The grand hill above the mall

I never knew how reasonable my Marietta College schedule was until I graduated. At the time, I thought that having four afternoon labs per week was akin to a mild form of captivity. About half of the labs were field based, which meant that we would attempt to turn the college's inadequate van into a clown car. The van had an abundance of windows that worked well with the dark interior of the vehicle to produce enough greenhouse effect to allow our collective bodies to slide into position. Few trips were close to campus, so after long rides we would arrive at the study destination and literally ooze out of the van. Yes, those were the days! Upon graduation and becoming a naturalist, I soon came to realize my limitations and found myself longing for those sweaty field trips. If I could just do them again, I would actually try to pay attention this time. (Isn't it interesting that you have to pay for college, and then, when you are there, you have to additionally pay attention?) On those rare college days off, I would think about studying (thinking being the operative word), participating in some sort of pick-up sport or napping. On even rarer occasions, we would wander off to a mall on the West Virginia side of the Ohio River. Grand Central Mall was a bright and modern mall anchored in the expanding city of Vienna, West Virginia. It had every store imaginable, however, being on a college budget, the mall visit would most likely consist of wandering aimlessly in and out of stores. All the while, we would be ignoring our major objective, securing a large Coke! Within the mall, there was a local radio station -- WXIL I believe. Somehow this station thought that separating their on-air personalities from mall visitors with a simple window was a good idea. You can imagine how creatively we drank our Cokes while Uncle Dougger tried to give a weather forecast. A few decades later, my in-laws moved to southeast Ohio's hills and hollers. When we first visited, they took us to the local mall (down there, local means 40 minutes away). Long story short, they didn't know the name of the mall, but I did. Re-visiting Grand Central Mall was nostalgic, but only for the first 30 or 40 times. After that, and with the complete abandonment of the radio station behind the window, it was just not that enticing. And, like college tuition, I usually faced some substantial level of payment. During our latest visit downstate, I was called upon to be the "mall driver." I had to find something to do besides wandering the mall, which often led to involuntarily wondering if another radio station might fit the scene. My cell phone's navigation app highlighted a wildlife area on the hill just above the mall. Could it be that in all of these years of "malling" my literal refuge laid so close? After dropping off my passengers at the mall, I drove up the hill to find out. The McDonough Wildlife Refuge spreads its 291 hilly acres right across the street from the sports-oriented, and ultra-active, Jackson Memorial Park. The juxtaposition of the two fought for my auditory attention. Nonetheless, the visual features of McDonough shifted the scale. The refuge is owned and managed by the City of Vienna's Parks & Recreation Department. While it doesn't have the look of a state or national park, it does have a definite welcoming appearance. The parking area features a restroom, pavilion and a short paved trail. Branching elsewhere are natural trails that wander up and down the park's topography. Most trails are listed as "moderate" on the difficulty scale, but that turned out to be a matter of someone else's opinion. I was challenged by both the steep grades and rough terrain. Still, there was always this feeling that the park was meant to be explored … to be used and to be enjoyed. Besides, my panting drowned out the over-zealous parents at the soccer game across the street. McDonough has more than 4.5 miles of trail to explore. I did about 2.5 miles. Along the way, a 50+ year-old forest showed off its diversity, with oaks, maples and hickories overhead and pawpaw and yellow buckeye below. Gray squirrels were working the place hard. Perhaps they are employed there, and they are paid each fall with an absurd number of acorns. Bald cypress trees were surprisingly common along the park's water areas. Being a bit out of its historic range, it is likely that they were planted before the park was a park. Another added tree was the Norway spruce. A grove south of the parking area probably signifies the location of a former homestead. While one trip to any natural area does not create an effective, or accurate, review, it does remind me that nature can persist just about anywhere we allow it. Vienna once boasted that it was the fastest growing community in all of West Virginia. The number of commercial endeavors surrounding the mall would create a strong argument for this. Still, the fact that a park with the moniker of "wildlife refuge" sits just up the hill from all of the created chaos below is a testament of the enduring power of nature. More importantly, of how it effortlessly provides respite from the same. With so much screaming taking place in the world today, could a natural jewel reside in your neck of the woods? Could it be time for a visit?