Double Trouble - Walking There Some More

We'll start you off with a leaf.

A really BIG leaf.

A leaf as big as Tammy's surgically repaired foot.

Then we'll talk about our walks - because we can!

Tammy and I continued our streak of consecutive weekends taking a walk/hike in one of Iowa's beautiful places to help her to rehab after getting an Achilles tendon repaired and reattached earlier this year.  But, this weekend was different - we celebrated Fall "Break" by taking not one, but TWO walks!

You might have noticed that I put the word "break" in quotes.  As everyone who has ever worked in education (at any level) will attest, these breaks do not result in teachers actually taking a break from school.  Instead, they are typically trying to catch up with all of the things they couldn't do when classes were in session.

But, to be perfectly fair, it is true that there is a certain freedom that comes with the removal of scheduled classes and meetings for a couple of days.  And, there are fewer interruptions from various individuals (except that annoying husband of hers) when she is trying to grade papers or prepare for future classes.  Enough freedom that the two of us could find time to take a more than one walk over a period of two days.

The first walk came courtesy of a trip to Grinnell to deliver thirty processed turkeys to Local Foods Connection.  I am not sure, but I think this is our fifth season delivering turkeys to LFC and we are told that most of this year's turkeys will go to families in the Head Start program.  LFC purchases turkeys from us on behalf of those who need support to be able to acquire and use local foods.  Back in 2019 (pre-pandemic), they actually held a class where they cooked on of our turkeys so participants would know what to do with their own birds once they received them!

It's a win-win proposal.  Families who need help to address food insecurity receive help in the form of locally produced, high-quality foods.  Local (and regional - in our case) farmers are able to make sales of their product that are consistent - allowing them to continue farming.

In any event, since we had to get to Grinnell to deliver the birds, we brought a lunch with us and selected a nearby park to get our planned walk in for the weekend.  This time around, we went to Rock Creek State Park, just west of Grinnell.

Rock Creek is a park I visited multiple times when I was growing up, so it was nice to be able to visit it again and see how my memories lined up with the reality that is the park today.  Initially dedicated in 1952, the park was created in response to citizens (primarily in Newton) that promoted the idea of creating a man-made lake and developing a "natural" recreation area.

The result of that effort is some popular camping and fishing activities.  It also happens that there are some trails to walk and we took the Rock Creek Lake Trail staring on the East side.  This trail goes through "unmanaged woodland" for the most part.  And if you are wondering what that means, consider the fact that much of the park had been row cropped farmland prior to the creation of the lake.  The trees and bushes and other plants are not necessarily native and many would be consider invasive.  This document by Grinnell College offers a useful overview of the park including some description of the plants that can be found there.  It even includes some overview looks of what the area looked like before and after the man-made lake was made.

Even though this area might have numerous invasive species in it AND even though a significant number of the larger trees came down in the 2020 derecho, we did notice significant bird activity as we walked the trail.  Since we both like birds, that was a positive!

We can give credit to Kip Ladage for his post of a video for his walk at Cedar Bend Park a couple of days ago.  This is a natural area that is much closer to home and requires much less commitment to get there in the first place.  As a result, we got our first "back to back" walk there again trip in since Tammy's surgery - and we consider it a success.

Well, we do now.  Maybe when she tries to walk in the morning, we may have to assess it once again.

I find myself saying things like, this wasn't a difficult walk - and neither of them was.  But, I keep forgetting that this might not be entirely true from Tammy's perspective.  For those of you who do not know, recovering from a torn Achilles is not a small feat.  It was not all that long ago that a slight incline on a perfectly smooth working surface was a challenge.  It's a good reminder to me (and all of you) that the words "easy" and "difficult" mean different things to different people.  And they can mean different things to the same people at different times.

So, before you judge...   But, this isn't a morality lecture, it's a talk about walking somewhere!

But, let's give Tammy credit here!  She is actually beginning to agree that these walks are not horribly difficult.  There is still some issue with endurance and her pace is slower, especially when there are uncertain surfaces or hills to go up and down.  Or, in the case of these trails, stairs.

We do miss seeing leaves in most of the trees.  But, I also have to admit that it is really enjoyable to have that blanket of leaves covering the forest floor and the trail in some places. Thing have been dry, so the leaves are pretty dry too.  That means they make that neat "swoosh" sound as you shuffle through them.

Let's just say I've always liked how my senses react to a forested area in the Fall.  And, we took this walk on a warmer than usual end of October day where there was very little, to know breeze.  The sun peeked out every once in a while, but it was generally overcast.

But, there was this one moment when the sun came out and lit up the color of the grasses on the other side of the Cedar River.

And we were there to see it and appreciate it.

All because we were walking there.  Each of us with our friend.