The Big Ditch

One more wonderful thing about this fall is that the kids have finally had cool enough weather to go exploring through the woods surrounding our property. There is so much poison ivy around that they really need to have long sleeves and long pants to traverse through much of the wooded areas.

During their exploring, they've discovered and named the "Big Ditch":



It is easily deep enough for a 9 year old to stand in and still be below ground level.

It seems to be an old stream bed feeding into a live creek:

There are all sorts of perils that tempt you at the Big Ditch.

Here Brendan practices the dead log shimmy across the creek:



And here he is climbing almost upside down under the bank and holding onto the roots of the tree by his head:



And if all of that didn't make my heart stop, this site stopped me dead in my tracks:




While walking up Big Ditch, you climb around this huge dirt mound and realize that there is a hole on top. A big hole (as in my children could easily put their heads in it). Right at my eye level. All I could imagine was some whirling dervish of fur coming out at my face. I double-timed it up the rest of the gully.

I think I'll leave this exploring stuff to people more brave than myself - like my kids!