Hiking Nature

(Monday, June 16, 2008)

Since my father opted to watch Tiger Woods play golf in lieu of a loosely planned hike at 6:30 on Father’s Day Sunday (yesterday), he agree to hike this evening – perhaps out of guilt. That’s OK, though; any reason that successfully if temporarily puts Dad’s boots in contact with the trails of Radnor Lake, is a good reason as far as I am concerned.

We met at the parking lot on the Granny White side at 6:40. We were going to ride together, but Dad decided to apply a one-hour limit to his hiking this evening, and I did not want to cut my hike short. I parked in the Otter Creek parking lot and walked over, just in case my hike accidentally exceeded anyone else’s; I don’t want to get on the parking rangers’ bad side or hit list in any form or fashion, since my plans and writing projects call for a great deal of research there over the next several months.

I had a close call to damaging my rep in the eyes of the Radnor Lake parking rangers only a few months ago, as a matter of fact. This Hiking Nature blog was fairly new at the time, and I wanted to find new, easy, and most importantly, free ways to expose this website to new readers. So I used my trusty Firefox web browser to navigate over to VistaPrint.com (home of the budget business card) and ordered 250 business cards touting www.HikingNature.com.

In addition to handing out these cards to friends, acquaintances, and other people I meet, I decided to leave just a few cards randomly about Radnor Lake, in obvious, easy-to-spot locations. Of course, I did not want to litter; this sentence would be completely unnecessary for anyone who knows me. I was careful; I would leave a card on a bench on my way up the South Cove ridge, and then retrieve the card on my return, if it was still there. It was always was.

I guess a couple of cards got loose; I received a voicemail from a Radnor Lake park ranger, and I was given notice that my littering was to stop immediately. Oh God, I felt awful! It really did effect me much more than I’d prefer to say. It was safe to say my days of placing business cards benches at Radnor Lake — even for later retrieval – were over! And they are.

This is as good a time as any for a genuine plug: the park rangers at Radnor Lake do an outstanding job. Granted, they are lucky SOBs for having what many would consider a dream job! And in fact, park rangership is just that – a dream job – to several of the park rangers, including at least three on the current roster. I know that because they have told me so, verbatim. One of the present park rangers patiently bided her time, she said, as her name slowly crept upwards on a Tennessee state hiring waiting list for over five years for this specific gig! Of course, Radnor Lake park rangerhood is not always fun, as they’ve told me. Few jobs are. Nevertheless, I feel comfortable calling it an incredible job, a wondrous (and even spiritual, to some) way to earn one’s living.

I have met a few Radnor Lake parking rangers throughout my years of hiking there, as I was born at St. Thomas hospital in 1966 and went to nearby Lipscomb (formerly David Lipscomb) elementary, middle school, high school, and – shockingly – college as well. Being an avid hiker since my college days – basically when my days of freewheeling BMX bicycling ended – I have explored and hiked Radnor Lake untold hundreds of times over the decades.

A couple of weeks after the business card littering embarrassment, I met one of the park rangers there at Radnor Lake and was fortunate enough to spend over half an hour with her as she walked the Lake Trail. I was able to ask several questions which I’d wanted answered for a while (and of course I could not recall all the questions I wanted to ask), and she was kind enough and patient enough to answer all of them. Her explanations, descriptions, and elucidations helped me make some positive flora and fauna identifications and figure out some other things I have written about here at Hiking Nature.

There have been many interactions between the Nashville Hiking Meetup group and the Radnor Lake park rangers over the last nine months or so, especially since Kelly S. began to play an active role in the local hiking organization. The vast majority of these ranger-hiker interactions have been positive, and I believe I speak for several longtime hiking aficionados in the group when I say that we really respect, admire, and even envy the park rangers of Radnor Lake!

Given the increase in activity – including volunteer work – of the Nashville Hiking Meetup group, there will be much more ranger-hiker interaction in the near future. Thanks to Kelly and others, the Nashville Hiking Meetup group recently surpassed the Ron Paul Meetup group as the largest Meetup group in Nashville, Tennessee. The group is also strengthening ties with a similar outdoor activity group in Nashville called Team Green.

The Nashville Hiking Meetup group has about 820 members now, and fortunately, they haven’t yet all shown up at once for a hiking event. Just imagine enjoying a calm stroll around Radnor Lake on a weekend afternoon with your kids — then crossing paths with a group of 800 people hiking in the opposite direction. The hike would immediately cease to be calm, peaceful, and meditative.