Hiking in an Expanded Version of Childhood Turf

As a teenager living in Upper St. Clair, where my folks still live, I used to spend quite a bit of time in a wooded area not far from our house. I think that some of it was part of the elementary school nearby, but most of it belonged to Mayview, the mental hospital nearby. This tract of land had once been a farm, I think, and back then there were still many vestiges of the farm. One summer, I remember a barn or two going up in flames in the middle of the night thanks to pranksters.

There were "ruins" - the concrete foundation of an old building - and winding paths. Having always been drawn to nature, I really felt at home in this area. Now that I've moved away, when I visit, I sometimes revisit this park. I think it may have actually been further developed a great deal since I used to wile away the hours as a kid. I've gone on hikes there with both Dad and with my brother Brendan.

This time around, I went just with Lily, my dog. We took the usual path at first, but then I discovered a path I had been on a winter or two ago. It led me to an entire rabbit warren of other trails I'd never before seen. Most of the trails I'd been on to date were in different areas, and these trails allowed for a reasonable-length hike, given that this is just a local park.

The path I was on led down a very steep bluff to the wide creek below. Although the water was not very clean, there was a nice rock beach, and the sky opened up because of the break in the forest. I laid there for awhile staring at the sky, thinking. I saw large birds wheeling above. I couldn't tell whether they were turkey vultures or crows.

When I had lived here, I'd had no idea this area of the park existed, and in the time I spent in the woods this time around, I was not even able to follow all of the paths I'd found. I wished I'd known about all of these paths when I'd lived here so long ago, unless they simply hadn't existed back then.

But even without these paths, I had found satisfaction in the smaller area that I knew about. I'd had the same experience as a smaller child in our city neighborhood, Shadyside, where there was very little "nature". I could make even the smallest weed-filled alley seem like an entire forest, with just a little imagination.

During my trip to Homewood the next day, I stopped in Shadyside to get some coffee, refill my water bottles, and give Lily a bathroom break. I realized that although Shadyside was considered to be an extremely nice place to live, I might not want to live there because it was so citified. There is an awful lot of concrete and not very much greenery in certain parts. I think that some of the greener areas of the neighborhood are where the much larger and more expensive homes are.

Where I live in Ann Arbor is is 1/2 mile from downtown, but there is a lot more greenery - huge trees, larger lawns, beautiful gardens, and plenty of grassy parks scattered throughout the neighborhoods. It's funny how one's perspective changes - at one time, I would have considered Shadyside to be a plum neighborhood, should I ever move back to Pittsburgh.
^ Pittsburgh - August 2004 < A Beautiful Garden Bicycling in the Pennsylvania Alps >