Happy Trails
Reflections by Brother Luke
It is sometimes hard for me to believe as I think back that Roy Rogers and Dale Evans lived around the corner from us in Los Angeles when I was a kid growing up. My sister was in the same grade as their kids; I was two years behind. Those of you who were also kids at that time may remember the ending line of their TV show theme song: “Happy Trails to you until we meet again.”
When I take my dogs out onto our trails in the woods, they are truly Happy Trails for them. They have great fun running around, and these days I have to struggle a bit more to keep pace with them. But I’ve always enjoyed hiking our trails ever since I was first introduced to them back in 1980s during a retreat visit. In those days Brother Stavros put in many hours of work on the trails, grooming them and putting blazes on trees along the trails to help visitors enjoy their hikes. I remember one year a family was out on the trails and got to a spot where they could not see any additional trail blazes and ended up feeling lost. In despair they called us on their cell phone, and by a miracle they actually got through to us. As many of you who have visited us know, cell phone reception is largely non-existent up on our mountain. So we were startled, but happy that they got through to us. They tried to describe where they were, but it was not easy to figure out their location from their description. I started out at one end of the trails only to discover they were at the extreme opposite end! But all turned out well in the end. They made it back safe and sound and then enjoyed dinner—a bit late! But as a result, Brother Stavros revised part of the trail and eliminated the “spur” that had caused the confusion.
As the years passed by, keeping up with grooming the trails was tougher to do, so some of the trails were closed. However, over the past 5 years I have taken up the task—really for me the joy—of working on the trails. Whenever possible, I spread out used wood chips from the puppy kennel over the trails to help identify the routes, and new directional arrows have been added. The trails have color-coded sections. Red is the main circumference of the trails. An additional yellow trail bisects the red trail in the center. For several years this trail was abandoned, but it has now been re-opened. We have since added to that yellow trail a second parallel route over one portion so hikers can take an upper or lower version of that trail. Long ago the color scheme was identified as red (for Russia) and yellow-blue (for Ukraine). Some of the most difficult portions of the old trails have been withdrawn, but others have been kept and marked with orange arrows to indicate routes that are a bit more challenging.
Over the past couple of years I have worked to add an additional blue trail that runs down to our creek. For many years I enjoyed hiking down there—sort of bushwhacking on my own—but then I decided to create a legitimate marked trail to make it easier for me and to open it up for visitors. When I was younger and more foolish I would go up to the highest spot on the trails—the now abandoned spur—and simply go over the side of the hill and make my way down to the creek at the bottom, cross the creek, and go up to the road. My eyes take a different view of that route today! The new blue trail regularizes what was for a long time only attempted by the most intrepid trail hikers. Long ago, one of the brothers had created a trail down to the creek and then up to the road near Emmaus House. As I was creating the new trail, I happened to discover one of the old trail blazes still attached to a tree. I left it there, and it is now part of the new trail.
In a recent posting on our Facebook was a short video of my dogs running along the newly marked blue trail as I was putting up the blue arrow blazes. As usual, they were having great fun on their happy trail. On your next visit here, maybe you will want to give the trails a try, too! Below is a schematic of the various trails to give you some idea of how they are laid out.
It is sometimes hard for me to believe as I think back that Roy Rogers and Dale Evans lived around the corner from us in Los Angeles when I was a kid growing up. My sister was in the same grade as their kids; I was two years behind. Those of you who were also kids at that time may remember the ending line of their TV show theme song: “Happy Trails to you until we meet again.”
When I take my dogs out onto our trails in the woods, they are truly Happy Trails for them. They have great fun running around, and these days I have to struggle a bit more to keep pace with them. But I’ve always enjoyed hiking our trails ever since I was first introduced to them back in 1980s during a retreat visit. In those days Brother Stavros put in many hours of work on the trails, grooming them and putting blazes on trees along the trails to help visitors enjoy their hikes. I remember one year a family was out on the trails and got to a spot where they could not see any additional trail blazes and ended up feeling lost. In despair they called us on their cell phone, and by a miracle they actually got through to us. As many of you who have visited us know, cell phone reception is largely non-existent up on our mountain. So we were startled, but happy that they got through to us. They tried to describe where they were, but it was not easy to figure out their location from their description. I started out at one end of the trails only to discover they were at the extreme opposite end! But all turned out well in the end. They made it back safe and sound and then enjoyed dinner—a bit late! But as a result, Brother Stavros revised part of the trail and eliminated the “spur” that had caused the confusion.
As the years passed by, keeping up with grooming the trails was tougher to do, so some of the trails were closed. However, over the past 5 years I have taken up the task—really for me the joy—of working on the trails. Whenever possible, I spread out used wood chips from the puppy kennel over the trails to help identify the routes, and new directional arrows have been added. The trails have color-coded sections. Red is the main circumference of the trails. An additional yellow trail bisects the red trail in the center. For several years this trail was abandoned, but it has now been re-opened. We have since added to that yellow trail a second parallel route over one portion so hikers can take an upper or lower version of that trail. Long ago the color scheme was identified as red (for Russia) and yellow-blue (for Ukraine). Some of the most difficult portions of the old trails have been withdrawn, but others have been kept and marked with orange arrows to indicate routes that are a bit more challenging.
Over the past couple of years I have worked to add an additional blue trail that runs down to our creek. For many years I enjoyed hiking down there—sort of bushwhacking on my own—but then I decided to create a legitimate marked trail to make it easier for me and to open it up for visitors. When I was younger and more foolish I would go up to the highest spot on the trails—the now abandoned spur—and simply go over the side of the hill and make my way down to the creek at the bottom, cross the creek, and go up to the road. My eyes take a different view of that route today! The new blue trail regularizes what was for a long time only attempted by the most intrepid trail hikers. Long ago, one of the brothers had created a trail down to the creek and then up to the road near Emmaus House. As I was creating the new trail, I happened to discover one of the old trail blazes still attached to a tree. I left it there, and it is now part of the new trail.
In a recent posting on our Facebook was a short video of my dogs running along the newly marked blue trail as I was putting up the blue arrow blazes. As usual, they were having great fun on their happy trail. On your next visit here, maybe you will want to give the trails a try, too! Below is a schematic of the various trails to give you some idea of how they are laid out.
