So I decided today that I wanted to be a good pet owner and play with Leo outside. When I let him out he ran pretty far away from me but instead of getting upset and frustrated like I normally would I decided to entice him with a little adventure. Behind the parking lot of the Club’s lower stretch of apartments was a trail leading down to the river’s side. I had been interested in exploring it before but had chosen to wait for the right time. This felt like a better time than any!
Climbing down the steep man-made stairs, Leo and I began our journey. My first impression of the river was that it was pretty wide, wider than I had remembered it, and it was beautiful. I had missed nature for some time now and the sound of the eddying waters brought back memories of Wolf Creek and my experiences as a Boy Scout. It was serene to me and a fresh environment for little Leo. He was bounding around, daring the ledges above the river bank and playfully exploring the foliage ahead of us. He was my curious guide. In that instant, when we pressed ahead on the trail in front of us I felt very much in one of Tolkein’s old stories; those tales of Bilbo and the Misty Mountain and Frodo and Company trekking alongside the river Anduin.
Once Leo found our trail, scouting ahead, he waited for me to follow him. We began our journey and I did my best to take in every bit of the nature I had been missing. We stumbled upon many old campfire sites. They were small but warm enough to keep one or two travelers comfortable overnight. I had a smile on my face as I reveled in one of my favorite natural sights - running water. Leo and I climbed down to take a closer look at the water running over some shallow rocks. As I cautiously found my footing and stepped out onto the landing, Leo did just the opposite. He leaped from the bank onto the rocks and sniffed curiously close to the current below him. Too close actually, as Leo slipped into the water my heart lurched! I started yelling “swim swim swim Leo!”
Luckily enough, Leo climbed onto a nearby rock jutting out of the bordering cliffs and shook off his embarrassment. He was scared in the water. I could see that but he was strong enough to save himself. After that incident I made sure to remind him to “be careful” whenever he got close to the edge every now and then. We continued on, passing abandoned beer cans and water bottles until we came up on something hanging on a low tree. My pulse started to race as I was convinced that there was a man sitting up against this low tree. I wasn’t certain but it appeared that someone wearing a white shirt dabbed with reddish orange was sleeping against this tree or worse…
I was scared, honestly. I picked up a dying stick from the ground thinking that my little pocket knife would bring me too close to danger if something were to actually go down. Walking closer, I realized that this rotting stick was going to be about as viable as a swimming noodle in an attack. As I thought that, the stick fell apart in my hand. I reached into my pocket and flipped open my pocket knife. Leo was by my side just as uncertain as I was. We approached the site and I was relieved to find that the man against the tree was actually a hanging sleeping bag. It had been torn apart by something but what it was I had no idea. Next to the sleeping bag, on the ground a little past it was another sleeping bag covered in leaves. This was no camp site. It was the residence of some local homeless people.
I realized now that this adventure was going to be more than just a walk in the woods. I sent Leo ahead to scout the trail that was disappearing ahead of us and he was able to find where it picked back up. We climbed up the cliff’s edge leaving the river bank and pushed ahead. When we got to the top of the hill and a little farther on the new path we came upon yet another startling sight. It was a wooden shelter, reminiscent of the pioneer days. Part lean-to, part log cabin my nerves began to be tested again as the adrenaline started pumping. I wasn’t exactly prepared to walk up on a sleeping homeless person, let alone one that might be violent and so I sent Leo ahead to see if anyone was home.
He cautiously padded forward and looked back at me when he past the shelter. No one was there. Still nervous, I walked slowly to the cabin and peered in and actually admired the worksmanship that went into building something like that. It was better than sleeping under the stars I could imagine. We put the shelter to our backs and continued on. We were working our way farther from the river’s edge as the banks all but disappeared and spotted an opening not fifty feet ahead. It was the first bit of green flat land that we encountered and it was beautiful. The patch overlooked the river right where it bended and headed southward. It was peacefully silent with enough room for Leo to run around in the shade of the dispersed evergreens but he was still in scout mode and explored ahead. The pasture had an abandoned tennis court adjacent to it and a little farther was a bridge that floated over a spring that trickled into the river’s elbow.
We crossed the bridge and found the connecting trail a little ways from the tennis court. We were walking behind the backyards of Athens residents now and the river was getting louder. Following Leo, my eyes were on the current that was gaining strength and moving faster southward. I was too distracted by the sight and sound of the water to notice two dogs closing in on us. They were giant and not too happy that we were trespassing. Leo and I could tell by their bark but thankfully for us they were restrained by an invisible fence. Just as fast as they had charged us, teeth bared, they stopped. Leo stood next to me afraid but confident.
I was startled at first by the barking but once I realized that they could only come within a foot of me I recomposed myself and called Leo for us to move on. We jumped over a log and across an embankment together away from the dogs. Leo ran ahead into a thicket and I was forced to crouch low as the trail had become overgrown. It was evident that the trail had been abandoned by travelers some time ago but as the sound of the river grew louder the more determined I was to press on.
As we broke through the entangled branches we came upon some rapids emerging from the river’s heart. The current’s strength was tested against the shallow rocks and I was captivated by the symphony of the swirling and sudding water. We found a couple of benches set out along the riverbank where previous travelers sat to admire the same river song. After a short reprieve we continued onward to find a fenced in backyard set beside another open pasture. This pasture reminded me more of the fields of Pelennor with its dying grass than it did the Shire’s rolling green hills.
Leo and I were startled again near the fence line but this time it was the jingling of dog tags that greeted us and not the bellowing bark of the two guardians. Just at once we saw a smoky colored dog come running to meet us. He and Leo ran together along the fence line for a bit until I decided that it was time to return home. After a bit more mirrored-running I picked Leo up and I carried him back through the thicket. I let him down again once he stopped looking back towards his crying friend and we climbed down to the riverbank for our last salutation to the rapids. I made a sailboat out of a twig and bamboo leaf as sort of an homage to our trek and set it afloat down the river. I imagined that the boat was now our traveling spirits following the river further when we ourselves had to turn back.
We trekked back through the now familiar sites with assured ease. However, I have to admit that when we came back upon the shelter I was still a little nervous. It had been a while since we were last there and whoever lived there had plenty of time to return. Thankfully, the hut was still empty and we continued on to the campsite with the abandoned sleeping bags. Again, my nerves were not happy with me and even leaving the site a few yards behind us I would still catch myself looking backwards to make sure no one was following me. It was an eerie feeling having the site at our backs but we walked ahead and made it back to the trail’s entrance.
We had ended our journey but Leo was not done commemorating his fun. He dove down into an old campfire’s ashes and rubbed the soot all over his coat. I guess the sun was not enough to dry his embarrassing fall. Either way, I felt that the adventure brought Leo and I closer together in an odd way and it made me confident that I could bring him on later hikes up real mountains. Until those trips occur, Leo and I are going to be left only to the memory of hobo huts and walnuts for the road.
Note from the author: This post was written 7 months ago.
No comments:
Post a Comment