It being the long weekend I wanted to get away for a bit . After eating breakfast I hiked down the Cambridge to Paris rail trail . I usually have biked it in the past but I no longer have a bike but I wanted to get back there as I hadn't been there since earlier last summer. A friend and I used to make the trek every Saturday or Sunday when we got the chance . I pulled on my backpack and placed a few bottles of water and a few granola bars in it . I headed on my way past Downtown and up North on Water Street until I came to the GTO gas bar. I stepped onto the trail and headed on my way . There were alot of people out walking or biking. I walked to the Glenmorris Bridge and left the trail . There was a spot down there I would always go to. I found my clearing and sat down on the rock that jutted into the shoreline and set my feet in ;shoes and all. I happened to look out across the water and seen a lure stuck between two rocks that was so familiar. Last summer I had came here with my friend to try my hand at fishing as I have never been much of a fisherman . My friend handed me his rod and reel and said "Ok cast off " PLUNK ! Not more than 20 feet out the lure landed between the rocks . It was his new lure and he wouldn't lose it the first day . He hiked up his pants to his knees and ventured out into the water shouting a few expletives as he went. SPLASH . I couldn't help but laugh as he stepped on an algae covered rock and fell into the water . Up he went and tried again . I don 't think he got more than three feet before he fell again . " F$#% IT ! " and he trudged back to shore. I was doubled over busting a gut laughing . He just looke at me and said "What the hell is so funny ? " but then he too lost it . The lure that caused the laughter was still there jammed between two rocks . I smiled and then laughed as I got the visual in my head and then wept .
I sat up and headed on back down the trail walking until I got to the Old German Mill tucked in on the west side of the trail . It is just stone walls that remain . I don't even know the history of the place . I used to stop here on my weekly journey and sit against one of the walls and write while my friend would skip rocks across the river . We made a few night trips here and had a small fire along the shore . We weren't the only ones that had a fire burning. I think it was set far enough off the trail no one ever worried about being caught . We would snap off old fungus from the dead trees and and throw them in the fire. They would burn for hours . I walked on down a path heading towards Cambridge and seen the old porcelain toilet someone had dumped in the bush . We had so many photo opportunities here . We would pose like we were actually using it. Oh the joys of immaturity !
I put my journal in my backpack and headed on my way . On the left hand side of the trail is a deep crevace which one time we looked down and seen a deer that must have been hit by a car from Highway 24 . The highway runs parallel to the trail at this point. Just to the right of that and north a bit ;down a steep embankment is a ; what I call a little oasis . There is a small pond covered in algae with fallen trees lying across it. Those trees made a fine bench after walking for a distance. I cautiously walked across the fallen log as I recall what happened last time . I had walked maybe 15 feet out and lost my footing and splashed into the murky and very bad smelling water. The bottom of the pond was all mud . With the help of my friend he pulled me up ; but without my shoes. As he made the final pull I could feel the suction of the mud pull the shoes off of my feet . I was covered in algae and I smelled almost like skunk. After I was done being pissed off we had to laugh about . Today I just sat on that log ;everso still and wrote . I wasn't taking any chances of falling in and getting stuck in the mud . I finished writing and got up to leave ;reaching for a tree branch to stabilize my footing . On the branch were my initials JL and my friends initials carved into it with the date 2004. I put my hand in my knapsack and pulled out my pocket knife. JL 2009 I wrote . I went there today on my own yet I came back realizing that even when people leave our lives ; they are still a part of ourr memories and heart. Today was a good day .
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