We went through the evergreens and along the old dirt road that leads to "the beach". As one aproaches this area, the river reappears. There is a rock dam that partially dams the flow of the river here. One can see the shape of this dam from the appearance of the river in the first photo. While we were enjoying our view of the river, we were joined by another Grexer. This time it was Marcus Watts (mdw), author of the Picospan software that we use on Grex for conferencing. I snapped this picture of him against a backdrop of the wintry river scene.
At this point the walkers turn left, leave the river, and begin to walk toward the top of the arb. While we were doing this, one more walker joined the crowd. Steve Gibbard (scg) joined us to bring the total number of walkers to 18, which is an all time record for the Grexwalk. Other Grexwalkers not specifically identified in the captions were Eskarina Smith (eskarina), Bethany Lynne Wolfson (delicate), and Scott Helmke (scott).
It is a long uphill walk, so the walkers always take a break near the end of the climb. The path provides a natural place for this stop, by widening out at one of the turns that overlooks the valley below. This is the official rest spot for the Grexwalk, and everyone sits down, enjoys a little conversation, or just takes in the sights from this excellent vantage point. This is about two miles into the walk.
The walkers leave the Arboretum through the upper gate onto Geddes Avenue, and proceed East along Geddes Avenue, following it all the way back to the starting place at Gallup Park.
The total distance is about three miles, and the walk is usually over by about 11:30 AM. When the walk is finished, the Grexers will usually head to a local restaurant to "debrief", where sometimes they may be met by other Grexers who chose not to walk. The location of the debriefing is agreed to by consensus on-line on Grex. A schedule of upcoming debriefing sites can be viewed on the Grex system.
It costs nothing to use Grex. All you need is a terminal or a computer with a modem. In Ann Arbor dial 761-3000 or telnet to cyberspace.org, and log in as "newuser" to get a free account for yourself. Then you can discuss matters both great and small with others, and also participate in the process of deciding which restaurant will be the one chosen each week.
The text, drawing, and photos for this site were all made by Steven R. Weiss and are all copyright 1995, Steven R. Weiss. The Ascii map was drawn by Mark Conger. The web site was made available by the Huron Valley Community Network. Please direct any comments or suggestions to Steven R Weiss at srw@cyberspace.org.