Over the Bridge

Carpe diem!

When I wake up to a 73-degree July day and it's overcast, that's reason enough to walk a bridge.

Sure, I've driven over the Lee bridge plenty, even biked it once a few years back, but this morning I wanted to walk it and the cloud cover made the four-mile walk possible.

Of course the bird's eye view of Belle Isle was the reason it held so much appeal, but what I hadn't anticipated was the glimpses into all the wooded areas from above.

Walking south, I took the east side of the bridge, looking down on the rooves of the sheds that housed prisoners of war and, further on, circuitous paths inside a circle of trees, sure I'd never be able to find them once on the ground.

I had known about the train tracks but not the extensive train crossings there on the southside. Walking back on the west side of the bridge, I spotted a woman and her hound on the little bridge that leads from Belle Isle to the southside.

It was much breezier coming back and I paused midway to look down over morning runners on the trails that begin just after the dismount to the pedestrian bridge. I saw a guy setting up two large grills.

Unlike when you're walking the footbridge to Belle Isle and hear the rumble of vehicles on the Lee bridge overhead, I had no sense of the suspended bridge under me as I walked.

A cop was ticketing a guy on the bridge as I walked back and I was appalled to see him on his phone as she explained the ticket to him. I guess some people are just raised by wolves.

At one point, I paused to look back at the island's rocks, the ones so popular for sunning and picnicking, seeing only four people on them despite the beautiful weather.

Surely a few clouds don't outweigh these temperatures, this lack of humidity, people! Or do they for some?

And because I am navigationally challenged, until I saw the ramp under me, I'd had no idea that you could access the Lee Bridge from Oregon Hill without ever getting on Belvidere to do it.

Karen's first Lee bridge walk becomes a teachable moment.