Across from the "black" trail.

Have you ever wandered through a pine wooded forest?   In the heat of midsummer I head to Glacier Hills County Park as often as possible.  There at the park, which is tucked in the rolling hills of the Town of Erin and very close to the towering and very beautiful basilica of Holy Hill, you will discover many deep wooded trails.   Follow the trail directly across from the "black" trail--the "blue" trail.

Depending on where you begin this trail, you will eventually come to the tamarack forest portion of the trail, which you cannot miss, since the "blue" trail takes you right through the middle of the tamarack forest and all its dark, spooky glory.  The atmosphere with the tree’s piney canopy of soft needles creates a cool soothing and blissfully dark trail to hike, especially on a cloudy day during a heat wave.  Upon walking up to the forest line take notice of what you hear.  There is a distinct change of worlds when walking from prairie into pine forest.  I compare it to exploring an abandoned house.  Once inside, it is very dark compared to the outside and just like an abandoned house, a pine wooded forest is an entity in and of itself.  After you’ve past the threshold between the outside and inside of the forest, all sound is muted from the prairie, much like the walls  inside of an abandoned house mute whats going on outside. Being inside the labyrinth of trees directs all your senses inward.  Pay attention to your step.  What is beneath your feet?  A soft bed of needles and crumbly wet, rotting tree limbs cradle each step you take.  It is as though you are walking through an old carpeted room.  What if you step off the hiking trail and meander through the darker spaces between the trees? Notice the closeness of the trees; notice how close you are to the trees now?  Watch out for that mushroom growing from beneath the needles.  Careful of the spider web sparkling in the small ray of sunlight shining through a hole in the tree canopy.  Now you hardly hear your steps through the woods, but what else do you hear?    Do you howling, singing, maybe both, perhaps?  This is where the spookiness comes in.  In a house you are unfamiliar with, that has been left to crumble and fall, hearing a small creak behind you from some dark corner and your mind can run amuck.  Depending on what time of day you choose to visit, which I choose to visit in the early morning when there is often still fog rolling though the forest's shadowy walls, you may hear the howling wind through the tops of the very tall trees.  The howling wind through the tops of the trees cause the tops of the trees to slide against each other creating an eerie creaking and cracking, which some us find delicious to listen to.  Add the dark forest howling wind and a thick rolling fog and some may find it a bit too much to be off-trailing.  Stick to the trail if you must.

 If you have the opportunity to visit this park on a weekday instead of during the weekend, please do, since many people visit on weekends.  If you plan on going off-trailing and you are there during on a weekday, there is still one more adventure to try while in the tamarack forest.  Once you have tired of losing yourself amongst the trees, sit down, or better yet, lay down between the rows of trees and look up.  Look around you.  What are you feeling now?  The first time I tried this was on a whim since that morning had been so peaceful and being tired of wandering around, I decided to sit down and then decided to lie down.  As I lay there, meditating on the experience of the gloomy forest and all its deliciousness, my skin began to crawl as I suddenly heard something cracking through the nearby prairie wood line.  I stayed still and listened. Through the trees and out of the fog I saw ... a doe and her fawn completely unaware of me.  You thought I was going to say I saw a ghost, didn't you?  Sorry.  That’s not to say you won’t, though.  You never know!  This tamarack wood has seen a thing or two.