The Preserves are For You: Rugged Ramblers share a love of nature – and walking

The Forest Preserve District launched a marketing campaign this yr known as “The Preserves Are for You.” As half of the marketing campaign, we are that includes the tales of individuals of diverse cultures, ages and skills who spend time within the preserves. You will find out how they got here to love nature and how the preserves improve their lives. Here is the story of the Rugged Ramblers, a climbing group whose members vary in age from 59 to 80. 

Background 

The Rugged Ramblers group started round 2010 as an offshoot of the Thorn Creek Woods Nature Preserve Wednesday Morning Walkers program. Cousandra Armstrong of Matteson stated she determined to department out and schedule Tuesday and Thursday walks and the Rugged Ramblers group was born. Through the years, members have come and gone, and new members are added principally by phrase of mouth, however the core of the group stays sturdy and dedicated to exploring nature collectively.

Armstrong, Tomacenna Lyle of Homewood and Cosi Dean, who has moved to Colorado, had been the founding members. The group now consists of virtually 30 individuals, principally ladies and a few males. 

“We average eight to 12 people per walk,” stated Rhonda Campbell of Beecher, who joined round six years in the past and has taken over the function of hike coordinator. “We come from a number of southern suburbs and Indiana. Ten of us are from Park Forest.” 

Hikes vary from 2 to 4 miles. 

“We tend to do Old Plank Road Trail a lot, which we access from various locations,” Campbell stated. “Other favorites include Goodenow Grove and Sauk Trail. As we walk at different speeds, all of us have at least one person to walk with.”

Rugged Ramblers members have three massive issues in widespread, Campbell stated. 

“We all love walking, and we all love nature, and we all love walking together!”

Upbringing

Lyle, Armstrong, Campbell and Georganne Higgins of Bourbonnais, who joined the group in 2011 after her daughter graduated from highschool, chatted just lately at Plum Creek Nature Center previous to a stroll on the Plum Creek Greenway Trail. 

Like many who love nature, the Rugged Ramblers ladies had been uncovered to the nice outdoor as youngsters both by a father or mother, Girl Scout experiences or an interior drive to be exterior.

Lyle stated her mom was a trainer and she introduced her youngsters to woods and parks at a very younger age. 

“She included my brother, who wore a brace on his leg from polio,” she stated. “He was able to use the paved paths. As an adult, he didn’t walk with me, he used his bike.” 

Higgins stated her father grew up in Brooklyn and was “totally a city person.” But one thing inside her was drawn to nature rising up in Cleveland, Ohio. “We had an apple tree and a cherry tree in our yard, and I spent as much time as I could climbing the trees.”

As an grownup, she served as a volunteer for the Columbus, Ohio, park district system for 19 years, working in a nature middle and main hikes. 

“And then we came to Illinois, and I started going to the forest preserves,” she stated. 

Preserve Love

The group’s hikes have led members to discover nature images and birdwatching. 

“I love the outdoors and I love learning about all the plants,” Lyle stated. “The preserves are wonderful. What I really like too is how everything is allowed to fall in its natural habitat. If it falls down, let it fall and decay naturally. It shows you the evolution of everything.” 

Armstrong stated she sought out the Wednesday walking group at a low level in her life in 2005. 

“I needed something to fulfill me,” she stated. “I had just lost my job and I came there (to the Wednesday group). It was a thrilling thing to do. It was relaxing. It was beautiful and the people were very nice and friendly and warm. And it took me away from what I was dwelling on – losing a job – and took me into a whole different world.”

Armstrong stated she was so amazed by the sweetness round her she began taking nature images and has had reveals at totally different galleries. 

“The birds were singing, and deer were looking at you with big, beautiful eyes and other little animals were darting through,” she stated of the hikes. “We learned about nature and how nature really looked.”

The group additionally hikes in Cook County and Indiana and has visited many museums, zoos and pure areas by the years. Because of the group, Higgins stated she has walked many locations that she wouldn’t have ventured out to discover alone.

Supporting one another

Rugged Ramblers members do greater than stroll collectively. They assist one another.

“All of us have had personal things that have happened in our lives, but the group has always been supportive,” Lyle stated. “We’ve had deaths, members battling cancer and family members and children who have been sick, and everyone in the group reaches out to them.”

The friendliness of the group is a massive half of why Armstrong has stored with it for therefore lengthy.

“The companionship, the warmth, the friendship, the sharing, the stories, the lifetime of being with different people doing different things,” she stated. “We share all that.”

And although she’s moved to Colorado, fellow founding member Cosi Dean despatched an e mail describing her love for the group. 

“Our walks in the forest preserves over the years have given us beauty, camaraderie and fun,” she stated in an e mail. “But most of all, nature’s soothing ways have helped us through job losses, depression, illnesses and for some, widowhood … all while we were supposedly exercising.”