Dean Golemis led us off the trail, down below the vividly graffiti-decorated bridge we had crossed at LaBagh Woods on the North Side to the spot to write our nature poetry.
On the bridge, a gaudy band of cosplayers did a photo shoot. It looked so wild, I slowed to ogle, then scrambled to catch up. The woman behind me burst into The Runaways’ “Cherry Bomb.”
Inspiration comes in many forms in urban wilds.
“Beer in the Woods” is an inspired fundraiser. The event by Friends of the Forest Preserves, combines nature walks, craft beer, food trucks, kids stuff, fundraising and fun.
“Beer n the Woods,” started n 2017, came from FOTFP executive director Benjamin Cox and Neil Byers, owner of Horse Thief Hollow Craft Brewery on the South Side.
FOTFP (fotfp.org), founded in 1998, promotes the Forest Preserves of Cook County. Cox is most proud of the Conservation Corps, a summer program for high school kids. Notably, FOTFP did much groundwork to pass the referendum for a slight tax increase to fund FPCC last November.
I first stopped to sign up for a nature walk. The Bilingual Fungi Walk with Mariana Herrera, was filled, so I chose the Poetry Walk.
My first beer tent was Marz Community Brewing Co.. Taproom manager Alejandro Roman said his favorite forest preserve was Palos Hills.
“When I was a kid, I would ride bike there,” he said. “I actually broke my arm one time and had to ride the trail back. There is great hiking and biking trails, and fishing.”
My first beer was their Oktoberfestbier, a nod to the season. Attendees receive a silver 4-ounce mug for tasting.
Next was Obscurity Brewing, which does craft beers, ciders, meads, honey beers and barbecue at Elburn in Kane County.
When I asked production manager Westin Wiseman, why come this far, he said, “We did this last year because we wanted to get into the Chicago market. This is a big festival.”
It worked. They are already in Jewel and Binny’s.
His favorite outdoors place is Johnson’s Mound Forest Preserve, a Kane County Forest Preserve.
“It hurts on a bike,” he said.
A correlation between brews and bikes?
I stuck to seasonal with their Prostober.
Then to the poetry walk. Golemis, a writer and editor, will soon publish his first collection of poetry, “Amorphous Days.”
He gave a brief history of nature poetry and led us on breathing and focus exercises.
As we walked, Ruth Giles Ott, in a black JazzinChicago.org shirt, instinctively bent to pick trash. That’s the sort of people at “Beer in the Woods.”
Below the bridge, we wrote a poem in wide ruled notebooks. Mine used planes, graffiti, black locust and white snakeroot.
“Save and revisit as a form of self expression,” Golemis said.
I cleared my head at the booth for Burning Bush Brewery, a North Side spot founded by a pastor (hence the Biblical names). Travis, a history teacher at Curie, was volunteering, “to help the cause.”
It was time.
I finished with a mug of their Mango Dreamcoat IPA.
Stray cast
Never mind rescheduling fishing, hunting or hiking around the Bears this fall.
