It was a beautiful day for walking. We nosed our car up to the rusted gate and off of the main highway. The doors to the old Toyota popped open and everyone bounced out of the car, ready to begin the hike. We had to duck under the rusted metal poles and walk past the sign with the posted park hours. (9 a.m. to dark, after that get out!) Of course it didn’t say “get out” and I doubt the person who left the bullet hole in the sign believed it either. But the attendant who rented our nearby cabin assured us this park was open, as long as you were willing to take the long walk in.
Once we followed the path around its bend, the only sounds we could hear was the wind sighing in the trees and the occasional bird call. The kids called out to each other as they explored along the edges and chased after our dog. Zoey was very excited to be back on this land and to be off leash, the way nature intended. So quiet in the park, and so alone. Not lonely with the whole family present; the solitude was very peaceful.
This year, instead of going to the kids fishing pond we continued on to what in summertime would be considered a beach/play/picnic area. It was obvious that much maintenance would be needed before those rusty gates could screech open and allow the beach-goers to drive carelessly up the road and swarm the beach. But for now, it was all ours except for the small boats across the sound; the occupants quiet as their minds drifted along with their boats.
Parts of the sand on the beach were littered with small rocks and nature’s detritus. My wife began to wander off as she scanned the stones and driftwood for particular triangular shaped items. Since we started this part of our journey so late in the day, we didn’t have much time to explore; it wouldn’t be long until darkness crept across the water. We did not want to find our way back to the safety of the car in utter darkness. Our oldest daughter strolled away across the sand, marking her trail with a hiking stick dragged behind her. She too was caught up in the quiet as she wandered away.
The youngest daughter stayed with me as she didn’t want to traverse the piles of nature’s detritus that her mother was passing through. As I crunched over the pebbles doing my own walk-about, I was suddenly taken with a need to turn around and examine more closely the stones I had just passed. A few minutes of squatting and searching and I found it; a nicely shaped arrowhead, made of black obsidian and showing all the imperfections you would expect from a stone-age artifact. When I looked up, my daughter was staring at me; I’m pretty sure she’s never seen that look on my face before and she wasn’t sure what to make of it. We splashed through the water and crashed through the brush as we hurried over to show my wife, who was conducting her own search. In vain as it turned out.
She was very excited to see it, and although she wanted to find one on her own that didn’t diminish her excitement. While I was lagging behind with our dog, the rest of the family met a man walking his two dogs off leash. He talked of finding an tomahawk axe as well as arrowheads. I didn’t get a chance to talk as he had not brought leashes as I had, and didn’t want to separate any dog fights! He walked back ahead of us and was gone by the time we got to the car.
The walk back to the car seemed to take much less time, what a nice end to the day!
