COMMENTARY The Sun | Tuesday, February 16, 2021 11

Hikers and dog walkers share the path along a trail, running beside on Jan. 8. BRIAN KRISTA/BALTIMORE SUN MEDIA Pandemic walks reinforce allegiance to city By Stephanie Shapiro quipped on one of our regular outings. Not too far from my home, a boy reeled But a venture without a goal doesn’t mean in a trout from . In Wyman In May of last year, my friend Bess and nothing’s gained. Each jaunt has revealed Park, goats brought in to demolish over- I were in the home stretch of a walk from a new dimension to the city where I have growth entertained mask-wearing fami- to Cylburn and lived for 35 years, but whose contours have lies. Nearby, a man who lives in the park back. At the park’s threshold, I spotted a typically been described through a car extolled the virtue of living so close both to flash of brilliant red-orange high in a tree. window. nature and the . Then, a second flash. Scarlet tanagers, As familiarity grows with the water- As liberating as they are for pandemic Bess said. ways, woods and meadows that twist and hikers, Baltimore’s parklands remain Soon, the songbirds would breed with turn through the built environment, so damning reminders of slavery, segrega- their female counterparts, then molt to does a sense of place and possibility. One tion and entrenched racism. A Druid Hill blander plumage, becoming less visible warm, sunny day last fall, a friend and I Park plaque honors the site of a pool once and astonishing. Had life been running on walked along Stony Run Trail, overlook- reserved for Black residents. In Clifton normal, they would have likely escaped ing the boulders below, where weekend Park, the summer home of Johns Hopkins, our notice altogether. Nor would I have revelers picnicked, courted and dipped revealed last year to have enslaved people, have discovered Hooper and Rockrose their toes in the stream. The majestic raises new questions. A debate continues Park along the , Button- setting and festive informality called to about how to tell the story of the individ- bush Swamp in Park, the mind and other prominent uals who lived in slavery at Eutaw Manor, golden rushes flanking Dundee Creek or urban playgrounds. My walks bring tran- a 19th century estate that once stood in the back road from Leakin Park to Dick- quility and respite from hateful public what is now Herring Run Park. In Wyman eyville. discourse and news of COVID’s mount- Park Dell, the recently dedicated Harriet Limitations imposed by the coronavirus ing death toll. From time to time, musical Tubman Grove has replaced a Confeder- have became an open invitation to explore surprises helped to restore a measure of ate monument. The grove acknowledges Baltimore and the region’s parks on foot. optimism. On the NCR Trail, a friend and both her heroism and Baltimore’s continu- On dozens of walks with girlfriends I’ve I came upon a flutist playing on a river- ing obligation to confront injustice. covered countless miles over the past 11 bank. In Double Rock Park near Parkville, This strange period has reinforced my months. On the way, longtime friendships live trumpet music resounded through allegiance to a city where my walking have intensified during rambling conver- the forest, courtesy of a talented visitor. friends and I have spent our adult lives. All sations about families, the country’s deep In Druid Hill Park, the weekly drumming of our ambles in the woods have led me to divisions and our own reckoning with the circle appeared smaller than usual, but the see that Baltimore is not just the backdrop lives we have built and continue to ques- communal beat still summoned joy. to our lives, but a living organism that, tion. Walking vignettes abound: In Lake with every tree and stream, chronicles the On our treks, it’s more common to Roland Park, sculptures made of found city’s beauty and its sins. see other women walking in pairs than objects and wood harmonize with the men. Men usually don’t walk together, landscape. In Herring Run Park, a water Stephanie Shapiro (stephanieannsha- unless they have a goal to accomplish, like snake as fat as a mountain bike tire nestled [email protected]) is a former feature climbing a mountain, my friend Cynthia in the grass next to Buttonbush Swamp. reporter for .