For the Fourth of July, I took a bit of my own advice from last week’s newsletter. I opted to go somewhere I had not been before. There is a large state park (Umstead) located between Raleigh and the RDU airport. There are miles and miles of walking trails, a few lakes for boating and fishing, bike tracks, and there can even be horses on the multiuse paths. A few years ago, one of the large trees beside one of the multiuse trails fell parallel to the trail. A few local artists took the opportunity to carve into the tree with chainsaws. Over the span of nearly thirty feet of fallen tree, there are numerous animals depicted—herons, owls, foxes, squirrels, rabbits, etc. The carving has become something of a landmark and even gets its own signage at the nearby trail junctions. I have visited the park a few times previously for the hiking trails but had never ventured to see the carved log and decided Monday was the day.

The log is only about a mile from the parking lot, so I added in one of the other hikes too to get more value for my journey. This was also a hedge as I knew I enjoyed that particular hike and the log was something new. That attitude is akin to the concept of the zone of proximal development in my mind, but that may just be a mental crutch. In any event, I do often mix the familiar with the new to reduce the risk of being overwhelmed. It may not be that that is necessary for everyone, but it is a tactic that has worked well for me down the years.

It’s a good thing that I took the other hike. I won’t denigrate the artwork, but that is definitely not a site I will be taking guests when they come visit me. I’m glad I saw it since I’ve wondered about it for some time, but that wonder is now permanently sated. On the walk back, my face displayed a combination of a wry smile and a knowing head shake of resignation. So it goes.