Sunburns, Soggy Bottoms, and Secret Passageways

Remember playing at the park as a kid? Every summer, my parents would buy us a pass to the local public swimming pool.

We would spend hours jumping off the diving boards, trying to drench the lifeguards whose stand was just within reach of a perfect splash. After missing the appropriate timeframe for reapplying sunscreen, we’d slip our wet feet into our sneakers (apologies, Mom) and walk shirtless through the park to the convenience store.

Ever health-conscious, we would rehydrate on sugary soda (I distinctly remember one summer as the summer of Crystal Pepsi) and a nutritious snack of fruit… well… fruit-flavored gummy candies.

Provisions in hand, we would wait for the sunscreen to soak into our leathered hides at the shady park. We made whimsical games of trying to keep our lunch down on twisting slides, hundred-mile-an-hour merry-go-rounds, and swings that tornadoed around a central pole like a tetherball, lifting the rider a good eight feet off the ground with no harness, just sheer centripetal force gluing a soggy bottom to a hot strip of vinyl.

I always equated parks with playgrounds in my mind. Well into my adult years, the former necessarily had to contain the latter to qualify as a park. Should I have experienced the masterful squares of Savannah before I was ready to truly appreciate them, I’m sure I would have turned my nose up, scoffing, “Some parks… they don’t have so much as a see-saw.”

Nowadays, some of my favorite walks involve parks. And I don’t just mean going to a park and walking around. A city’s greenbelts and urban trails are an extension of its parks system, but they’re also an extension of its transportation network.

Whether taking a stroll just to get out and stretch your legs or whether your walk is more purposeful with a destination in mind, an urban trail offers a terrific option for getting off the street. It’s like a secret passageway through a city, and you only get its benefits if you get out of your car.

Want to toggle between cityscape and nature as you perambulate? Take an urban trail. Want to get out of arms reach of cars for a few moments? Want to get new and unique vistas of a city you already know like the back of your hand? You guessed it; opt for an urban trail.

It’s not too difficult to find the urban trails in any city. On Google Maps, for example, they are usually depicted as a green line.

Whatever city you’re in or whatever city you’re traveling to, jump online, pick out a trail, and give it a try this weekend.

What are some of your favorite urban trails? Post in the comments.