Take Another Mindful Walk + Update on My Legs

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Autumn is a great time to walk in the woods, but before we get started, please click here to view my workout schedule from the past two months.  In my last blog post I discussed my battles with falling and festinating gait, claiming that “If I work out five to six days a week, my stride in the morning is strong and confident.”  I’ve taken that to heart, as you’ll see on the calendar.  So now I’m eager to hike mountain trails.

Today’s hike is in the Ward Pound Ridge Reservation, a 4,315 acre park near where I grew up.  There’s a bit of family history involved with this walk, but first let’s get moving.

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You have to admit, the Reservation looks magnificent in the morning sun.

Two weekends before this walk, my husband and I drove here to hike, but there was non-stop drizzling rain, so we just talked to a park ranger who gave us a map of the trails and explained some of the routes.  One trail led to “The Leatherman’s Cave.” When I heard that I said, “Wha???”

The ranger explained that in the late 1800’s a vagabond used to sleep in the cave, although only overnight.  He walked for miles every day on a circulating, 365-mile route that started near the Hudson River and went all the way to the Connecticut River before circling back to his starting point.  He did this through all seasons, stopping at houses where people would give him food.

The Leatherman was well-known by everyone on his route, and if he was a day late showing up at his next stop, people would start to wonder.

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Before I continue with the main story, let’s cut to a commercial break from the Michael J Fox Foundation:

Picture yourself taking a leisurely walk along a wooded path, sun peeking through the trees. Feel relaxed already? Several recent studies suggest that spending time outdoors has both mental and physical benefits. The latest one takes that research a step further: it used a brain scan to capture nature’s effect on how we think.

In the study, researchers asked 38 residents of an urban area to take a walk. Half strolled through a natural area, while the other half walked along a busy road.

Before and after the study, participants filled out a survey that aimed to capture their thinking patterns. In particular, the surveys measured participants’ tendency toward rumination. That style of often negative, inward-looking thinking is linked with a higher depression risk.

Participants also had their brains scanned before and after the walk.

The results? Questionnaires revealed that the participants who took a nature walk changed their thinking pattern. Brain scans matched those improved moods.

“This provides robust results for us that nature experience, even of a short duration, can decrease this pattern of thinking that is associated with the onset, in some cases, of mental illnesses like depression,” Gregory Bratman, the lead author of the study, told The Washington Post.

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Glorious, isn’t it?  (I mean the photo above as well as the news from the Michael J Fox Foundatiion.)

Now back to the main story.  The reason I said “Wha…?” when the park ranger mentioned the Leatherman was because my grandparents and great grandparents told me, my siblings and cousins when we were young that my great grandmother knew the Leatherman.  It was part of our family lore.  When I got home that afternoon, I started a flurry of emails between my cousins and siblings to find out what they knew about this.  My older brother confirmed that our great grandmother, Nana Pitt (real name:  George See), lived on a farm in one of the towns the Leatherman stopped at, and her family fed him and allowed him to sleep that night in their barn.

Whoa!  History comes alive!

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Side track:  There are so many great artworks you’ll find on a walk in the woods!  Here’s one above, and one below…

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Here’s another…

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…and another.

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Finally we arrive at the Leatherman’s Cave.  Here it is from the outside:

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And the inside:

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Oh-oh!  Time for another commercial break!  This one’s from Bryan Grant:

BENEFITS OF HIKING FOR PARKINSON’S

Hiking is good for anyone’s health, regardless if they have Parkinson’s disease.

Depending on the length and intensity of the trail, and the steepness of your incline, you’re in for a powerful cardio workout that can lower your risk of heart disease and improve your blood pressure and blood sugar levels, while filling your lungs with fresh, clean air.

Since hiking is a weight-bearing exercise, it improves bone density and strengthens your core, glutes, quadriceps and hamstrings. It’s one of those “one-stop-shop” workouts that build multiple components of fitness (cardio and strengthening) simultaneously.

Adding to the fact that you’re taking in the mesmerizing sounds of wildlife and some of the most scenic views Mother Earth has to offer—be it forests, mountains, deserts, waterfalls, rivers or creeks—hiking nourishes the mind, body and soul in ways no other workout can.

To engage the upper body further, consider hiking with trekking poles. These are basically ski poles with handles. They keep you from falling when going uphill or downhill, or crossing streams, and they also help take some of the load off the joints.

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Here I am at the Leatherman’s cave:

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And here’s the Leatherman himself, thanks to Wikipedia, the font of all knowledge:

The Leatherman (c. 1839–1889) was a vagabond famous for his handmade leather suit of clothes who traveled through the northeastern United States on a regular circuit between the Connecticut River and the Hudson River from roughly 1857 to 1889. Of unknown origin, he was thought to be French-Canadian because of his fluency in the French language, his “broken English”, and the French-language prayer book found on his person after his death. His identity remains unknown, and controversial. He walked a repeating 365-mile route year after year, which took him through certain towns in western Connecticut and eastern New York, returning to each town every 34–36 days.

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Final note:  He’s buried in Ossining, the town where my husband and I live.  The circular saga spirals on!

We’ll let Wikipedia have the last word:

His grave is in the Sparta Cemetery, on Route 9 in Ossining, New York. The following inscription was carved on his original tombstone:

FINAL RESTING PLACE OF
Jules Bourglay
OF LYONS, FRANCE
“THE LEATHER MAN”
who regularly walked a 365-mile route
through Westchester and Connecticut from
the Connecticut River to the Hudson
living in caves in the years
1858–1889*His grave was subsequently moved further from Route 9. When the first grave was dug up, no traces were found of the Leatherman’s remains, only some coffin nails, which were reburied in a new pine box, along with dirt from the old grave site. Nicholas Bellantoni, a University of Connecticut archaeologist and the supervisor of the excavation, cited time, the effect of traffic over the shallow original gravesite, and possible removal of graveside material by a road-grading project for the complete destruction of hard and soft tissue in the grave. The new tombstone, installed on May 25, 2011, simply reads “The Leatherman.”

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To take another walk in the woods, this time near my house at the start of summer, click here.