Background

Growing up, I enjoyed spending week-long sleep-overs at my grandparents’ nothouses during the Summer. My maternal grandparents lived in a wooded area in central Pennsylvania. It was fun to explore, play in the creek, capture creatures, make dams and just be in God’s creation. The wooded area we called, “The Woods,” was in the shape of a V. At the base of the V was the creek. Many plants included Sassafras, Maple, Oak, Mayapples, Skunk cabbage, Spice bush, Poison ivy, Virginia creeper, Box elder, Cherry, Basswood and more. There were very few evergreens in this predominantly deciduous forest.

In the Summer of 1994, Cassandra, or Sonny, my 7-year old cousin from Rhode Island came to Pennsylvania for about a week to visit.  She stayed with my grandparents at their house in Chambers Hill in Harrisburg. She and her sister would often spend time during the Summer at our grandparent’s house as well, sometimes the same time my sister and I were there. My grandma asked if I would want to stay with them at all during that time, thinking it would be more fun for everyone.

I gladly agreed to this invitation, as I enjoyed being with my grandparents. Also, I loved exploring the woods around their house (including the creek). And this gave me an opportunity to spend more time with this cousin. I slept over at my Grandparents’ house one evening that week.  It was so fun to me to stay there, as I got to sleep in the waterbed.  The thought of sleeping on a bed with water in it was thrilling to me.  As of that time, when I was 13, Grandma was the only person that I knew of to have a waterbed.    

Starting the Day

In 1994 we spent most of our time in the summer outside, or as much as possible.  This was no exception at Grandma’s house, but rather the rule.  We awoke the next morning to the smell of coffee and eggs cooking in the kitchen and Grandad’s aftershave, as he was getting ready to go to work.  The sound of birds singing outside, Grandad’s radio and the tea kettle whistling on the stovetop signaled that it was time to start the day.  Grandad enjoyed instant coffee, dippy eggs and burnt toast or a burned frame egg every morning. (A frame egg consists of a piece of bread, buttered on both sides. Then, a hole is cut out in the middle, fried in a skillet, with an egg cooked inside the hole).

Grandad was up and ready for work by the time Sonny and I were getting up and dressed for the day.  We said our good-byes as he straightened his tie then went out the door.  He got into his car and drove down the steep driveway. It could fit about 4 cars. Grandad drove down the quiet street and out of sight.    

The road Grandma and Grandad lived on, named Shady Drive, was U-shaped, and most of the traffic on that road was local. These included the mailman, the garbage truck, the egg man and people that lived in one of the 4 houses on their street.  Across from the 4 houses was one of my favorite places in the whole world to spend time – a wooded area.                

The Woods and the creek

I had spent many hours walking through paths, exploring, playing in the creek, capturing creatures, making dams and just being in God’s creation in these woods. I found treasures like salamanders, birds, unique trees, other creatures that lived in that habitat within the wooded area.

The wooded area, “The Woods,” was in the shape of a V. The creek at the base of the V.  Many plants included Sassafras, Maple, Oak, Mayapples, Skunk Cabbage, Spice bush, Poison ivy, wild grape, Virginia Creeper, Box Elder and Cherry. More wetland plants could be found around the creek. There were very few evergreens in this predominantly deciduous forest.

After bidding Grandad was off to work, the three of us; Grandma, Cassandra and myself, got ourselves ready for the day. I had planned to spend much of the time outside, so I brought clothes accordingly. I was preparing to go down to the woods and explore in the creek for hours. It was fun looking for creatures and making a pond area. I gathered some items to take to the creek with us.

First, I collected some empty coffee tins to put creatures into to watch them. Then, two butter tubs in preparation of gathering whatever creatures we found in the creek under rocks. Finally, a strainer from the kitchen drawer to catch creatures in (I did not have a net).   

“We take big rocks and some branches and pile them up at one part of the creek,” I was explaining to Sonny, “then it becomes a big pool that minnows like to swim in.  Grandma likes to sit in it and have the water cover her legs, but I like to see what creatures are in it.”

“Oh, that sounds like fun,” replied Sonny, “how deep can we make it?”

The Plan for the creek

As I was contemplating how we could make it deeper-either by adding more rocks and logs to the dam or by digging down deeper into the soft mud, Grandma interrupted my thoughts by saying, “I was thinking we could do something else instead of that.  We could do that later, if you want to, but I have always wondered what it would be like to follow the creek for a while to see where it goes and how it gets there.”

