Every place has it's hidden treasure. Whether it's a special park, a look out, a museum or a fleeting thing like northern lights, those who live there value the spaces and places and wonder why everyone else doesn't know about them. Well, I found one today. I've driven by the old wooden sign on the Rattenbury Road in central PEI that says, "Devil's Punchbowl" lots of times and never bothered to drive in. I'm so glad I didn't drive by yet again today.
I aimlessly headed down one of the many trails and was greeted with that ever-unique scent of a forest allowed to be itself without intervention. You know that freshness, but dankness that fills you up and makes you take deeper, slower breaths. And it wasn't just my sense of smell that was piqued; my eyes filled up on the greenness of the lush mosses, the texture of yellow birch's bark; my ears were alive with the sounds of song birds and trickling brooks; my fingers tickled by the prickly spruce needles, the damp softness of moss. I even chewed on a fir needle at one point, letting myself dream of Christmas for a second.
As I was quietly taking it all in, I began to wonder if I could reap some bounty from this precious place; fiddleheads. But alas, either I was too early, too late or didn't know what I was looking for. I found a few varieties of fern that I know were NOT the ostrich fern (the yummy ones), but like searching for mayflowers with my dad, maybe I "couldn't see for looking".
This is just a taste of what the Devil's Punchbowl has to offer in this too-fast, fossil fuel based world. More pictures and history to follow.
My husband and I just discovered the Punchbowl on Saturday. I had been there as a child but did not recall it as the wondrous place it seemed when we stopped by. The only people we encountered tehre were park staff and that was when we were leaving. It was easy to look around and imagine what the Island looked like when the first settlers arrived. You've described it perfectly and I found myself torn between wanting to tell everyone I know about it and wanting to keep it to myself.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know the history of the devils punchbowl?
ReplyDeleteI was just there yesterday. My friends father has lived in the area his whole life as did his father before him and he explained the history: Back in the early 1800's there was a lot of run running in the area. Late one evening one man was carrying several barrels of moonshine by horse drawn wagon. As he reached the section of the road right beside the punchbowl, one of the barrels came loose and rolled down it. When he looked down into the punchbowl, he saw an image of the devil, and it was from there on called "The Devil's Punchbowl"
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