Progress report -- I haven't taken any Aleve since Friday. Friday was a hard day. I acted normal and by the end of the day I was exhausted. Yesterday was better. Today I "ran" up and down the stairs three times doing the laundry. Okay, ran is a strong word. Stairs are still a challenge. It hurts like hell walking like an adult. Two footing, however works fine. And coming down backwards is fine as well.
The walk was in the Pocono's at the old golf course of the abandoned Pocono Penn Hills Resort. Now it's the Broadhead Creek Heritage site. This is the second golf course to park I've been to. Is this a new trend? The other is Woodland Hills in Saucon. basically a golf course is allowed to return to nature. Water features, green lawns, and sand traps are taken over by native and invasive plants and a path is mowed to walk on. This one doesn't have obvious ruins dotting the landscape.
The path is a one-mile loop where you can see the crumbling buildings in the distance.
The program started at 1. It was run by a volunteer who was a botanist. We heard a lot about trees and how to ID them in winter. I will not remember half of it. Hell, I'll be happy to remember a 1/4. Basically, there are three kinds of trees. There is a horizontal leaf (needles) which include spruce, pine, and fir. I can also tell the difference: Pine and fir are "friendly". Spruce is not. They hurt. Fir has short needles. Pine has longer ones.
There is also opposite branch (maples, ash, dogwood and horse chestnut -- MAD horse) Everything else is an alternating branch or a shrub. I also learned why and how rhodies stay green during the winter.
After the lecture, we had to sort buckets of branches by kind, andnd then it was finally time for the walk.
It really wasn't much of a walk. We stopped at every other plant. That was hard on my knee. I needed to move, not stand. Finally, a group of us broke off and just walked the trail. Here you can see an eagles nest. This will be the fifth year the family has lived there. They've had at least two hatches per year.
This is one of the few remaining relics of the Penn Hills golf course. It's also a short cut for the trail.
This is a cellphone tower. I was excited when I saw it. It meant I had passed the half-way point. Only one more obstacle remained -- a small hill. (Afterall it was a golf course.) I made it up that as well.
I think a mile was plenty. And it was slow. I don't want to push it. I think I'll add difficulty before distance. I was stiff when I got out of the car, but it feels okay now. I think I'm on the mend.
Miles/Steps: 1 mile
Weather: 57, sunny
Bathrooms: I-5
Bathrooms: I-5
Wildlife: eagles nest, beaver dams, blue jay. Yep nests and dams aren't wildlife, but they are signs of active wildlife.
Extra: The GPS took me on another adventure. It had me get off 33 at 611, and turn onto this little street. I thought I was going into a shopping center at first. I went on some additional small, winding roads and ended up on Route 191. I made one turn and I was there. WTF?
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