Hiking Behind my House

Yesterday I went on a hike through the woods behind my house and saw some cool stuff. For example, an hawk being mobbed by a red winged blackbird, my dad saw some deer, deer tracks, a deer path, frogs and toads, and minnows. When I was younger, I used to hike in the woods a lot with my parents and have many memories there and much of the woods has changed yet some things are still the same. We still see deer every so often and birds often come by the feeder when it has seed in it. As I got older, I was able to identify these birds instead of just robin, blue jay, and nondescript woodpecker I can identify many birds and take greater notice of what birds I see. As I got older my knowledge of the outdoors is much greater, but the woods and outdoors do not have the same meaning of which they did seven or eight years ago. I remember when I was little going for hikes in the woods with my parents or when our dog, prada, ran away. I remember that we had another dog at the time, ruger, who chased after her with our babysitter and us. I remember that prada ran into one of the yards of the people who live behind us. While I was hiking I saw that yard and it looked incredibly similar. With trees and then a sudden break with a sunny lush green lawn. I remember on some hikes my dad pointing out deer tracks or a path that deer took that had become visible through use. I remember seeing a flock of turkeys at the edge of the woods while my dad, brother, ruger, and I watched and made calls. I remember ruger chasing after the turkeys driving them away. I also remember walking back there with friends and building cheap forts that could never offer any kind of protection against the elements. Now there is no trace of them not even sticks lying where they were. In the forts absence we made something else with a friend, a small mountain bike loop. I remember going to parties at neighbors houses and seeing their kids hang out. All those people are now in college but I still see them occasionally when they come back on spring break or something similar. One of the families that we were close with moved and the people in the house next to them moved but we did not know them very well. I remember seeing a homemade bridge for crossing the creek that our neighbor made. Now I see a bridge made of logs crossing a river behind the house of the people whom we were close with. The same thing is happening that was when I was younger, neighbors’ kids hanging out and riding their bikes together. It seems that history repeats itself, or in different ways. Now instead of making forts with my friends its mountain bike trails. A new bridge but in a different place and different structure. I feel that my relationship with the woods and outdoors in general is like what has happened in my surroundings in how they have not disappeared but changed. My wandering and hiking in the woods has grown into camping and backpacking through the Outdoor leadership program. Instead of just seeing and liking birds and other wild animals I can now identify them. I find it interesting just how much nature has changed for me but also how it has changed around me, like a tree in winter vs summer not completely different but enough to see a change.