BOB CORBETT'S FOREST PARK JOURNALS

New uses of old Forest Park

July 30, 2005
By Bob Corbett

It’s been 12 days since I’ve written about my daily ventures into Forest Park. Despite the silence of my pen, I have been there every day, and thinking about things as I ride and now walk.

There have been some changes for me and the USE I make of the park. I began this journal on July 22, 2003. I had my second “new” knee put in on June 24, 2003, and just a month later, on July 22, I took my first walk in the park. It was then Aug. 8th that I ventured out on my bike and since them, for nearly two years, my dominant exercise has been on the bike.

In 2003 I was doing 10 miles a day. In 2004 I bumped that up to 15 miles, and just recently decided it was time to change again. I was about to move it up to 20 miles, but I’ve been thinking of diversifying.

First of all, I was walking on rainy days and the really cold days of winter. I began to see signs that the walking might well be a bit more strenuous exercise than the biking. When I walk I breath a bit more heavily, in warmer weather I definitely work up a greater sweat walking than biking, and the exercise is more continuous, since the biking alternates between pumping and coasting, although with the definite emphasis on the pumping.

I decided I would offer myself a mix. After calculating that 4 minutes of walking was just about equal to a mile of biking, I settled on this plan: I would either walk for 80 minutes a day, or ride the equivalent on the bike – 20 miles. Given this nice easy way of measuring I could mix and match biking and walking were I to wish.

I like this. I can now ride my bike to a more interesting area for walking, lock up the bike and walk, and between them I end up with some equal measure of the combination of walking 80 minutes or riding 20 miles. It’s been great fun.

My first day of doing that I rode to the Visitor’s Center in Forest Park, locked up the bike there, and then walked along Lindell Blvd. from The History Museum all the way to Euclid, then over to The Bread Company for some time reading my book. The walking took 52 minutes (52 min. divided by 4 minutes equals a bike ride = 13 miles). Then I just finished up my ride so that I rode the bike 7 miles.

That was a marvelous walk. Since I was a child I’ve been up and down Lindell Blvd. hundreds of times, almost always in a car, or riding across the street on the bike trail in the park. But to walk on the sidewalk in front of those houses on Lindell, when there is more time to really check them out – well that was just fascinating. The DEPTH of those properties is amazing. They go a long way back and many have large stone buildings in the back, which were probably stables and servants’ quarters in past times. I want to do that walk again soon, it was so interesting.

Today I did a similar mix-match thing, biking 11 miles and walking for 40 minutes, the equivalent of 10 miles biking, so a day of 21 miles. Not bad. Today I again locked up at the Visitor’s Center and walked the lovely area of the wet lands, all the way to Steinberg Rink and back.

I don’t “speed walk.” Nor do I “stroll.” These are inexact terms, but I would call my walking style a “crisp gait.” No question, however, the walking does seem to exert more energy than the riding except on the toughest of up hills.

I will be able to do this all more easily very soon. A couple days ago I got onto e-bay and won a high quality pedometer and that should arrive in the mail early next week. Then I can “wear” my odometer and be able to get a better measure of my walking, since were I to stop to gape at this or that, which I love to do, the counter won’t be running as my watch does. Similarly with the very exact odometer I have on my bike, it only runs when I’m riding.

The park is simply stunning this year. Lush and green and filled with people. The weekends are the busiest, of course, and most weekends, especially Saturdays there are various charity runs and walks. However, since I was there so early today, arriving at the Visitor’s Center about 6 AM, none of those had begun to form before I was out of the park.

I haven’t had any special “sightings” lately save one. I was coming down the hill about a week ago on my bike, the road that runs between Triple A (on the south) and the baseball diamonds (on the north) – next to the Muny parking lot – and right at the corner the very large red-tailed hawk was just sitting in the grass having breakfast of a squirrel. (The tail was the dead give away.) The hawk was having a rare meal not interrupted by the red-wing black birds, and was just sitting there quietly under the tree with it’s treat.

Over by the river system, in the wet-land, the flowering plants they had trouble with last year are again growing in great abundance and are about 4 foot tall. These grasses seem to house and feed hundreds of red-wing blackbirds, and anytime the hawk hunts that area, which is nearly every morning, it is normally attacked by an unending flock of black birds.

I still haven’t seen the coyote this year, though one of the green’s keepers on the golf course over by Skinker teases me. He says he sees it virtually every morning, often just laying in the wet grass on the cool mornings. The green’s keeper begins his day about 5:30 AM, and I’m often there by 5:45 or 6 AM, but just can catch up with the coyote.

And neither the green’s keeper or I have EVER seen the fox, but more and more people do report it to me, people I meet who walk the area over closer to Skinker, just down a bit from Hi-Pointe.

I see the turkeys very often, and the various hawks nearly every day. But I haven’t seen an owl this year. I did report to you folks a few weeks ago seeing a raccoon. Otherwise the wild life are the daily common ones, squirrels, rabbits, various birds, ducks, geese, turtles and such.

The flowers are just beautiful this year, but perhaps the most exciting thing is to see how much the HUMANS of St. Louis are using and enjoying their awesome city park. The crowds are really growing, and every area of the park is well used.

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