Backstage Pass 1: The Discovery

No, this story is not about groupie plaster casters at a glam rock concert getting the cock and balls in plaster of a rock star they fucked. Nor is it about going backstage at a theatrical performance of a highly sexual play, although elements of such drama are in this story.

It was a simple sign in the woods, “Backstage Pass”. I had cycled to the end of a woodland trail, an old rail bed, and found a gate blocking the trail, presumably erected there by a property owner jealous of his privacy. The gate was flanked by barbed wire fencing that stretched away into the mixed hardwood bush on both sides as far as the eye could see.

However, off to the right of the gate, nailed to a sapling, was the sign: “Backstage Pass”. Intriguing. Mysterious. Beside the sapling was a trail: narrow, overgrown, and covered with autumn leaves, but a discernible trail. Was this another way into the private property of the gate owner, a privileged opening into a special world buried deep in the rolling hardwood vales? Was the “pass” like a mountain pass, a gap in the ridges of land covered with forest that ran away from the bike trail on both sides, a pass that led to something magical?

It was too much for my curious nature. I mounted my bike and set off on the trail through the woods. For a way, it ran parallel to the barbed wire fence along the valley. But the land began to rise, and I was forced off the bike and into a steep walk up the winding path, slipping on the wet leaves, around trees and through gaps and over rocks covered with moss.

A tortuous descent to the valley floor led me back to the fence again, and there on the other side was a clutch of little buildings. Two cabins of rough planks, one larger than the other, faced each other at angles across a flat open space. Behind the buildings were two outhouses, also of rough planks. Set in the hill behind the buildings were broad wooden planks that served as seats. It was a little theatre in the woods.

Intrigued, I leaned my bike against a tree and took photos of the buildings beyond the fence with my cell phone.