An anniversary stroll
Jeff and Millie celebrate two years with a trip to Eden Mill Nature Center in Harford County
This week marks the second anniversary of our being together, Millie and I. To celebrate, we drove about an hour and a half from our home in Annapolis to take a walk at the Eden Mill Nature Center in Harford County.
I found Millie through a nonprofit organization called Operation Paws for Homes. They rescue animals from high-kill pounds in southern states and put them up for adoption. Millie was not quite 6 months old when I got her. She’s part Labrador retriever and part border collie, an odd combination that in this case produced a creature who’s sweet, smart and remarkably strong.
She’s also pretty. People tell her that all the time, and she accepts the praise graciously, without a hint of vanity. I’m reminded of the lyrics from the Beatles song “Girls” that goes, “When you say she’s looking good/ she acts as if it’s understood, she’s cool.”
Eden Mill is a bit of a drive, but well worth the effort. It’s Harford County’s environmental education center, set in an old grist mill by a dam on Deer
Creek. From this site near Pylesville, a creek meanders down a narrow wooded valley, passes through Rocks State Park and on across the county to meet the Susquehanna River at Susquehanna State Park just below the
Conowingo Dam, about 15 miles east.
A fellow named Elijah Stansbury built the original grist mill there around 200 years ago. While that mill burned down in 1907, Stansbury’s house still stands across the road, a stately Federalist brick building, three stories tall, perched on the side of a hill. The building is remarkably narrow, with second- and third-story balconies on both ends and lightning rods adorning the roof.
The new mill — now more than a century old — went through a number of permutations. It was used as a steam-powered sawmill in the early 1900s, then converted into a hydroelectric power plant for a few short years, then James Smith bought the place in the late 1920s and converted it back into a grist mill.
Smith could grind 50 barrels of cornmeal, buckwheat and animal feed a day. When he died in 1964, the
county purchased the property.
In the early 1990s, a small group of enlightened volunteers formed a nonprofit organization to preserve the site and create Harford County’s first nature center. There’s also a museum dedicated to the history of the mill, a handicapped-accessible canoe launch, gardens, a pavilion, picnic tables and grills. Volunteers offer family programs throughout the year, many of which are aimed at introducing small children to the delights of the natural world. It’s a wonderful venue for just that.
Stansbury named the mill after a local priest, Father Eden, and it’s a particularly apt name, since we found the place downright Edenic. The three miles of marked trails take hikers through the park’s 118 acres, from the wetlands along the banks of the creek up the steep, forested hillsides to high meadows.
We arrived on one chilly, overcast day early last week and explored the trail that follows the creek downstream of the dam. Interpretive sign panels tell a children’s story along the way. We met a lone fisherman and struck up a conversation. He was sitting in a folding chair set in the pond at the base of the dam; the legs of the chair were actually in the water with the seat at the water’s surface.
He was bundled up for the weather and wore waterproof waders, but still he’d had enough of the cold and not enough fish to make it worthwhile. The Department of Natural Resources had recently stocked the creek with rainbow trout, but he caught just one invasive chub. He packed up his gear and headed on to Rocks State Park further downstream to test his luck there.
Millie waited patiently by a huge millstone while I took a quick tour of the nature center. It’s a taxidermic zoo packed with stuffed samples of all the critters you’re liable to find in the area. There’s a small black bear, a beaver, an otter, a fox along with scores of ducks, geese, and other creatures great and small. There is even a coyote. Among all these inert specimens, I was surprised to find a terrarium with live painted turtles basking in the glow of a heat lamp. I think they were still alive, but they weren’t moving much, so it was hard to tell.
Back outside, Millie and I tried the trail that follows the creek above the dam. We inspected a handicapped-accessible canoe and kayak launch and made a mental note to try it out when the weather warms up.
There’s no fee to use the launch and no permit is required. They don’t rent boats, but volunteers lead two-hour canoe tours from July through September and supply canoes and all the ancillary equipment you need.
The creek upstream of the dam is deep and placid, a remarkable contrast to the shallow, rippling water below. Millie and I walked along the boardwalk above the marshy floodplain of the creek. There were signs of beaver here and there — large trees freshly gnawed around the base. Just above the dam, a smaller stream curiously named Big Branch connected with Deer Creek. A steel footbridge crossed that, and the trail led into a grove of cedar trees whose branches formed an inviting arbor-like tunnel over the path.
There we met one of only two other hikers, a local fellow who agreed that it was a nice day despite the chill. He mentioned that he had just seen a beaver swimming in the creek below. Millie and I followed the trail to the water’s edge in high hopes of spotting one ourselves. That stretch of trail that leads along the creek bank is called Beaver Run, but still we did not see any brown, furry heads bobbing in the water.
Still, that part of the walk is perhaps the most charming in the whole park, running between the peaceful creek and a wall of solid rock protruding here and there from the hillside. At the far end, the trail leads up the steep hill along a series of switchback stairs to the top of Laurel Ridge. This section is challenging, but you can always double back the way you came and avoid the climb. All the other trails are considered easy to moderate.
We wound our way back to the car in time to make it home before dark. The drive gave me time to ponder all the wonderful adventures we’ve had over the past two years, Millie and I.
I can’t wait to see where we’ll be exploring this coming year. If you see us out on the trail or at the doggie park at Quiet Waters, please say hello and tell Millie how pretty she is. See how she reacts.
EDEN MILL NATURE CENTER & HISTORIC GRIST MILL MUSEUM
1617 Eden Mill Road Pylesville, Maryland 21132
The park grounds (canoe/kayak launch, trails, picnic areas, etc.) are open daily from dawn to dusk. There are portable toilets on site. There is no admission fee. Polite dogs on leashes are welcome.
The nature center and historic grist mill museum are open: Monday - Friday: 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Saturdays: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays: Closed