Lost in the Woods

We've had Kina for almost a week now, and she's been settling in well.  I think she's getting used to the daily routine, she doesn't seem to mind too terribly being home alone much of the day.  Even Onyx is coming around, although he's still got a ways to go. 

In walking her every morning I've started to explore Nottaway park a little more.  In addition to the several paved/gravel trails that meander through the park, there are a number of narrow dirt pathways that wander off into the wooded areas.  A couple of them are well enough walked that they can be easily followed in and out of the woods.

This morning though I decided to try a path that was just behind our house.  It was definitely a path at first, but as we got further and further into the trees, the path narrowed, became overgrown, and ultimately just kind of disappeared.  By the time I decided that this wasn't going to continue out of the trees, when I turned around I could barely tell what way I had come.  Kina seemed confused too, and managed to wrap her leash around several different trees/vines

Since the forest is really not that big (I don't think you could actually get lost in it) I decided to head towards the closest houses that you could just barely make out through the trees and cut our walk a little short.  On my way though, I came across the foundation of an old, long since gone building.  It had probably been a house.  Everything that was left was concrete.  There was a step up to what would have been the front door, and along the side there were several steps down into the foundation.  A few feet away there was a metal box that looked like it might have been an electrical box once. 

Kina tried to go down the stairs into the foundation, but I pulled her back since I had no idea what might be down there.  She tried to jump straight back up to ground level, but didn't quite make it.  After a short but frantic scampering, she fell back in and half rolled down a stair or two.  Silly puppy.

It was really strange to come across a ruins in what was basically my back yard.  I think that's unusual in most of America, let alone in an urban area less than a half mile from a metro stop.  Usually land or buildings like that are either sold and built over, or declared historic and highly advertised.  I don't have a clue what would have been there, or when.  Nottaway has been a forested area since as long as I can remember.  I would be surprised if the park wasn't there when they built our townhouse complex in the early 80s.  I don't think any roads would have gone in that far, but perhaps there was a driveway of some kind that led up to it.  There was no sign of any wood or other building material aside from the foundation, so whatever it was made of was either hauled off or has had time to rot.

Anyways, I'll have to go back to explore without the dog at some point (and also with long pants so my legs don't get cut up again).  Perhaps with a little investigative work I can solve the mystery.