Schenley Park Wonderfulness

This isn't the first time I've mentioned Schenley Park on this blog. My friend Eve and I ran the Race for the Cure there in May. Last week I ended one of my jogs at the top of Overlook Drive, overlooking (appropriately) the city, and I remembered just how much I love Schenley.

As a bribe to make myself jog more often, I decided I should finish every jog in the park, then allow myself to lollygag and stare at the skyline as much as I want before walking home. Why not? It's not like I do anything productive in the evenings anyway.

So today, my jog ended right around that little playground by the pool. I had run across the Panther Hollow bridge and back, and once again I had seen the peaceful but forbidden-looking Panther Hollow lake.

I'd never been there. I wasn't sure how to get there. But then I saw some stone steps between the playground and the bridge.

I took that first set of steps, and the next set of steps, then I followed a gravel path that led to the lake. There I found a woman pulling weeds from an overgrown flower bed. She said hello. I stopped and started helping her. She told me her name was Laurie, she used to live in Squirrel Hill, and in the 1980s she and some Sq Hill people, including the late Bob O'Connor planted that flowerbed.

We pulled weeds for awhile. At 6pm I could hear those awful electronic chimes all the way from Duquesne U. (Duquesne, must you make the rest of the city suffer?) Fortunately Laurie appeared to be hard of hearing so she was spared the squawkery.

Then I wandered along the gravel path for awhile before I found my way back to Squirrel Hill.

ahhh