A new hike in Frick Park with Abby

Aug 4, 2013 · 3 minute read · Comments
hikingFrick ParkPittsburgh

It’s August and Abby and I have been upset that, unlike all the other years since we’ve been together, most of the year has already gone by without our having gone on a substantial hike together. This is a big deal because hiking is one of the things that first drew us together and that we most enjoy doing together.

The reasons for this utterly unfortunate situation:

• Abby broke her foot in February, at the same time she started a new job, and this totally threw both our lives into chaos. Her full recovery was very slow, and she has still not regained her fitness, and is not in any shape to do any of the Pittsburgh Hiking meetup hikes that we normally start doing in the spring and throughout the summer.
• I got occupied with Pittsburgh Marathon training, then after the marathon, during a hike, came down with a skin rash that resulted in a lot of trouble for me despite multiple trips to the doctor and treatments, still not completely cleared up even today, and that resulted in my not only losing fitness but also being wary of going out on hikes.

Anyway, we decided that the past is the past, and we should start doing some smaller-scale hiking on our own, just to enjoy being out together again. Today we simply chose to do a little exploratory (for me, anyway) hike of Frick Park. The hike was probably just over 4 miles long (including walking to the park from home and back), so it was quite short, but it was good.

Here’s what I discovered:

Showing me some trails

Basically, Abby showed me some trails she had discovered when taking her own walk in Frick at some point. These were not the trails I usually run on, but narrower, craggier, steeper trails that clearly are used by mountain bikers (in fact, one came our way during the hike).

Abby leading the way:

Some views:

Fungi:

A little bridge:

We ended up in Fern Hollow, familiar territory:

Do you see the spider web?

We went up the Falls Ravine Trail from Fern Hollow, and then Abby showed me a small trail that leads back up to “civilization”, emerging behind a bench near the meadow across from the Blue Slide Playground.

This meadow is popular for sledding in the snowy winter, but right now it is popular for some kind of medieval play fighting:

Conclusion

I was very happy to be hiking with Abby again, even if “only” in our backyard park and for a short distance.