In the midst of our hectic fall schedule, we decided to slow things down a bit on Sunday and take a walk in the woods behind our house. I have found that there are few things as rejuvenating as a walk in the woods. We hadn’t been up the trail to the top of our property in a while, and we wanted to see if the chanterelles were up, and check on our spring and check out some work the timber company did recently on our neighboring forest land.
It was a perfectly sunny and brisk fall day, and once we made it to the top of our trail, the view of the rolling foothills of the McKenzie watershed was a beautiful sight to take in.
Our spring was looking good, and the repair we made to the line between the two tanks was holding strong. The timber company had cleared up our access road from our property to the spring, so it was a much easier trek up there than last time.
Sometimes it is hard to get 12-year-olds excited about going out and hiking, but I have found that if you make them go anyway, the grumbling will cease around the half way point, and they end up enjoying the excursion.
We made it up to the old road on the ridge behind our land, and with no chanterelles to be seen, we considered it a good walk and headed back down.
Walking back home through our woods, I took a moment to appreciate the wilder parts of the land we call home. These acres of forest on the hills behind our house are able to remain undeveloped and unspoiled in our stewardship, and that is a good feeling. When we were originally looking at the house, the real estate agent told us the last interested buyer was a logger from Alaska who wanted to clear cut the entire forest and resell the land for a profit. I am glad we came along and that didn’t happen. I still feel a mixture of humble gratitude, good fortune and happiness in having woods to call our own, and bordering public lands to explore. We may have returned from our walk in the woods empty handed as far as the mushrooms go, but our souls were quite full.
Leave a Reply