Certainly we could look on a map to find out and follow the creek to the ocean through larger creeks and rivers, but there was excitement in exploration. Grandma, Cassandra and I put on our creek shoes, which were old sneakers that had sturdy soles but could have had a few holes or really worn. We wore something with a sturdy sole to protect the bottoms of our feet from sharp rocks and anything else we might have stepped on.

After our footwear was on, we sprayed bug spray on ourselves, as the mosquitos were pretty bad in the area at that time of year. I put the containers and other collecting tools by the hose reel at the side of the house. They were useful for creek exploration in one location, but would be cumbersome and in the way on the adventure we were going to take.

Onward towards the creek

The three of us started out on our exploration adventure. Together we walked down the steep driveway. Carefully we crossed the road and down the steep narrow trail. We followed the trail in the woods to the creek, which was the trail for our adventure. On our descent, we passed a lot of green. The woods was a healthy ecosystem, or at least seemed to be at that moment.

We stepped over some logs of downed trees. We had to dodge ‘sticker bushes’ so they would not tear up our legs or socks. Also, we treaded on many years’ worth of fallen leaves and sticks, which made up the floor of the forest.

We watched every step we took, making sure to carefully descend the steep embankment and not go careening down to the skunk cabbage and soft mud below. At the base of the hill was the creek. I loved to see the familiar sight of this part of the woods, where two small streams came together to form a larger stream. On the ground around the creek there were skunk cabbage plants in the more marshy areas, smaller plants, shrubs and some small trees.

Plant Types We Encountered

There were familiar Maple trees, spreading their canopies as much as they could. Then there were towering Oaks with poison ivy climbing up their trunks. Also found were Tulip poplar trees of various sizes and ages. Young Sassafras was along the trail. I like the smell of a leaf when it is crushed between my fingers. Basswood and Beech were also found, but not in large populations. Finally, other typical plants found in a Pennsylvania deciduous forest made their home in The Woods.

The tree that wouldn’t grow straight

There was one very unique tree that my grandfather once wrote about. It was about the diameter of one of the tin coffee cans I would take to the creek for collecting. It was a seemingly healthy tree. The way in which it was unique was that at some point in the tree’s early life some external object caused it to grow sideways. The trunk went straight up for about eighteen inches, then made a sharp ninety degree turn. Then it continued to grow from that point. The leaves and branches reflected this growth, as they sprouted out from the trunk and turned upwards, as the rest of the tree should have done.

Motioning towards the tree, I said to Sonny, “Grandad wrote about that tree, how it did not grow straight up.” She glanced over at it and sat on it, and we both decided to ask Grandad if we could read what he had written. As we all gathered around the tree, admiring it for its intrinsic value, we looked toward the direction we were to go, to follow the creek.

The Adventure Begins

We stopped for a few moments, flipping over rocks in the creek to see what we might find right away. It was normal to find a variety of sizes of Crayfish under rocks. Sometimes they would be moving freely along the floor of the creek. Water striders glided across the top of the water, mostly at spots with slower moving water. Eastern red backed salamanders could be found under rocks around the edges of the creek, while young northern dusky salamanders were under rocks in the creek (as they still had gills). Minnows-lots of different sizes of minnows-were at various locations in the creek.

Deeper pools with rocks or where the bank had an overhang seemed to have the larger fish, while shallower, quicker-moving spots were places to find smaller minnows. The cover provided safety for the larger fish while the quick moving water made it more difficult for predators to distinguish the fish from the ripples in the water.

Ready to Begin

After finding an array of creatures the three of us began our trek, excited for what we might find along the way. At the spot we were beginning, three streams joined together. They all began from springs coming out of the ground. Grandma looked at each of us with a sense of adventure and a twinge of anticipation for where our exploration would lead us, and said, “Well, are we ready?”

“Yeah, let’s go,” I replied.

“That sounds great,” answered Sonny, as she hopped off the tree and jumped over the creek to avoid walking through the soft mud and skunk cabbage. Grandma and I did the same, trying to make a jump long enough so our shoes would not get stuck in the muddy area on the stream bank. Watching our footing was important, to avoid getting a shoe stuck in the mud; slipping on wet, mossy rocks and avoiding other dangers and discomforts.

