Brief-Form Post #42: A Short Afternoon Trek to Maggie’s Glen at Oak Mountain State Park!
I am pleased to add the 42nd of my GBH Brief-Form Posts (Less than five minutes to read!) to my website. I tend to get a bit wordy with my routine Posts. I don’t want my enthusiasm for thoroughness and detail to discourage readers. So, I will publish these brief Posts regularly.
On November 7, 2024, a fellow retired forester Chris Stuhlinger and I trekked the short Maggie’s Glen Trail at Oak Mountain State Park in Pelham, Alabama located just south of Birmingham. We were already at the park, having been there for two other ventures, so I thought I would introduce Chris to Maggie’s Glen, one of my favorite spots at Oak Mountain. The Glen is a protected streamside cove in deep forest at the base of a north-facing slope.
Several trails diverge from the covered marquis.
Autumn’s thinning crowns brought sunshine to the ground amid the bench-welcoming and resting site, reminding me of William Wordsworth’s observation:
Come forth into the light of things, let Nature be your teacher.
A massive ancient beech, greeted me once again to this cherished site that reminds me of where I grew up wandering the central Appalachians hills of western Maryland. Oh, would I love to hear the tales this tortured and convoluted sentinel could tell from it 150-200 years along the creek!
I recorded this 59-second video at the old beech:
I bestow the significant designation of character tree for such grizzled veterans that I’ve encountered over my seven decades of woods-wandering. Age, size, perseverence, distress, hollows, and contortions aggregate to earn the title. Sunlight hitting leaves within the hollow trunk warrant points. The gnarled roots contribute.
A view from within the hollow trunk that finds sky far above scores high, as does the open crotch at right that allows the sky portal 30 feet from the gound.
The beech stands guard at the wooden foot bridge that during our extended late summer and early fall drought carries little surface water. Only a reflective pool evidences the lively stream flowing during wetter seasons when I’ve enjoyed visiting the Glen. I felt as though I was peering into another world, one that embodies the essence of the spectacular Glen to which I am accustomed.
The Glen includes an odd tree-couple growing side by side…a fat loblolly pine growing straight and tall…and a diminutive sourwood with its species-distinctive corkscrew reach into the intermediate canopy.
I imagined how underwheleming a rapid hike through the forest might be if the wonders I discovered in plain sight were unseen. As Henry David Thoreau observed:
I have no time to be in a hurry.
The older I get, the stronger my feelings about not wanting to miss anything. Fourteen months with five surgeries (July 2023-August 2024) reminded me that time…my time…is finite!
Although still early afternoon (2:38 PM), the sun was alreadt setting deep in the Glen, representing the special Nature of one of my favorite places at Oak Mountain State Park.
I accept the challenge of distilling these Brief-Form Posts into a single distinct reflection, a task far more elusive than assembling a dozen pithy statements. William Wordsworth captured Nature’s magic in simple beautiful verse:
Come forth into the light of things, let Nature be your teacher.
