My Last Winter Walk

Bull Run Park and Ride to Saxonburg, March 15

It’s my last walk of winter and it makes no sense that it’s about 65°. A lot of places have this false spring. While it’s unnerving, I decide to make the best of it. Ed’s coming with me and we’re going to tackle Burtner Hill.

We park at Bull Run an almost immediately six turkey vultures begin circling us ominously. I march along confidently so that I don’t look like carrion.

I’ve been excited to bring Ed on this part of the trail. Ed decides that when we climb any hill today, he’s gonna get to the top and then demand “you call that a hill?”

We climb the little hill at the start.

“You call that a hill?” Ed exclaims.

The early part of the trail is a literal morass. It’s just yards and yards of gooey mud and we’re trying to make it through without our shoes sinking up to our ankles. I’d take creek crossings over this mud.

The traffic noise is really loud and it’s still a very windy day making it hard to hear or see birds. A few days ago we had a very serious windstorm that knocked out power in our region - at least for us - overnight. I know people who lost power for days. There are tons of trees down on the trail, and large branches, and lots of twigs.

Since it’s so bird-quiet, Ed and I talk about random things while we walk, like saunder and color theory and Traitors UK. Then I present my potentially controversial opinion: Winter is the best time to walk this trail.

Ed is unconvinced.

My evidence:

1. When it’s not snow covered, the ground is frozen and less slippery and gooey with mud.

2. When it is snow covered, it’s quite easy to walk in snow. Snow smooths out a lot of the bumpy, tricky surfaces of the trail.

3. Creeks are generally easy to cross unless it’s immediately after a big snow melt or rain.

4. There’s very little overgrowth blocking the trail in winter.

5. The temperature can be cold, but it’s generally pretty pleasant to walk in the kind of winter temps that we get.

6. There are still lots of cool birds in winter.

7. There are basically no leaves to hide the birds.

8. Less risk of ticks.

I’ve presented a solid argument, and Ed is convinced.

We emerge from the woods into the little meadow that precedes Burtner Hill. There’s a family of three playing in the creek at the bottom of the meadow and I unintentionally startle the mom. I feel terrible but I know what it’s like.

Ed is suitably impressed with his first look of the big hill. I’m satisfied. I want it to feel like a challenge. We make a deal to go up however each of us feels most comfortable.

“But ask for help if you need it,” he tells me.

“You, too,” I reply.

We start on the first part of the hill. Suddenly, I notice a switchback off to the right. Now it makes sense! I recently read a post about Burtner Hill on the RCT Conservancy FB page. Someone mentioned missing the switchback “around a tree.” This is that switchback! I decide to use it. Ed goes up straight.

We reach the top at about the same time. Then we go down the steep descent, me crab-walking and Ed carefully walking. Then we go UP again. I use the switchbacks and he goes up the sliding shale.

We arrive at the top again, almost at the same time.

It’s always a huge accomplishment to summit this hill, and it feels amazing.

“You call that a hill?” Ed says with a smile.

We continue walking and Ed explains hill climbing algorithm. I’m completely simplifying this, but from what I understand, this algorithm is looking to solve a problem and tries to find the best solution. Ed explained it as a “simple way to handle complex problems.”

In that moment on the trail, after climbing a serious hill, it made me wonder: is that what I’m doing with this project? Am I using the trail as a simple way to handle complex problems?

My life is good and safe, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have obstacles and problems. My chosen profession is facing unprecedented challenges. Friends and neighbors worry about ICE. Gun violence is always present. People in my community are food insecure. Loved ones and people I care about are suffering unimaginable loss.

Climbing this trail won’t solve any of it.

But perhaps it gives me courage and strength to try and help. Who knows.

We continue on and arrive at a flat hilltop section of the trail that’s full of giant puddles. We enjoy our surroundings, noticing the trail blazes reflecting in the water, small leaves sailing across the ponds.

In the distant, the growl of ATVs and a motorbike break the quiet. They scream across the trail in front of us. One ATV driver decides to drive straight into the huge puddles, sending waves of water crashing over the trail.

Ed comments how that will erode the trail even more.

We walk on, hoping they will fade. We spot litter in the forest, beer cans and bottles and chips bags. It’s such a remote part of the trail, it’s likely from the people driving their ATVs up here.

They return and roar past us again, then turn right down a hill. We turn left and come to a flat grassy area littered with shotgun shells and shattered skeet shooting targets. It’s so unsettling.

Ed’s quiet, and I know he’s worried, thinking of me walking here on my own some time in the future. I can’t say I’m not worried. But I imagine more and more people will be on the trail in the spring and I wonder if I will be on my own.

We pass under the tall radio towers. Even though it’s Sunday, people are working to repair wind damage. Ed and I continue down the long gravel slope to the end of the walk. Overall, most of the walk has been strangely, sadly lacking of any bird activity. We have 10 species and 35 individuals. It feels like an anticlimactic ending to a beautiful season of Birding the Rachel Carson Trail. I spot this early flowers right before we get to the car and decide this will be the memory I carry with me of my last winter walk.

RCT - To Saxonburg, Allegheny, Pennsylvania, US
Mar 15, 2026 1:50 PM - 4:29 PM
Protocol: Traveling
5.779 kilometer(s)
10 species

Turkey Vulture 11
Red-bellied Woodpecker 2
Blue Jay 2
American Crow 2
Black-capped Chickadee 4
Tufted Titmouse 3
Brown Creeper 1
American Robin 4
White-throated Sparrow 3
Northern Cardinal 3

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S309600176