My Adventure
Today was a day of adventure. I'd decided to go hiking on the trails of the farm I lived on as a kid. The place has changed quite a bit but underneath I can still see the framework of what I remembered.I began by parking at the entrance to a field just off the road. As I walked through the field, I spooked a hen turkey and some grouse from the underbrush/trees along the road. Then a tom flew out from one of the trees. I knew I was probably scaring them, since I could hear them keeping ahead of me in the brush. Then the tom came out of the brush, running through the field to the creekbottom area. I believe he was trying to lure me away from the hen to save her. I didn't hear a peep from the hen in the underbrush. I just kept walking and looking straight ahead - to the head of the trail at the creekbottom.
The trail was quite overgrown, so I got scratched a bit from the wild roses and almost fell off the wood walk which covered the wet areas because of the tall ferns blocking my view.
I also have never walked these trails so a couple times I had to ask the LORD which way to go so I wouldn't get stuck somewhere or lost. I went by the pond which was just as I remembered it, overgrown with cattails. When I came out of the marsh, I was at the back side of the field I'd started out from.
Walking west along a two-track for a bit, I then entered a trail through a red pine forest. It really wasn't a trail, I just walked into it. I went up the gentle rise and found I was on the south side of the crescent of the big hill. As I topped the rise and looked down the other side, I saw the grassy center of the crescent. Opposite the major part of the hill on the edge of the field was a small pavillion with a picnic table and a firepit with natural benches around it. A collection of wood for burning was to one side of the pavillion.
I then moved on to climbing the sandy portion of the hill. Funny - it doesn't seem as tall as I remembered it but the climbing in the sand was the same - like climbing a sand dune. It is still quite high and I worked up a sweat getting to the top. Lovely, a bench right at the top to rest and enjoy the view. The view wasn't as impressive as I remembered because of all the trees in the way, but I could still see far off across the countryside through some gaps in the trees.
I then walked along the top of the hill to check out where we used to sled in the winter - it was so tree covered that it didn't look like much anymore. I had a lot of fun sledding down that hill!
Then I walked back along the crescent of the hill, down to the two-track leading to the pavillion, and back to the back side of the first field where I started my adventure. To my surprise, a doe appeared out of the woods and meandered across the field, grazing as she went. She was injured in her right front shoulder/leg and had an obvious limp. She seems to be getting along though. Then I walked along the two-track beside the field back to the car.
After that, I stopped at Country Dairy Deli & Store and had a wonderful nutty chocolate ice cream cone. Did you know that Country Dairy doesn't use any growth hormones on their cows? I think I'll buy their products because of that. All in all I had a great day! If you want to see a picture/story of my adventure, check it out on my picture blog - MY PHOTO ALBUM.
posted by Colleen @ 7:12 PM
4 Comments:
Sorry we had our confusion and it didn't work our! :(
Thanks for sharing your story. One thing I'm curious about however: did you feel sad at all walking through your old place? A few times, I've opted out of going back to where I grew up because I though it would make me sad somehow. Not because it would bring back any bad memories, but because it would make me miss the good, old memories, or be depressed by the changes. Maybe I'm weird!
Not really Jeff - I was more curious and eager to re-aquaint myself with the place. It was like visiting an old friend. Last summer I stopped by and the owners gave me a tour of the house (it's amazing how much it shrank over the years!) and outbuildings. I realized later that I missed seeing the grainery. I used to play house in there & it doubled as a clubhouse. :)
Not really sad I meant - and I don't think it's weird to not want your memories to be spoiled somehow.
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