Unconventional Review (part two)

Hello Berries!

Unconventional Reviews are a genre of review invented by our very own Raspberry, Beatrix. The topics of review can range from the serious and useful to the silly and unorthodox. This month, Tara wrote a review of a trail!

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Time for a Trail

Tara Wohlleben

In the last five years or so, I’ve gone on a lot of hikes, almost once a week – so, roughly two hundred and thirty. I’ve done most of them with my hiking buddy, Bryan. Remember: It’s important that you don’t hike alone! I’ve never reviewed a trail, conventionally or not, but in an effort to be unconventional, I’m rating the trail based on the neat things I saw. This won’t be an “out-of-five” scale or anything like that. I’m simply going to give the trail a number of points equal to the number of neat things I saw.

Now, I can’t tell you the exact route that Bryan and I took because I don’t remember all the twists and turns, but make sure that you familiarize yourself with the trail beforehand. The trail starts at the Annie horse-riding trail off of Spruston Road. I rate this trail an eight. Here’s what I found:

1.  A small yellow shape that I initially thought was a mushroom but ended up being a really old Flintstones toy.

2. A trail down to the cliff that also had a small cave in it. It looked like it had previously been sealed up. I had a small temptation to see if I could fit, but it was still early in the hike and I didn’t want to get that dirty.

3. What appeared to be a bench and an excavator bucket, but when we got closer we saw that they were just pallets standing up. They looked like they had been there a long time, and when I looked around I saw a lot more of them. Bryan suggested they might have been left over from a paintball-type event. With another look around, it became obvious that that was probably the truth of it.

4. All throughout the trail there were large mossy knolls to walk over or past, and you could see some through the trees in a way that made you think that in just a second you’d witness the magic of a deer walking through the clearing, just out of reach.

5. A section we came across called “Hyway,” which was an old logging road that was very easy to walk up. The road was covered in pine needles, so it was a lovely orange pathway through the green forest.

6. A pile of small boulders in the ditch that I think I would have loved to play on (and not think about how dangerous it was) when I was younger.

7. A couple of small bones along the trail, probably from a deer. They might seem creepy to some, but I always think it’s neat to find bones.

8. Initially the disappointing find of a mattress, Bryan saw a trail beside it and something through the trees. We went off to investigate and found the remnants of a two-storey fort that had been built against the cliff. While it was falling apart and we didn’t try to go inside or on top of it, it was very clearly there for a while before it was abandoned. It felt incredibly creepy when we first got there, but as we looked around it just became really cool.

   
   

There were some smaller things like a couple mushrooms and some trees that had fallen across the trail, but I feel like those don’t quite reach a high enough level of “neat” to qualify for a point. I hope that you enjoyed this unconventional review of a vague trail. Next time you go on a walk make sure to pay attention and see all the neat things and see what ratings your trails get!