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Adventures of the Hiking Historian
"My father, in his desire of proving my friend through life, gave me
what Americans call a beautiful "plantation," refreshed during the summer heat by the waters of the Schuylkill River, and traversed by a creek named Perkioming [Perkiomen]. Its fine woodlands, its extensive acres, its fields crowned with evergreens, offered many subjects to my pencil. It was there that I commenced my simple and agreeable studies, with as little concern about the future as if the world had been made for me." "While young, I had a plantation that lay on the sloping declivities of a creek....I was extremely fond of rambling along its rocky banks..." - John James Audubon For my first "official" hike, I chose Mill Grove, first home in America of painter and naturalist John James Audubon. It was a fitting place to start for many reasons. First, the park surrounding the Audubon home is small, and the trails are relatively short. Secondly, it is close to where I currently live. Thirdly, Mill Grove was holding its "Holiday Tree-ditions" open house today, with extended hours. And I couldn't resist the connections of the "firsts"; it was here, in 1803, Audubon discovered the American wilderness. It was here he began to study American birds, and to paint them. It was here he experimented with bird-banding to track migration. And it was nearby, 160 years after the young Frenchman left Mill Grove in 1806, that a little boy named Neil began growing up in a town bearing Audubon's name. So for these reasons, it seemed an apt place for an older and not so little Neil to begin his hiking journey. The John James Audubon Center at Mill Grove, to use its full name, has somewhere between 5 and 7 miles of trails over 175 acres of land. This includes the paved bike and walking path, the Audubon Loop, that connects with the Perkiomen Trail across the creek. I arrived before 12:30. The Center didn't open until 1, and no maps of the trails were available, so I simply followed the signs into the woods. Trails signs were spray-painted on trees. So I had no difficulty in hiking from the house to the far end of the park on Egypt Road. Most of the hiking was through the woods, although towards the road I had no choice but to take the paved Audubon Loop. I did hike along an unmarked trail in the park, bringing me to a feeder stream of the Perkiomen Creek. Meanwhile the marked trail was over 100 feet above me, rambling above the creek's rocky banks. Even though I was foolhardy, or foolish, enough to hike without a trail map, I did try to follow the advice I picked up on ASD; I brought water, and drank before I was thirsty; I walked at a steady pace; I wore my good-fitting boots; and I enjoyed myself. As a result, I hiked somewhere between 3.5 and 4 miles in 2 hours, and still had the energy to tour the Mill Grove "plantation." The house is a small three story building dating to 1764, and stuffed with Audubon prints, preserved birds and animals, first editions of his books, including a volume of the first printing of Birds of America (the so-called "double elephant portfolio"), and relics of Audubon and his family. Mill Grove is administered by Montgomery County, and the Center is run by the National Audubon Society http://pa.audubon.org/centers_mill_grove.html For more on John James Audubon: http://www.depweb.state.pa.us/herita...&pp=12&n=1#Bio Growing up, I knew about Mill Grove. In fact, I'd even been there once or twice. But I was well on my way to 385 pounds, so I never went any further than touring the Audubon house. While it was nice to see the man's home, hiking through his woods was seeing the man's world, so to speak. Unfortunately the woods I hiked in wasn't the same woods that Audubon rambled through. Audubon, PA, is a typically noisy overdeveloped suburb. Much of the surrounding woods have been cut down. There are far fewer birds today than in Audubon's, and some of them, such as the passenger pigeon, exist only in a glass case in Mill Grove and in Audubon's art. The Perkiomen isn't fit to swim in. Still, I'll glory in what's left of nature. And I am glad that by losing weight I am being given a second chance to do so. Who says you can't go home again? Neil 385/280/220 |
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