Whether it's for "work" -- this "Hitting the Trails" series -- or just for fun, I prefer to hike alone or with one close companion.

Still, I really looked forward to getting out into the woods with a few strangers and saying, "Good Morning, Todd!"

Bob Donaldson, Post-Gazette A frog spies the hikers from his vantage point in a pond near the Loop Trail. Click photo for larger image. If you go Location and directions: This Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania reserve is near Sarver in southeastern Butler County, about a 40-minute drive north of Downtown. Take Route 28 north to the Butler/Freeport Exit 17. Turn right onto Route 356 north and travel 3.6 miles. Turn right onto Sarver Road and go 3.5 miles (crossing the Butler Freeport Community Trail). Turn right on Kepple Road and go 1.2 miles; on the left is the gravel parking lot (marked by a sign facing the opposite direction). Trails: There are 5 miles of trails of various lengths. Difficulty: The Audubon Society says that for a fit adult walking briskly, no trail takes longer than an hour and most can be walked in 10-20 minutes. The going is easy to moderate, but there are rocky and wet areas, logs to step over and some streams to crossing on rocks. Facilities: There is a portable toilet in summer, but otherwise, there are no restrooms or drinking water. There are some picnic tables near the cabin. Rules: Are posted, including no bikes, dogs, horses or fishing poles (it's a nature preserve). Trails are open dawn to dusk daily but are closed during deer gun hunting season. Maps: Maps and trail descriptions can be found at the parking lot and the Web site below. For more information visit www.aswp.org or call 412-963-6100.

That's the great name of a weekly Wednesday walk through Todd Sanctuary, a most pretty little preserve in southeastern Butler County. The 176 acres -- crisscrossed with paths with names such as Indian Pipe and Polypody (a plant and fern that live here) -- are owned by the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania, which calls the sanctuary its "emerald jewel."

But it doesn't keep it locked away. Rather, the society offers a treasure trove of public programs here, ranging from this coming Wednesday night's "Full Moon Hike" to next Saturday's "old-fashioned pond-dipping expedition."

Such events are great ways for less experienced outdoors people to test the waters and can be refreshing fun for anyone. Besides the name, I liked the spontaneous, just-show-up nature of the 9 a.m. Wednesday walks, which are free for all ages and continue through Aug. 10. The description: "Patrol the sanctuary on an exhilarating morning hike with our 2005 naturalist."

That would be Robin Hok, an Oberlin College senior. I met her earlier this month on her very first morning on the summer job. By the time the walk was to start, she'd already soaked her shoes in dew by covering the entire 2-mile Loop Trail and was ready to go again.

Joining us was Trisha O'Neill, the local Audubon Society's director of education who works at Beechwood Farms. As we chatted on the porch of the rustic creek-side cabin that is naturalist headquarters, they filled me in on some history. From the 1880s, this land was the bird-watching grounds (and grandfather's farm) of noted Carnegie Museum of Natural History ornithologist W.E. Clyde Todd, who donated a chunk to ASWP in 1942.

Hok, who was born in Alaska and raised in Montana, went to college with last year's naturalist, Graham Bier, whose father, Charles, was naturalist here in the mid 1970s. So she already was familiar enough to refer to her workplace simply as "Todd."

Despite all the time she'll be spending here, doing research, maintenance and more, she puts herself on the same footing as all human "guests," saying, "We're invited to come in and walk around and see things, but always with that sense of respect."

She showed that soon after we set out, stopping and stooping to pick up off the trail a daddy longlegs spider.

We stopped a lot.

"That's a hooded warbler," Hok said, pointing to a dark-headed bird munching some kind of breakfast high in the sunshine-dappled tops of trees.

We were, after all, on the Warbler Trail.

The way she mimicked and described its tawee tawee song seemed to be informed by the fact that she's a music and language major at Oberlin. Environmental studies is her minor, but she knows her stuff: As she led the way over the lichen- and moss-covered rocks of the perimeter trails, she pointed out wild geraniums, ground cedar, bed straw and other interesting residents.

Our brisk walk took us through a variety of habitats -- around a man-made pond, past a smaller one called "Grape Sink," down through a hemlock woods along Watson Run. But it mostly was about birds, in part because O'Neill is getting into birding. With her Peterson's field guide in hand, she taught me a few things, including how those whose names sound like their songs -- "pee-wee" and "chick-a-dee" -- are called name-sayers.

They both made me realize how much birding is about hearing as opposed to seeing. And they helped me learn songs I've heard for years, including the flute-like notes of the wood thrush that O'Neill described as "the sound of the forest in summer."

A little over an hour after we started, I didn't want to cross the footbridge over Watson Run, knowing from a past hike here that it leads back to the cabin. It did feel good to emerge into the sunlit clearing from the cool piney woods, which the women agreed smelled so lovely -- as Hok put it, "a very refreshing, fruity, earthy scent."

Good morning, Todd, indeed.