Hopeful Hikers

We walked along, carefully choosing where to step to avoid slipping on rocks or sloshing in mud. As we carefully walked under some briar bushes Cassandra ran ahead. “It’s my turn to lead now,” she declared, not noticing the thorns stuck to her clothes. She leaped from rock to rock, slipping at times. Grandma and I were right behind her, making sure she did not fall.

As Cassandra turned the next bend in the creek, her eyes became bright and she looked excited. “Hey, wouldn’t it be great if we found a turtle?!,” she exclaimed. I could hear the excitement in her voice as. I turned to Grandma as she was saying, “Oh, well, we might. Just keep looking, there is probably one or two around here.” The thought of finding a turtle was exciting for me, too. It was like looking for hidden treasure. We previously found a couple in these woods over the years. It was not a common occurrence.

Finding our Footing

We kept on walking, mostly in the water. Sometimes we trod on the land around it, in anticipation of what we would find along the way. “How do we get around this?,” Cassandra questioned. She was looking down at the big pool of water blocking us from going any further. “We’ll find a way,” Grandma assured. Of course, we could walk around it, which was always an option. Where was the fun in that??!!

We could walk through it, but there were some things to consider. The ground at the bottom of the creek was sometimes rocky. If that was the case, we had to make sure we had good footing. We could slip and fall down on the hard rocks. However, in other spots the bottom of the creek was silty. It was difficult to tell how deep the silt was. For instance, if it was fairly shallow, walking on it would be easy and fine, However, if the silt was deep, walking on it would entail getting stuck in the soft ground.

Sometimes a shoe would get sucked into the mud, like quicksand. When that happens, it is usually is accompanied with a sloshing and slurping sound. That sound is the silt opening and closing in around the foot. This particular spot in the creek was silty, so we had to be careful. We found many pools to be silty. This is possibly due to being a lower part of the creek. It made for a settling spot for sediment.

A New Creature Joins Us

As we looked down at the watery obstacle we saw something move. Cassandra exclaimed proudly, “Look at all of the minnows, Jackie,” pointing at her new-found creatures. I looked down and saw them. There were a whole bunch of them, some swimming with the current and other minnows swimming against it. Cassandra was trying to catch them with her hands and just missed one when Grandma, with her arm outstretched, called out, “Oh, there’s one!” Our eyes followed Grandma’s hand and saw what she found. Trying to climb over some rocks and not having much success, was an Eastern box turtle (now it is called Woodland box turtle).

This turtle was Cassandra’s new treasure. She quickly ran over to it and picked up the small creature. As if by reflex, the turtle shot into its shell, sealing itself in. That is how the box turtle got its name. The turtle seals its shell up like a box for protection. It completely closes itself inside. Cassandra promptly named this turtle “Dimitri,” after a former turtle found in the same woods.

Approaching Another Obstacle

Before long we were back to following our quickly-moving trail. Cassandra was carrying her treasure, Dimitri.** Soon we came to a place where about five or six Tulip Poplar trees had fallen and blocked our way. “Now what do we do,” Cassandra questioned, her arms waiving in the air. Grandma quickly answered with, “We go over them.” She climbed up onto the first one and started to tell Cassandra and me some of what she knew about this kind of tree as we were climbing. “We have one of these trees on either side of the house,” she explained, “they get very big.” Some branches have broken off and landed on our roof. In the Fall I have to climb onto the roof to clean them off. While I am up there I clean off the leaves and flowers from the tree, too.”

Pondering a Tulip Poplar

I followed Grandma onto the first log and was ready to go on to the next when I stopped to look back for Cassandra. She was not even on the first tree. Cassandra couldn’t get onto it because the log came up to about her nose. She was not going to put down Dimitri to climb onto the tree trunk. I reached for the turtle so she could climb up and join us. It was fun to have a new obstacle, but they seemed out of place. All of these large trees seemed to be about the same size.

For the trees to be about the same size, and all in this one place across the creek did not seem right. I was trying to imagine why they would be here and what would have made them fall. Were they planted here on purpose and then, several years later, pushed down to form a kind of bridge across the creek? Tulip poplar trees grow fairly quickly. Were these trees planted by seeds, birds or another natural way? Then a lot of rain made their roots all give way and the all fell at the same time? I did not know why, but I am still baffled by those particular trees being at that specific spot, all lined up in a row.

