This is only the fourth entry into my Forest Park journal in 2006. However, I’ve been walking, and walking and walking. Today is the 209th day of 2006 and I have taken my exercise 158 of those days, mostly by walking (140 of them). I used to mainly bike, but I came to realize the walking was just better exercise.
I walk 4 miles a day. Even when I use 5 biked miles = 1 walked mile, the walking is tougher exercise, takes more out of me.
This does mean I don’t cover as much ground as on my bike, but well over 100 of those 158 days I gave spent considerable time in Forest Park, especially the area of Kennedy Forest.
However, I haven’t seen too many “new” things, so I haven’t been writing much about it. Today I not only saw another turkey – the fourth one in about 10 days – but I came upon it in an odd spot. Those of you who remember where St. James used to have it’s annual picnic in Forest Park (just slightly west of the zoo, on the south side of that street) may remember the totem pole that stood across that street at the edge of Kennedy Forest. There now is a paved bike/walking trail through that area and at one point it makes a rather sharp left turn (toward the west) and runs right along side of the street that would go down to the back side of the zoo.
Right at that spot, as I came around that turn, just as dawn was coming and it was still quite dark, I surprised a turkey hen in the grass next to the street. The strip of grass was only about 5 foot wide, the woods were on my left and I was between the woods and the turkey. It started to dash across the trail into the woods. Last year a larger turkey was caught in the same spot, and I was on my bike. It must have heard me on the bike and dashed into the woods coming within inches of crashing into my bike. Today, however, the turkey just had not heard me coming and was caught out there. It first ran alongside me, also going west, but saw that I was just even with it, so it turned and started back to the east and I kept going. But as I did that the turkey seemed to cease being frightened, and just stood there and watched me until I crossed the street and disappeared down the hill.
I have seen at least four turkeys in just the past 10 days. All have been hens, all in different places fairly separated leading me to think there are different birds.
The hill I disappeared down is again a 3 foot wide bike trail, but it runs though the thickest part of Kennedy Forest and is where, when I was a kid, there was a street we called Lover’s Lane. It ran from behind the Art Museum to the street that runs behind the zoo. Now it is all over grown and really a neat area.
I’ve seen turkey in this area often, and when Shawn Clubb and I walked there in April of this year he pointed out two snakes to me. But today I came across a possum. Certainly possums are not unusual creatures. I have a family which lives in my backyard and eats cat food I leave on my front porch for the local feral cats. However, since possum are primarily nocturnal creatures and I’m not out in the park at night, I had NEVER seen a single LIVE possum walking free in the park. Dead ones, yes. In the streets all the time. And in 2004 I had come across two young maintenance men at the planetarium, worried about a trash can. I was on my bike, stopped and checked it out and a small possum had gotten itself trapped in the trash can. I let it out and the two guys stood about ½ blocks away, terrified of the little possum.
The one I saw today really surprised me. It was just getting light, and since I had come down into the low part of this trail in the thick forest, it was still rather dark. And the possum looked WHITE. I thought it might even be an albino. It ducked off the trail into the forest, but right where there was a dirt foot trail a few inches wide, so I followed it and it didn’t seem unduly frightened of me and it had to know I was only 8-10 feet behind it. I followed it a bit until it stopped to look back toward me and I just stood very still. It was whitish grey, so I guess it is just its normal color.
After we eyed each other a bit it just turned and walked off into the thick brush and I returned to the trail.
This particular walk, one of my favorites, has me in Forest Park only 1 ½ miles of my four. I walk from home, to the park, across the Tamm Ave. bridge, then for 1 ½ miles I walk in Kennedy Forest, coming out on Skinker Blvd. right at Northwood Ave. I take that west to DeMun (where Kaldi’s coffee house is, but it is never open at the early hours I walk) and then go left (south) on DeMun to St. Mary’s Hospital, then back east to my home. Lovely walk and EXACTLY four miles from my front porch to my front porch on return.
Normally I leave here before 5:30 AM. Today I didn’t leave until 5:50 AM, and I’m am almost always back home exactly 1 hour 20 minutes latere. I seem to walk almost exactly 3 miles an hour, or 20 minutes a mile and have for ages. Not so fast, but steady.
I almost never use an alarm clock and certainly not unless there is a compelling reason. I tend to wake up close to 5 AM to 5:15 AM most mornings and it only takes me a few minutes to get on my walking clothes and head out the door. I love getting my walking in during the cool of the summer mornings and be home before 7 AM most days, having finished up exercise. In winter it is too cold to walk at that hour, and darker as well. But I like walking in the park when it is dark, and on the rare mornings when I wake up even earlier, I like to do much of the walk in the park in the pitch black. It’s kind of fun.
Bob Corbett
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