Jennings hosts ‘inspirational’ hike for New Year
BRADY TWP — As the county settles into the New Year, Jennings Environmental Education Center is hoping visitors will find inspirational lessons at the nature reserve with a new self-guided hike.
Beginning Saturday, pamphlets titled “New Year, New Views Self-Guided Walkabout” became available in the park.
“From the change of the season to the flow of the water to the restful sleep of a dormant prairie, we can learn about hope, letting go, and slowing down,” the pamphlet reads.
The self-guided hike features 10 numbered sites throughout the reserve’s massive trail network, with markers referring hikers to reflective texts in the pamphlet on which to meditate and glean inspiration.
Hikers are invited to visit as many sites as they wish and in whatever order they choose, with suggestions for flatter, less strenuous routes listed in the pamphlet.
“To walk the entire route in order would be 2.5 to 3 miles,” it reads.
Each marker’s corresponding text provides historic details for the site, reflecting on ruined coal mines, mills and the iconic prairie as lessons in the new year.
The first marker, an abandoned mine drainage passive treatment system, reminds visitors that “problems can be fixed.”
“Where you’re standing is a perfect example of that,” it reads, “Eighty years ago, the hillside across Route 8 would have looked very different. It was the site of the Brydon coal mine.”
After the mine was abandoned in the 1940s, the pamphlet explains, its drainage began to pollute Big Run Creek. With Jennings’ dedication as a state park in 1980, the reserve was able to implement a passive treatment system for drainage at the marker.
“The polluted water now leaves Jennings better than it was before,” the pamphlet reads. “We hope that you also find your new year better than the one before.”
Other reflective sites include the weatherworn remains of a saw mill built by John Brown, the owner of the Old Stone House, in 1821.
“What was once formidable can slowly, over time, be changed and transformed,” the site’s text reads.
Brown’s mill was abandoned in left in ruins in 1846, and after 177 years its cut stone is all that remains — with nature reclaiming it.
“Some change may look negative on the surface but can transform us in positive ways into something else,” the site’s text reads. “We can learn from our history, hang on to our wisdom, and allow the time for new life to blossom in the ruins.”
Not far from the mill is marker No. 5, placed at the site of the Black Cherry Bridge and the “Wedding Rock.”
As cool, slow water moved beneath the bridge Saturday, its text reminded visitors to let less happy memories flow away with the current.
“The water under the bridge is always moving, never stopping even for a moment,” its text read. “It will one day flow into the Gulf of Mexico, this location just a distant memory.”
Meanwhile, the mossy rock face called the “Wedding Rock” — named for the many engagements that have taken place at the site — asked visitors to hold on to happy memories.
“The enduring presence of the rock is in contrast to the water flowing around it,” the pamphlet reads. “As we remember the beautiful events that have come to pass, let painful memories go like water under the bridge.”
With seven other sites to explore, the self-guided tour’s pamphlets will be available at the center until Jan. 9. Visitors are encouraged to share lessons and pictures of the their reflections at bit.ly/NewYearNewViews.
“Begin and end where you like,” the pamphlet read. “Choose your own adventure, starting today.”
