From: Edgar Brown
Subject: New Barefoot Trail at Trentham UK
Date: Thu, 25 Aug 2005 19:10:35 +0100

Hello all

Colin Rennison mailed a few months ago that he'd got news of a Barefoot
Trail being set up at Trentham Park, near Stoke-on-Trent UK. My wife and I
went there last week and sampled it. Trentham Park is a mixture of parkland
and formal gardens, now benefiting from a multi-million pound makeover. The
"Barfuss-Park", modelled on those common in Germany, is a 2/3-mile (1 km)
circuit in woodland; it opened in July.

What an unusual and welcome sight it was to see quite a lot of people -
adults and children - all in bare feet, setting off on the trail. Nearby was
the end of the trail: the muddy feet of emerging walkers showed a bit of
what was in store. A shed containing boxes for leaving shoes (no use to me,
I hadn't any shoes to leave) and water-jets for washing feet was
thoughtfully provided. I persuaded my wife to take her sandals off (a major
success!) and join me in having a go. The trail has sections of many
different materials, all giving a special feel under the unshod foot. There
are smooth stones and a stretch of sand (easy this!) followed by rounded
pebbles and some coarse gravel (ouch!) There's fine gravel as well (no
trouble to me: I'd been walking barefoot on similar stuff all morning on the
paths in the formal gardens - but it must have been a trial to those who
normally never took their shoes off.) There are logs set up like
stepping-stones, some brick pavement and a section of quite large rounded
stones (curl your feet round these!) An unusual feel is given by a stretch
of fir cones - and of course there's mud: smooth, sticky, shin-deep (oooh!
squelch!). As well there's a layer of hay, soft and caressing to the feet
(my wife questioned how many bugs were in it ?!) Roughly there are two
sections of each sort of material: for those who can't face it all, there's
a grassy path alongside the trail for the whole distance. (My wife only went
on it twice; once when the stones were too sharp and next when the mud
threatened to get too deep!) The last stretch of the trail to the 'washing
station' is a smooth grassy path (it must be joy to 'tenderfeet' after the
'punishment' of the rest of the trail).

It was great to see so many people giving barefooting a try: there
were whole families and some groups of children, as well as a few 'oldie'
adults like us. We followed a group of young children who were enjoying
themselves immensely. I caught up with them at the second mud pit where
they'd stopped to have a good squelch. Of course I didn't need asking if I'd
like to provide a pair of adult-sized feet to help churn up some good thick
slime! When we got to the end, my wife went off to wash her feet while I
decided to go round again in the reverse direction. This gave a few
surprises: at one stage I had hay and small gravel stuck to my just
mud-caked feet - an unexpected and unbelievable sensation!

It was great fun! Go and give it a try sometime! I've been a barefoot
hiker for many years and naturally the trail wasn't difficult for me - but
it's great to see so many others 'having a go', even if it's only for a
short distance in surroundings where nobody will be embarrassed by taking
their shoes off. Most of those I saw obviously enjoyed themselves a great
deal: smiles on faces - as well as mud on feet - showed that. The only
exception was a pair of young women who were self-consciously removing
ultra-brief thong sandals and laughing at the unmentionable prospect of
going off barefoot into the woods. They emerged at the other end of the
trail with sour faces and their feet perfectly clean! What did they expect?
What was a shame: after having a wash, everyone (except me) was putting
something back on their feet. Maybe though, some of them_will_go away with
the idea that "barefoot is good, barefoot is healthy" and start to enjoy
life like us SBL-ers do.

I_did_see one other barefooter that day, but not in the Park. A middle-aged
man was walking down a suburban street near the Park: it was a hot day and
his shorts looked just right; but what was special was that he had on
neither shirt nor shoes - a wonderful sight!

      Edgar Brown
          Hertfordshire UK