🧺 Picnic in the park | Outdoorsy Newsletter

Who’s ready for some sunshine?

☀️ Your weekend weather outlook: Finally, a break from the rain. It will feel like summer, with sunny skies and temps near 80 both Friday and Saturday. Sunday will see a high of 74.

This warmth calls for a picnic, so let’s throw down a blanket and have lunch, learn about Pennsylvania’s (literal) golden harvest, and stop by a glorious garden in West Mount Airy.

📮 Before we wrap up the season, I want to hear from you. How many of these recommended activities did you try through this newsletter? Email me back and tell me about your experience for a chance to be featured as the most outdoorsy reader in the final edition of this newsletter. (Don’t forget some photos!)

— Paola Pérez

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Did you know Travel + Leisure once named Philadelphia one of the best cities in America for picnicking? We earned our bragging rights.

There are plenty of woodsy, grassy areas to lay out and soak up the sun in the region. Here’s a taste:

🧺 In Philly, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Park offers 21 picnic groves and pavilions, many of which include BBQ grills, but there are also lakes, tennis courts, sports fields, and even a famous skatepark. On weekends, try food from the vendors at the pop-up Southeast Asian Market.

🧺 In the suburbs, Longwood Gardens has a fantastic picnic area with 70 picnic tables and grills where you can stop for a pre- or post-visit outdoor meal, all under the shade of tall trees.

🧺 In New Jersey, tuck into your picnic basket at one of several picturesque picnic areas and pavilions at Washington Lake Park, the largest municipal park in the state, where you’ll find grills to help get things cooking.

Keep reading for the full list of recommended spots for picnics in our area.

🎤 Now we’re passing the microphone to Jason Nark. You’ll always find his work here.

It was harvest time at Rick Lowe’s split-level home in rural Perry County, and the flypaper above his living room couch swung heavy with the dead. Down some stairs, behind wooden doors, the pungent laboratory where Lowe practices his reverse alchemy was full of needles and a blowgun and glass jars brimming with things few folks would dare jar.

Bottles of amber liquid on the shelves looked like apple cider, but the nose doesn’t lie. It was urine, gallons and gallons of whitetail deer urine, waiting to be shipped out and spread across the wilds of America.

“My stuff is fresh,” Lowe, 54, said in his Lowe’s Whitetail lab. “I use about a gallon of it myself.”

Deer urine has been used for decades by hunters in states where it’s legal to mask human scent and draw large bucks with nice racks into range. They can sprinkle it on clothes, hang something akin to a urine-soaked air freshener from branches, or open a tin of crystallized urine beneath hunting stands. There’s a handful of producers in Pennsylvania like Lowe, each a bit secretive with guarded recipes, farmers of sorts who’ve managed to turn waste into extra income or a full-time business. — Jason Nark (Oct. 2017)

Continue reading to learn why hunters nationwide spend tens of billions on this highly coveted gear each year, and the industrial and agricultural challenges that come with it.

Jean Wilcox worried she’d never garden again after a fall in the winter. By spring, she was digging again, alongside her dahlias.

Peek into Wilcox’s West Mount Airy garden and learn how she protects her vegetables from a groundhog and started a business selling aprons with “vegetable people” on them.

Here’s Thomas Pluck of New Jersey with his biking experience:

“I started bicycling again last year, focusing on mountain biking. When I was a teenager I rode my Schwinn everywhere, even after two run-ins with cars. I like the ease of exploring on two wheels.

Lately my favorite ride is at Black Run preserve, and Franklin Parker Preserve. You get a great balance of nature and exciting rides at Black Run, while Franklin is more easy and beautiful.

For mountain bikers, Ceres Park and Camden County College offer challenging trails. I’m looking forward to the longer trail system being created in southern NJ that will go from Camden to further south. I’m too skittish to ride much on the street thanks to our drivers, but I’m going to join a group ride that uses some streets, so I can get my confidence back.”

Thanks for sharing your adventures and suggestions!

📮 Give us a review of your outdoors experience for a chance to be featured in this newsletter by emailing me back.

The Phillies’ World Series dreams were crushed this week, and so were our collective souls. But I want to leave you with an excerpt from a touching piece written by longtime fan Mary Bergstrom. She took time away from her hometown team after losing her mom to cancer:

“Every fall, I watch as the vibrant orange, red, and mustard yellow leaves trick us into thinking death is beautiful. It’s the time of year when pumpkins and mums adorn our doorsteps and we finally accept summer is over, with one exception — there is still baseball.”