A Walk in the Woods

I was a camper and a staff member at Fort Scott for 12 years. In all those years, I only was on the property one time out of season. Once was during a preview session when I was first wanting to be a camper, and the other was during a High School retreat. Oh, and I seem to remember a Christmas party at Wagner.

But as the weather cools, and the leaves start turning, I really wish that I had walked the woods in the Fall and Winter. I can imagine what the trail leading away from the Indian Village would have looked like with a brilliant canopy of maple and oak leaves overhead. A soft breeze blowing through the trees would make the leaves rustle, and perhaps at the far end of the trail a buck would stand there looking at me.

And I would laugh at the irony of it. The woods that had only a month before that had been ringing with shouts from campers having the adventure of their young lives, or been filled with the sights and sounds of horses, and the pungent aroma of last nights campfire, had now become a wildlife preserve and sanctuary. As busy as we always were, it was easy to overlook some of the wildlife unless it ran over your foot.

My goodness, what have we lost?

Bob