An Old Forest

In Overton Park there is a forest that is so old it is known as The Old Forest. My friends and I always take walks around the perimeter of the forest sticking to the paved trails mostly because, through the strength of gossip and rumor, the forest is known for unsavory activities.

There is also something about a true forest, a place where the ground is covered in twigs and moss and fallen trunks and branches and sprouting mushrooms and decaying animal bones, and where you can only see the sky through small patches between the tall trees and canopies of grape vines and ivy, that kind of activates the imagination.

The rumors are not unwarranted. I have been on walks and come across a few professionals wearing spike heels on their way in to "hike" the forest. There have been a few times I've had to scoot out of the park because of cop cars and BMX bandits. But like many complex things, I always knew the forest couldn't be all bad, an organic thing is not just one static thing after all.

I've been rather intrigued by it ever since one of the rumors led me to believe it was the biggest or oldest or most magnificent or maybe most original or greenest Old Growth Forest this side of the Mississippi. I just hadn't been brave enough to enter the forest alone. Until I found out that a nice local group gives bi-monthly forest trail talks and I went on one a few weeks ago.

The innards of the forest did not disappoint - I can confirm that there is indeed a mystical fern gully fairy land right in the middle of Midtown Memphis. The whole thing is ruled by this six-foot rat snake:

I may still be a bit weary of skipping in there alone without some kind of saber or chainmail, but I really really have a new appreciation for the Old Forest. It is beautiful.