So this weekend has been an interesting one. Between an 18 hour pork butt smoke, volunteering at church, and a ref decided football game. There wasn’t much time for a normal hike. However we did get a family hike in to Veterans Park in Appleton on Sunday.
Veterans Park is a small park on the south side of the Memorial Dr bridge. The park is just over a mile away from our home. My wife and kids would walk there when they were all younger to play. It was just another option for a playground when they got bored of Pierce, Lutz, or Alicia Parks.
So all five of us started out on our hike headed to Pierce Park. I’ll choose to start the narrative there as I don’t wish to give away my home’s location. However on the way we did stop to take a few pictures of butterflies.
We decided to cross Pierce Park instead of going around. Doing so we found an arrangement of signs with photos and brief obituaries for people around the central field. These hundreds of signs marked people who died of overdoses. This was the 8th Annual Wisconsin Lights of Hope Recovery Celebration & Memorial Walk.
We continued through the park and took Front St east to Memorial Dr. We turned right on Memorial Dr and crossed the bridge. We were then at the small park.
Situated on the top of the ridgeline rising above the Fox River, this small park has a playground and a two car parking lot. With Memorial Drive on the east, and houses to the south there is not much to the park. Though there were unauthorized paths down the ridgeline to the river on the last border.
After looking around for a while and taking some pictures we decided to return home. Taking about the same path home. We only detoured by walking down to the river by the Appleton Yacht Club and walking up the ravine.
There was one event that made the whole hike worth it. On our way back home we saw a large Red Tail Hawk on the ground across the street eating its kill. It just sat there as we observed it. Even as we left and another person passed closer to the bird, it continued to eat, disregarding all humans.
Thanks again for reading. If you liked this shorter post let me know in the comments.