Slip-sliding down a muddy hill can be hard on the bottom but good for the spirit

Why spend hard earned money on medication for an ailment that can be cured, let alone prevented, by going for a walk?
At three dollars and some odd cents per gallon, I'm starting to walk to Micky D's.
Experts, those academic types who have lots of time to think, study and research stuff, now feel that good old walking is as healthy an exercise as jogging, swimming or dancing.

What took them so long to figure that? Walking is extremely popular. Among the nearly seven billion folk making themselves at home on Earth, nearly everyone of them has tried it.

Walking is inexpensive. All you need are comfortable clothes and shoes, said Harold Rainwater of Asbury College, Wilmore, Ky. Rainwater is one of those thinkers.
For most of us, walking is easy to do and hard to get hurt.
Good shape are lousy, walking is great exercise, Rainwater said. "Virtually every cardiac rehabilitation program in America bases it's exercise regimen on walking."

So walking we will go.

Nature trails, advanced walking, are an extension of regular exercise but for serious hikers, the outings are not always routine.
Recreation areas like Forest Park in St. Louis are great for beginners but if challenge is why you eat Wheaties, try the 14 mile Chubb Trail linking West Tyson County Park with Lone Elk Park. Out I-44, from the Lou towards Six Flags, just the other side of 141. On the north side amongst those big old hills.

The trail is demanding but not overwhelming. Faint of heart need not try.
Switchbacks, drop offs, rocky, long descents and steep climbs. Playing tag with the Meramec for a mile or so, the Chubb, near the river's bank, is sometimes muddy and worst... flooded.  From the parking lot, the trail meanders invitingly and then with out mercy... the hills... one after the other. Going and returning. Don't remember walking down hill. Must have...just don't remember it.

Once on a cold rainy, muddy day, I stopped at a site over looking a small creek trickling towards the river. Good judgment and common sense said call it a day and turn back but Nooooo not me. Down the slope I went, crossed the creek and up the other side where I slopped on for another few miles.
As I said, it was raining and muddy and upon my return to the creek, and it's overlooking slopes, things were worst.
About the height of a one story building, I figured if I lowered my center of gravity and with good foot placement, I just might...swoosh, I went. Sliding, twisting, reaching, grabbing for a twig, a root, a rock, anything. Boing, boing to the bottom and splat short of the creek.
I arrived in one piece but was covered head to toe in mud. Gee! It felt good to be a kid again.