NEW PLACES TO WALK

In the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, there's a weekly section that features a walking/biking path. I look forward to learning what new (or new to me) parks and trails might not be too far from home.

Recently, my husband and I took the dog to walk at the beautiful, fairly new park called Longmeadow Farm. It was an estate with a large house surrounded by some woods and a horse paddock, located at the intersection of two well-traveled county roads. The trails have been added since the family donated the land to the County. It's a lovely walk on a paved trail that winds through woods, across meadows, and around a small pond. If you walk around the perimeter of the property, on the sidewalks next to the street, you'd easily have three miles. But, the interior trails add up to only about a mile. I hope they'll add more trails through the woods.

Using the newspaper, we've also walked at the Fenton Park on the banks of the Meramec River in Fenton, MO, not far from our home. It's a large, well used park with baseball fields, a golf course, and tennis courts. The trails are paved and wander across meadows and through wooded sections. If you covered all the trails, you'd have over five miles. It's all level so no hills. This will not be a great place to walk in the winter since cold breezes blow off the river. In the Spring, the area also tends to flood. But, it's a nice alternative.

I've also walked along the Monarch Levee on the Missouri River in what used to be called the Gumbo Flats, but has now been gentrified to Chesterfield Valley. There's quite a long, paved trail that follows the river, although there's no clear view of the river on the section I walked. Again, probably not a great choice in our windy Winters. Also, there is a lot of marshy land nearby, producing lots of mosquitoes that love my husband's skin! They tend to ignore me, but I like walking with him.

One of my husband's favorite place to walk is the nicely paved trail at Creve Coeur Lake. The major problem there is the fairly aggressive bikers. They don't tend to mind their manners. If the trail isn't too crowded, there's plenty of room for walkers, bikers, and skaters. But, the minute you add strollers and dogs to that mix, problems arise. I truly wish the bikers would let us know when they're coming up from behind. That way, we'd be sure to keep the dog out of their way and we wouldn't feel like we were being used for target practice!

There was another trail in this week's paper that was new to me - and it's not far from home. It's also along a section of the Meramec River and should be level, paved, and probably well used.
I'll report on that trail once I've walked it - hoping for this weekend.



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