I don’t have time right meow to do a deep dive into this afternoon’s hike, but I’m excited to have the nearby urban hiking paths fully re-opened! On that note, I thought I’d scribble out a fun observation I made after discovering the new bridgework that was completed during the partial closures last Fall.

I promise to write more about the overall experience from today later this weekend when the paths in Forest Park look more like the line for an E-Ticket ride at Disney World than an actual hiking trail.

Here’s another example of the newest bridge installations along the Macleay and Wildwood Trails

These are much more durable than prior incarnations. Instead of the earlier simple wood constructs

these new versions are steel treads with square iron tube lined rails. The only wood on these new bad boys is the easy to replace banister. And for all the durable metal used, they still blend beautifully into the natural surroundings. Blending is good, but not worth raising the ire of OSHA like this bridge example from two iterations back!

Sure, we don’t need no stinking rails, it’s not even that high of a bridge! Obviously, that thought was pre-cell phone and Instagram generation hikers…regardless – since we obviously still have a mix of the three bridge styles in use along the paths – these current bridges are way better than the original versions…