Billy Goat Trail

Left with a pile of sizeable boulders from an extinct retaining wall on one of our sites, I was faced with the challenge of how-to re-purpose the stone. They had been pushed down a hill and sat where they landed, looking forlorn and forgotten. It could not be their forever home. 

I grew up in Maryland outside of our nation’s capital and spent endless hours outside as a kid. One of my favorite things to do was to go hiking. And if the trail happened to traverse a bit of rockery, all the better! I remember a trail called ‘The Billy Goat Trail’ we frequented often near Great Falls in Potomac, Maryland. It was experiences such as these that inspired a new purpose for my pile of rocks.

What if we created a scramble up the hill with the boulders? They were perfect for such an application! The idea stuck and was met with enthusiasm by our client, so on a sunny day this May, I had the fun of stepping back in time and feeling like a kid again. I painted out the general path of the scramble. Then picked which stone went where, guiding the guy on the machine so the stones varied in heights as they climbed up the hill. I scaled the scramble myself throughout the process, up and down, up and down.

I left the job site feeling energized, creative and confident. And it occurred to me. This is what time out in nature does for us. This is what natural play does for our kids and did for me when I was a little girl. So as the weather turns and it’s harder to find excuses to not go outside, get outside. Play more! Maybe it is actually what’s outside that counts.