The Secret Forest

When I was 16, a boy I had a crush on friend of mine took me to this "secret forest." It had no name and no labels proclaiming it was a park of any sort. Besides the fact that I got to spend time with this friend (which was exciting in its own way), it was wonderfully intriguing to me that so much land (or so it seemed) was hidden away at the end of a pretty unremarkable road only for the privileged few to discover. He led me over a small bridge that went over a creek and explained to me that there used to be houses back here but they were knocked down. If we looked hard enough we'd be able to find the remnants of them. Traces of humanity in "natural" places have always fascinated me and still still do to this day. I was giddy at the thought of stumbling onto whatever might be left behind-- a foundation, rusting cars, whatever...though we never did really look.

Instead, he took me to look at a really cool area that was set up for paintball with old sheets of plywood and scavenged materials leaning against trees as impromptu shelters. Quite romantic, I know.

Over the years since that fateful day, I found myself returning to this place. Like Wood Dale, it has been another place where memories were made. Not too long after I got my driver's permit I decided it was a great idea to go off-roading on the trail here (which is definitely illegal, incidentally.) I ended up getting caught on log-- it was kind of a fiasco. There was also a brief period of time shortly after I got my license where I would sneak out after midnight (though realistically my parents probably knew) and have clandestine meetings in these woods with a guy friend of mine. We'd bullshit under the moonlight while sitting on the hood of either one of our cars. Another time a few girl friends and I decided to hang out in the woods and, uh, do stuff rebellious teenagers do, thinking there was no way no one would ever stumble across us. I mean, this place was unknown, obviously.
I think you get the picture.

So, here I was over my last winter break ever and I was on a roll taking the family dogs out for walks to parks. I decided to stop by this "Secret Forest," for old time's sake.

I'd say the dogs enjoyed it as much as I did. Overall, it didn't seem that much had changed since I had been there last except for the new (to me) installation of a some lame memorial sign that was made out of wood and pavers at the entrance.
In writing up this post I figured I needed to finally do a little bit of research on this place (read: looking on google maps). It turns out I was right in thinking the woods really are un-named, however, it seems to be part of Pascack Valley High School's property. In fact, it butts up right against the school. Really, it seems my "secret forest" was never a secret at all. Womp womp.