A Walk in the (Spiritual) Woods

(The AT meets the Virgin Mary)

(Part 1)

The shrine at the top of a rock outcropping was the last thing I expected to find along the Appalachian Trail. Like most man-made structures exposed to the elements, it had a weathered look. The few small benches with peeling paint sat next to some old plastic chairs, the covered message board contained faded schedules and fliers, printed in Spanish. There was an ornate statue of the Virgin Mary on a stacked rock altar, encased in a glass-fronted cabinet, her clothing slightly faded from the light that filtered through the trees growing on the top of the outcropping. Some perennials had been planted in small beds formed out of landscape timbers, and there were faded plastic flowers in colorful vases. The overall atmosphere was that of a small chapel where the builders forgot to add the walls and the roof...

A number of years ago I read A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson, a laugh-out-loud account of his experience hiking the 2,168 mile Appalachian Trail. I became fascinated by all things AT, reading all I could about the trail. I read accounts of other hikers – thru hikers, day hikers, their motivations for their hikes - and quirky facts about the trail itself. I thought I knew about most of its hidden gems. Since the trail passes through New York State near where my husband grew up, every year, when we go back east to visit family, we go out for a few hours to hike a section of the trail. (We are “short” day hikers...) We park at the monastery of the Franciscan Friars of Graymoor, in Garrison, and pick up the trail on the edge of their property. We then head into the woods, looking for the iconic white painted blazes on the trees that mark the AT. (The Franciscan Friars have had a long relationship with the Appalachian Trail. Since 1972, they have provided a sleeping shelter, showers and, in the early years, meals for AT hikers passing through that section of the trail. There was a period of time when hikers were housed in the monastery itself, earning it the reputation as “The Hilton of the AT” in hikers' guidebooks.)

We first found the shrine several years ago, a little over a mile along the trail from the Franciscan property. The trail through this area is treed and rocky, rolling but not steep. There are old stone walls and high rock outcroppings on both sides of the trail. It was only by chance that the white painted top of the cabinet holding the statue of Mary caught our eye, a flash of white among the fall foliage. We climbed up the moderately steep rocky hill and found the shrine. My husband and I used our combined eight years of high school Spanish to decipher the fliers on the covered message board. It appeared that the hilltop shrine was a gathering place for prayer and devotion to “Virgen Misionera Madre De Los Immigrantes” - the Missionary Virgin Mother of Immigrants. From the look of the schedule, it was a busy place throughout the year, with eucharistic celebrations and prayer gatherings. It was empty and silent that weekday morning we first discovered it, but when we returned the following year for our hike, we found a young Hispanic family, a father and mother with small children, had hiked into the woods to climb the rocky hill. I wondered how many other people knew of the shrine and purposely sought it out, and how many had accidentally stumbled upon it like we had. There were no signs anywhere along the trail to indicate where it was, yet when found, it appeared to be a much visited spot.

Our hike this year on the AT was later in autumn than in past years. Despite the fall leaves being underfoot rather then up in the trees, the rock outcropping and its shrine were hard to spot. (All hills of rock along the AT start to look the same after a while...) The flash of white wood was not visible, but we guessed we had arrived in the vicinity of the shrine, climbed the next outcropping and found an almost bare hilltop with few remains of the shrine. The man-made rock altar was still there, but all traces of the shrine had been removed with the exception of the signage that had been over the statue of Mary. The sign was lying on the ground among some rocks, the only indication of what the hilltop had been.

My husband and I sat up there awhile, trying to recreate in our minds what the shrine had looked like when we last saw it. My husband took some pictures, and we climbed down and continued on our hike. On the walk back I decided to find out as much as I could about the history of that rocky hilltop. There wasn't a lot of information out there in cyberspace regarding the shrine, but I found enough to fashion a brief history of the shrine in the woods.

Tomorrow: On Pilgrimage

In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks. - John Muir