“Reaching”

A trip to Mantua, Ohio today (Saturday, Jan. 29th) almost went unrewarded in search of the “Tummonds Bog”, a natural wetland and nature preserve, managed by the Ohio DNR and virtually impossible to find. After an hour wrestling with Siri and the directions of Mapquest, then another making concentric circles looking for the trailhead, I resolved to try another day.

In a serendipitous twist, driving north on Rt. 44 from Mantua, I spotted this old maple in the distance on what appeared to be a 19th century farm. Silhouetted and standing alone against a gray sky, appearing to reach into the abyss, it likely marked several generations that had spared the tree from the time the land was first cleared.