Which is a tad disturbing, because no one has sucker punched me in the gut.
It has been over 3 years since I've been metaphorically sucker punched in the gut.
Hiking the trails of the Tandy Hills Natural Sanatorium, today, put me in a less sucker punched frame of mind.
Speaking of sucker punches, this week's Fort Worth Weekly Best of 2011 issue made no mention of the Tandy Hills this year. Or the Prairie Fest. In years previous the Tandy Hills has been mentioned as the Best Place to Stand. And the Prairie Fest as Best Outdoor Festival, or something like that.
Today whilst I was hiking the Tandy trails I pondered why so few people avail themselves of the pleasure of Tandy Hills hiking. Fort Worth has a population of over 700,000. While it is true that over half of the population is over weight and thus not really drawn to hiking up a hill, that still leaves around 350,000 people able to do so.
I know of no other big city in America with a big, wild, natural zone so close to its downtown.
If something like the Tandy Hills existed a couple miles east of Seattle's downtown I can guarantee the hills would be alive with the sounds of people enjoying the natural world. During the hiking season in Washington's Cascades you can go to any of the dozens upon dozens of mountain hiking trails and find a lot of people hiking. And that's after driving a long distance to get to a trail head.
Even as I type, Washington's Maxine W. A. Milling is hiking with a group, over Cascade Pass, to Stehekin, to spend a few days at Courtney Ranch.
With there being so very few hiking type options in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex zone one would think the Tandy Hills would get a lot of visitors.
Before the novelty wore off, I'd drive to places like Turner Falls Park in Oklahoma and Dinosaur Valley State Park. And twice to Enchanted Rock State Park, just to have a semi-good place to go hiking.
And on another Tandy Hills note, I had myself a real cute encounter with the Tandy Hills Roadrunner today. As I was ascending Mount Tandy the Tandy Trojan Horse that I mentioned a couple days ago came into view. I then saw that the Tandy Hills Roadrunner was looking curiously at the Tandy Trojan Horse.
When the Tandy Hills Roadrunner saw me the speedy bird took off running over the hill.
There was no sign that any of last night's thunderstorm deluge dropped any water on the Tandy Hills. I wonder if the Tandy Hills Roadrunner is still drinking at Don Young's birdbath. I have never found the mysterious water barrel that Don Young and his cohorts installed in some hidden location on the Tandy Hills.
Don Young used to be Fort Worth's Best Watchdog. This year Don Young has been in the news a lot, doing a lot of Watchdogging. But, somehow Don Young was supplanted as the Best Watchdog in Fort Worth Weekly's Best of 2011 compilation, supplanted by Kevin Buchanan and the North Central Texas Communities Alliance.
Very perplexing.
I believe the Tandy Hills have been blogged about a few times. Perhaps a review of the authors front yard or maybe even the back?
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