh? It was the only place in the woods I can remember feeling unsafe.

But mostly there are rocks and trees, so many and so alike that one area of woods looks very much like another. My husband went walking up there last week and got himself lost. I could laugh at him, perhaps make a dumb joke about men never stopping to ask for directions, but the truth is that getting lost out there is easy because there are so few distinctive features to act as landmarks. A few of the trails are marked but most aren’t. And to add to the confusion, the people who ride their dirt bikes and ATVs around the park are constantly creating new paths, some of them only feet apart. Never mind the fact that they’re slowing ruining the park (that’s a gripe for another day), but it’s hard to keep track of all their little “diversions” and how the many new paths intersect.

I almost always know where I am in the woods, though. I have traveled the main path enough times to be able to follow it consistently, even with all the confusing side paths. Perhaps I know the path too well. It seems boring to me now, so these days I have to find ways to keep myself interested during my walks. Sometimes I look for specific things (like blueberry patches and pussy willows). Sometimes, like yesterday, I just try to look for something different, something that I’ve never noticed before.

Here are the things I noticed yesterday.

There is nothing like a rainy day to bring out the greens in the woods. The pine trees looked especially beautiful.

Part of the state park is known for its quartz, but not there part near my house. Until yesterday, I had never seen any nearby. Here, a seam of quartz.

I once saw a deer up in the woods (it scared the heck out of me as it suddenly bounded through the brush), but I have never seen one anywhere near our house. We know they’re around, though, because they leave evidence. Yesterday, I found one of their “calling cards.”