4.5 miles
minnehaha falls and back
59 degrees
AQI*: 157
*Air Quality Index
Cooler! Smoky, again. Ran on the dirt trail on the other side of the river road heading south. Noticed how the trail didn’t seem quite as wide as it did a few years ago during the pandemic when more people were using it. Wondered how many feet have to tread over the same spot to make a trail, and how long it takes for a forgotten trail to revert to grass. Crossed over to the paved path by Becketwood and stayed on it to the falls, then past the falls, then over the Veterans bridge then down the steep hill to the very bottom of the ford bridge then north thenhome.
Listened to cars and birds and voices as I ran south. Put in my “Remember to Forget” playlist returning north. Tried to forget that I was hot and wanted to stop as I listened to Peter Gabriel and Michael McDonald singing about forgetting.
10 Things
- orange light dotting the path
- turkeys! 4 female turkeys (hens) bobbing their necks and moving slowly, 1 male (a tom) following behind — the hens ignored me as I stopped to look, but the tom turned and stare
- the rush of minnehaha creek below me as I ran over the veterans bridge
- standing on the bridge above the falls, watching it tumble down to the creek below
- a man and a little kid sitting at the bench near the boulder
- the path blocked off near Godfrey by 2 trucks and some cones — not sure what they were working on
- the path blocked off near folwell by cones: park workers repainting the biking and walk signs
- a new person painted on the paved path — glowing white, I checked to see if anyone had drawn in a face yet (nope)
- my shadow — I could see my pony tail bobbing as I moved
- fake bells x 2: the ding-ding-ding of the light rail pulling out of the station and the chiming of the st. thomas bells at 7:45
excerpt from 38. Shedding the Old/ Samantha Thornhill
Such as the lobster
cracking loose
from its exoskeleton
after moons of moulting,
or the viper that squeezes
out of the skin
of its remembrance,
this oracle invites you
to rewild yourself,
to unbox, detox, and de-
clutter your blood.
Rewild yourself!