I’ve been taking an evening class at Eagle Creek this fall and that has helped me build connection with this place I go to explore. I’m often only thinking about “my” connection to a place: what I notice, how I feel about it, what memories I have. Through the class I’m interacting with others who have spent as much (or more) time as I have in the park. There are moments where we nod and smile in agreement over something we’ve all experienced. But there are other times when I discover new things I might never have known if I didn’t talk to another person to find out. Tapping into their experiences and knowledge strengthen my personal connection to Eagle Creek and at the same time foster a community connection to a place.

For instance, one evening I learned that a certain area of the shoreline is known as “Fisherman’s Cove”. I had no idea, even though I have gone to that area dozens of times. I don’t see that name on Google maps. I wonder if that’s its official name, or the name the park employees use? One thing I need to do is find a few maps. I’ve used one once inside the park, mostly I explore without the use of maps. A map would help me make sure I’m getting to all the possible areas I can explore. Meantime I keep a mental map in my head of all the trails and where they lead. Setting this down on paper would be a great exercise.

One of the most helpful pieces of information I’ve gleaned is what the foraging rules are for the park and surrounding area. This has been something of great confusion to me. I had the idea that mushrooms were safe to harvest but what about ramps (wild leeks)? Turns out I may harvest mushrooms from the park and the nature preserve but it is only legal to forage things like ramps in the park; the preserve is just that — a “preserve” where one doesn’t forage (except for mushrooms, which are permitted).

One evening as part of our class we headed outside and followed our speaker around some bushes and into a grown-over lane. The place felt familiar. The trees hung heavy over the lane all the way down to the water creating a picturesque arch. Aha. This was the place my husband and I had come two dozen years ago for our engagement photos. The photographer had whisked us into his car and said he knew a place at Eagle Creek. I knew Eagle Creek was a park, but in my mind it lay far away on the edge of the city outside my normal area of travel. It was this lane where we had ended up that day. It’s more overgrown now, but it’s the same place. I would never have imagined all those years ago that I would end up spending so much time in this now beloved place. I imagine Thoreau never imagined he might be living in the woods of Walden Pond when he went there for a picnic as a child with his grandparents. Sometimes an early, isolated experience becomes a far-off premonition of a later, deeper connection.

There’s only one week left in my class. I’ve got to think of all the questions I still want to have answered. And I think I need to find a way to stay active in the community of the park, connected to others who are also making it a priority to spend time in this particular area of nature.

On my to-do list right now: find various maps of Eagle Creek (old and new); check out two different kayak spots I’ve learned about from other class members; participate in the Owl Fest coming up in October