I absolutely love hiking. I like nothing more than to strap on a backpack and go marching off into the mountains, although some of my trips are more successful than others.
A couple of years ago, when I was living in Washington, DC, I decided to take on a different kind of adventure. Rather than heading to wilderness, I thought I’d plan an extended hike that stayed within the city. This plan eventually developed into the “Monster Hike,” which took me 20 miles from my home in Clarendon, over the Potomac River, up through Rock Creek Park to the Maryland border, and back down to the White House before crossing back over the river into Arlington. This route ended up being difficult in a totally different way than clambering over mountains and traversing boulder fields, and I kind of took a liking to it. Over the past two years, however, I hadn’t taken much time to pursue similar hikes. Two weeks ago, I was spurred back into action.
My friend Chris, who has been my stalwart companion on most of my backpacking adventures, emailed me a link to the journal of someone currently on the Appalachian Trail. After reading it, I felt the fire rekindle inside me. I was so stoked, that I decided to walk the three miles home from work that day, a trip that I have since repeated a half-dozen times. Last weekend, I decided to take on a larger challenge, hiking from our home at the far west end of St. Louis down to the Gateway Arch on the Mississippi River, and back home, a circuit of some 14 miles. And this weekend, having already journeyed east through the city, I set off to the south. This time my path took me over and under two interstates and around the perimeters of Forest Park and Tower Grove Park, for a total of about 13.25 miles.
In these recent hikes, I learned a lot about the city of St. Louis. As I was walking east toward the downtown corridor last week, I saw a startling number of vacant buildings and lots, most of which looked like they had been empty for a long, long time. I kid you not, on the side of one of the decrepit buildings there was the faint remains of an advertisement for horseshoeing! While the population of St. Louis is less than half of what it used to be (354,000 today versus 857,000 in 1950), it just seems crazy that all these properties would have remained neglected for so long. Still, there were definitely signs of revitalization in various parts of the city, which does give one hope that decades of decline will begin to reverse themselves.
The southbound trip was a whole different experience. There were areas composed of smaller, ill-kept homes, and there were definitely a few vacant buildings, but nowhere near the number that existed toward the city center. For the most part, the homes that I passed were actually very well maintained and the neighborhoods seemed lively–especially the neighborhood surrounding Tower Grove Park. The difference between the parts of town was pretty stark.
The other really intriguing element of yesterday’s hike was the “Pagan Picnic” that was taking place at Tower Grove Park. I had several Wiccan friends in my days studying at the Vanderbilt Divinity School, although I think that most of the folks at this festival were cut from a rather different cloth. Especially the big white dude dressed in what appeared to be a homemade Native American costume and wielding a big sword. But the music was good, the people were friendly, and it seemed like everyone was having a great time.
So, despite the sunburn that I got from five hours in the great outdoors, I have to say that I’ve really enjoyed both the exercise and the education that I’ve been gaining from these urban jaunts. One of these days I’ll take a camera with me so I can give you guys a similar glimpse of this city.
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