1. I hadn’t been back to Pittsburgh in over a year, but the frost-covered hills felt familiar and welcoming.
2. As did the trails through the forest, even though I had never run through this reserve.
3. I had spent a lot of time on similar trails as a kid with my cross-country team. The only difference was that I was now more inclined to stop and admire the moss.
4. Well, that and forty years, give or take.
5. I had changed a lot more than the landscape.
6. Even the sun was trembling on what was an unusually cold day.
7. I remembered hearing stories about Chartiers Creek flooding, not here but on the bridge on the way to Route 79. According to Wikipedia, “the creek was named after Peter Chartier, a trapper of French and Native American parentage who established a trading post at the mouth of the creek in 1743.”
8. Growing up, it never occurred to me to ask how and why places were named. These names just “were.”
9. Now that I’m better acquainted with history, I’m not sure I want to know.
10. Sometimes it’s better to forget about names, at least for a few minutes.
11. And without any thought at all run the trails that have existed long before any of us walked the earth.
