Parkour ruining the park

While we were down in the Hocking Hills, amidst all of the buzzing crowd, there were small groups that stood apart from the rest. As we descended into the Old Man’s Cave area of the trail the first one popped into view. There was a guy hollering in what seemed a falsified Queen’s English accent at a bunch of people who were hanging on the rails of a bridge on the outside. Now, the bridge wasn’t that high above the ground, but they were hanging on like their life depended on it, and exactly like you would expect to see kids aged 5-9ish hanging on a railing. Except they weren’t kids.
These were young adults and adolescents, none of them super fit but all seemingly similar in their mediocre athletic build. As we continued down the trail we saw more and more of them, always in groups and doing random strange things. We saw them lined up off the trail preparing to run and jump through the rocks over the tunnel where the trail continues. We saw them rock hopping and running up the side of the hill towards the ridge through the restoration area which said “stay off” and “not a trail”. It seemed the longer we were hiking that a few things were certain: 1) They were doing some sort of training or simulated training, 2) They were not practicing reading signs and rules, 3) They were paying for these guys to shout at them.

Then we came up past a bridge where they were walking backwards along the arch. I’ve included the picture so you can see just what kind of obnoxious stupidity was going on in the park last weekend. Luckily we moved far past the craziness and were able to enjoy a real walk away from the madness. I’ve also included a couple of videos made by the company putting this on so that you can see what I’m talking about. I see two reasons why anyone would want this skill. Either they haven't grown up yet or they're practicing running from the cops. Or both.





So the question posed after seeing all this and learning about the company (Parkour Horizons), I had a couple of questions which I would love answered. First, how is this company or group allowed to formally come onto park property, regulated by the ODNR, and violate all the rules of the place, posting videos of their park rule violations? They even brought a video crew and set up in the rocks to make a video production out of these shenanigans. Secondly, who would pay for something like this? It’s all just one little taste of the American diversity which made itself known in Hocking Hills last weekend.

Visit to the Hocking Hills

Over the past few months, Betsy has become increasingly a focal part of our family. No weekend has been as strong a testament to this so far as this past one when we took a hiking trip down to the Hocking Hills. Amanda looked up to find out ahead of time that the trails were pet-friendly and so we packed up, gave the dog some easy drugs and embarked on a bonding journey. A short time later, we had arrived in a madhouse that was best described by a man I met last summer: “All the cockroaches come out at a time like that”. I’ll save a specific description for a separate blog post which I have reserved for scathing some idiots, but it was hectic and loaded with crazies to say the least.

For a dog we’ve only had 5 months, Betsy performed with agility and poise among the multitudes of furry friends and their owners. I’ve never seen so many dogs out at a park before and we took quite a while just to get away from the bulk of the people. Amanda says Betsy was probably over-stimulated, but regardless of the cause she was pretty withdrawn throughout the process and politely approached dogs and people only when given permission. We let her play in the water some and ours was of course the embarrassing one which decided to drop and wet right into the water where kids were playing.

Escaping all of the madness we finally got into the quiet of the woods. Betsy loved the walk and proved to have a natural inclination towards agility as we navigated through some places where the trail had completely disintegrated. She hopped up on rocks twice as tall as her and patiently waited in single file passes as people had to come through the opposite direction. I have to attribute a lot of this good behavior to the socialization and walks that Amanda has been taking Betsy on; Amanda should be proud of how great the dog was.

Both of them are troopers for putting up with the misunderstanding of trail distances that occurred. I fully knew that the loop trail we were on was 3 miles each way and tried to tell Amanda this, but it didn’t seem to sink in. I knew we were doomed when we got to the end and Amanda thought we were back to the beginning. With a heavy heart, I informed her we had another 3 miles to go and I started to get concerned about how tired Betsy was going to be. Finally, we made it back to the car and I’ve never seen a dog so droopy and worn out. She slept nearly the whole way back as Amanda and I got a well-earned lunch. Betsy and her little legs walked 6 miles down there and she was still feeling it this morning when we got up. But what a great day!

I’ve added a few pictures from our trip the photo album on my Picasa; please enjoy.