I did not think to look at the roots to see if maybe strong winds knocked them over. Did they all collapse at once, that their roots were so clumped together. On the other hand, I did not notice if they had been intentionally cut down with a chainsaw. Whatever the reason, they were down and made for a more interesting trek.

Briar Maze

After pausing for a short break, it seemed like forever until we were back in the water again. We walked through unseen cobwebs and under briar bushes, following our narrow creek. The briar bushes got bigger and bigger and Cassandra made it clear that she did not like them at all. I had to agree with her, they seemed like an unnecessary evil. It was not long before we came to a place with tall grasses on one side and briars on the other. By this time the creek was so small we had to walk single-file. Cassandra looked ahead and saw nothing but briar bushes, hanging low over the creek. We crawled under most of them and over the rest. At one point I looked down and saw that my shirt was completely covered with thorns! Even though it was warm, I was thankful for my long-sleeved sweatshirt. Nevertheless, we continued; over and under briars and over fallen trees.

Another Notable Creature

Cassandra was getting pricked by thorns. She lost her balance and accidentally dropped her treasure, Dimitri. I bent down to pick the turtle up and as I looked up I saw two eyes about a foot away from my face. It was a dark colored snake, all curled up on some twigs by the bank. “There’s a snake,” I said, looking at the big wad of black and grey. It was probably not as big in real life as it is in my memory. “No,” Grandma replied, “you’re kidding.” She did not believe me at first until she glanced over at it. We kept going, Cassandra did not even notice it and Grandma wanted to get away from it. I was not too thrilled to have been face to face with a snake. Not knowing it was there, then being face to face with it, was startling to me. However, the snake was neat to see. I was grateful to be continuing our trek.

Cassandra was trudging through the thorns, each time saying how much she did not like them, until there was a place with rocks everywhere. She leaped from slippery rock to slippery rock, checking her balance on each one. After about five big rocks she jumped into the water, getting Grandma and me all wet. Also, she drenched her own shoes and socks in the process. The water had gotten more narrow and shallow. As Grandma, Cassandra and I ducked out from under a bush we recognized where we were. There was a nature park on the other side of Grandma’s neighborhood. Our small watery trail (the creek) had joined Laurel Run and led us to the small park off of Dennis Circle and Canyon Road. The park is called “Swatara Crest Park.”

Finish Line

Very pleased and smiling, Grandma turned to us and said, “Wow, isn’t that neat?! I never knew where the creek went or where we would end up.” We reached the finish line of our adventure. She was so pleased to have accomplished that challenge.

“Let’s look for minnows and salamanders,” exclaimed Cassandra. “What are you going to put them in,” asked Grandma. Cassandra just looked down into the water with anticipation. She was satisfied with Dimitri. We kept following the creek to the beginning of the nature trail, stopping here and there to flip over some rocks and to peek in some larger pools. Sadly, our time of exploration was almost done, as we had to get back to Grandma’s house to get cleaned up and for Grandma to start dinner.

Finding our Way Home

Finding the road, Grandma asked, “why don’t we go this way,” pointing to someone’s yard. Cassandra and I exchanged glances, not comfortable with going through a stranger’s yard. However, we followed Grandma nonetheless. There were about three yards and then a fence. “We can go the other way now,” I suggested. “It’s alright,” Grandma assured, “your mom used to baby-sit the girl that lived here.” Cassandra and I continued following Grandma to the other side of the fence. “I don’t like that you did that,” was the next thing we heard, coming from inside the house. Uh-oh, I gasped, feeling caught and in trouble. I was preparing myself to be lectured when Grandma replied, “Hi, how are you doing?” “Fine, and you,” we heard. By this time we (Cassandra and I) were up to the window and not knowing what to expect. Grandma’s kind demeanor and easy-going words were reassuring to Cassandra and I. We agreed to continue to her house as she was going to catch up with this neighbor for a few more moments. After we were all back at Grandma’s house, having dinner, we shared with Grandad the experiences of the day that we had.

**We did put Dimitri back in the woods, but not where we found him. We were unaware at the time that turtles should not be removed from their home. It is imperative to leave them where you find them, unless, of course you are getting them safely across the road. Also, it is illegal in Pennsylvania to take them from the wild.