The Urban Forest

By Isaac Strauss, and Evan Strauss.

The “Outfront”.

The “Outfront” is what we call the forest in front of our house. We named it the “Outfront” because it’s in front of our house, and the Outback is the empty land in Australia.

Our favorite thing to do in the “Outfront” is bike. We have created routes that we do, and we named certain landmarks, such as Danger Bridge, Rocky Road, and the Roundabout (check out our map for more landmarks).

In the forest there are benches, picnic tables, water fountains, trash cans, and even an island. There also is wildlife, loooots of wildlife. We have seen a heron, lots of myna birds, ducks, crested pigeons, and magpies/swoopie boys.

If you go through the forest, you will find a basketball court. The basketball court is where we play handball, basketball, pindoloo, tennis, football, soccer, and four square. A couple of days ago, we invited one of our neighbours to come play with us.

On the map you will see a couple landmarks that we have named. Here are their names:

The Gnome Village: It’s a gnome village with at least 30 gnomes and a witch. The gnome village is a collection of garden gnomes that includes a log house, a hammock, a bench, and even a campsite and a muscle beach. My favorite gnome is called Summer. He has a blue hat and a surfboard, and he’s got a twin called Day.

Big Hill: It’s the biggest hill in the forest, and we like zipping down it.

Main Base: Where we park our bikes when we are taking a break.

Reeds: A bench by the pond reeds. It’s a nice place to hang out.

Main Bridge: We go on it all the time, and it’s our favorite bridge.

Off Road: The most gravelly road in all the forest, and it’s surrounded by trees.

Bench Park: A grassy field with one bench. Sadly, the grass is dead, and the only green is weeds.

The Campsite: A small patch of grass, a couple picnic tables, and a trash can.

End of the Road: The end of the bike path. Good for practicing three point turns.

Shortcut: A shortcut from '“End Of The Road” to “Main Base” that goes out of the forest.

Oh the World: A longer version of the short cut.

Rocky Road: A very fun and bumpy road that leads to Flat Bridge and Danger Bridge.

Fort: A wooden fort made of long sticks and logs propped against a tree branch.

Butterfly Fields: Often filled with butterflies, and the path is really bumpy.

Grass Sanctuary: A roped off area where people are trying to grow grass.

Up and Adam or Down or Eve: A hill where every time we do it we say Up and Adam, and when we go down we call it Down or Eve because it’s the exact opposite of Up and Adam.

Flat Bridge: It’s a man made land bridge that has tiny railing and is really flat.

Roundabout: It’s a roundabout with a bunch of trees and plants in the middle.

Cruising: One of the smoothest paths in the forest, but it has a couple bumps.

Danger Bridge: The hardest bridge to go across on a bike because of the sharp turn at the entrance.

Water Hazard: There is a sign that says Water Hazard and a log to sit on right by a pond.

Old Faithful: One of two water fountains, but it’s lost its strength, and now we aren’t allowed to drink from it.

That’s all of the stuff about the urban forest, but before you leave, check out the map with all the landmarks.

Personal note: Making this blog post was really fun, because we know every single path and landmark in the forest, also we recently found a new path (Shortcut).