Wild

I just read this post from over at Sweet Juniper and it made me think of the wild spaces near where my brother and I grew up. Here's a map to show what I'm talking about.

If you look closely at it in the satellite photo, you'll see a house just to the north of what's now River Birch Ln where it meets Willow Creek Dr. That was where all of the fun started for my brother, myself, five beagles....and two ATVs. You can zoom out and see where there are several ponds and it looks like a lot of clearing. Well, when we lived there, none of that existed. It was hard to get down into the valley and across the creek and it limited access to most. River Birch Ln and the houses to the west weren't there. It was old logging roads....and trees.

Following River Birch out to the west where it makes it's first turn and it's our old "duck pond". Someone dammed up the natural drainage there and it filled with water and wood ducks. There were always a few there hanging around and it was a great nesting spot. All of the surrounding trees in this area were, and what's left of them are, hardwoods. Beautiful trees that were just perfect for sitting at the base of on a cool winter afternoon...and falling asleep. The old logging roads snake around through the area and made a nice loop, whether whizzing by on the old ATC200 or walking with my old 20ga over my shoulder and a happy mutt at my feet. Many weekend days as a 12 year old, under the guise of hunting, I'd leave the house with my shotgun and dog and just go off into the woods for half a day. The sights and memories of it still come back to me when I kick over a wet pile of oak leaves somewhere and get a passing bit of the smell. A little further west, and just north of the weigh station that you see on the north side of I-20, is where I missed a shot at the biggest deer that I'd ever seen at the grand distance of 20 yards. Not to far from there was where we surmised that this deer, or one of his intelligent contemporaries, jumped I-20 when one of our dogs was chasing him, and waited in the space between the highway lanes until the dog was hit by a car.

It was a good place and I can only hope that the people who live there now have kids that go out into the woods and enjoy it like I did. I learned all kinds of things out there and was simply allowed to experience it as it was - woody, quiet, perfect.