You ever have that special place that you go to where you can find those moments of solitude which end up meaning so much to you? To some it may be a favorite fishing spot or even an abandoned building where you hung out with friends as a kid? Well I had one growing up and it was right on the edge of town.

The Wilderness At The Edge Of Town

At the outskirts of the city, there are several wooded hills filled with the sounds of birds and the rustle of the wind throughout the trees. Me and my best friend Robert used to make the long walk up there when we had trouble with our parents and needed to get away.

Me from an angry mother who drank too much, and him from a hot-tempered Irish-American father who also liked his liquid refreshments (a little too much). We lived way on the other side of town furthest away from those hills, so It was quite an enterprise in order to get there.

We'd chat on the way there, then rest at the entrance to the woods once we'd arrived. The "mountain" was very steep, hence no one had ever built on it. An explosion of animal sounds greeted us, and we'd hike part-way up to a little clearing where we could sit on some logs and chat about our troubles in life.

This wasn't a "park-like" setting at all, with vegetation so thick that we had to hack our way through. On the way up, there was a huge rock field that sent you back one step for every three that you took. By the time we got to our spot, we'd earned a break to sit on a log and rest.

Frequently, one of us would come up with a solution for an issue that the other was having. Thus 'The office in the woods' was an important part of my world growing up.

It was nice having this huge slice of nature overlooking the city but there were strange things going on as well. Once we were near the fire tower exploring a new area and heard some rustling in the bushes to our rear. Turning, the sound of what sounded like a bark came through the trees, then the huge shape of a giant bear greeted us!

Before you could say "git" we ran towards the nearby road. You never saw two teen-aged boys run down a 600 ft hill as fast as we could. In fact, we didn't stop running until we reached "civilization" at the outskirts of the city!

Strange Things Happen In The Woods...

Another time, we happened upon a group of hooded and robed "somethings" chanting and performing some sort of weird ritual in the woods. They wouldn't have noticed us if it were not for an inopportune sneeze from my buddy Robert. A warning from the leader of whatever cult they were part of was enough to send us running downhill again.

But the most memorable incident was when we rounded a bend in the forest and saw a group of people in the distance. As we got closer, I thought I was seeing a lot of flesh, when it hit us that we had walked in on a full-blown group orgy by a band of hippies.

Of course they noticed us right away, preventing any chance of watching the show unseen. What'll really get you is that they invited us to join them! Looking at each other to figure out what to do, our momentary flights of fancy were rudely interrupted when a woman said "they look young, how old are you boys?" Before I could stop him, Robert said we were 15 and 16, and that as they say was the end of that! lol!

There were many fond memories of that place, and when I was 17, we took one last trip up there. The reason we stopped was that people moving drugs began setting up shop in the area and it was getting too dangerous to continue.

Today those hills are still there, and every once in awhile I get the thought of taking yet another trip up there but don't want to be the sacrificial lamb in the middle of some satanic death's head cult. But the memories of those good times will never go away and I'm glad to have spent my formative years in such a special place. Do you have a special place of your own?