By Dr. Thomas Meade and Melissa Cachovic, Morning Call guest columnists On a rare weekday off recently, I was able to take a leisurely 2-mile walk with my daughter Melissa along our favorite Lehigh Parkway trail. We were absolutely absorbing the beauty and energy of the Little Lehigh and all its surrounding treasures and reminiscing about many things, including her first middle school fun run, ultimately transitioning to her Emmaus High School training ground for a few cross-country state championships and launching her to a Division 1 collegiate running career.
We started discussing our pet peeves that trouble us when walking the trails, but quickly shifted to the many more inspiring pleasures we experience here and would like to share these with you. We consider the Lehigh Parkway the Central Park of Allentown, only nicer. We would like to share our lists below, both generated in random order as we walked: Pet peeves: 1.
People walking on the left side of the trails. 2. Groups of walkers who consume the entire width of the trail, seemingly oblivious and annoyed when being passed.
3. Dog owners with unleashed dogs. 4.
Excessive length leashes, not retracted when cyclists or walkers approach. 5. Dog poop ignorers.
6. Uncontrolled multiple dogs on leashes. 7.
Cigarette smokers on park benches. 8. Head phones or EarPods precluding hearing people approaching from the rear.
9. Fishermen widely swinging fly rods. 10.
Casting from the trails into the creek. 11. Fishermen ignoring c.