On what turned out to be a picture perfect day in early September (a high temperature was 79), I packed a light lunch and headed down to Shadow Rock Park in Forsyth, Missouri to see what was going on. I even brought along my bike for a little exercise.
Even though the area where this park is located has been spending most of its time lately under water due to the floods, when I arrived I was still impressed with the extensive recovery efforts. It seems both the city workers and not a few volunteers from the Forsyth Baptist Church had been busy getting the area back up to snuff. I noticed right away that much of the debris, in the form of branches and twigs, had been collected and burned. Even the grass was coming back, poking bravely through a coating of mud that had covered nearly every surface. Now the roads are clear and the due to the efforts of a hard working few the park is beginning to shine again. Another sure sign of recovery was the numerous fishing trailers parked by the bathrooms as you enter the camping side.
I parked next to the Park Attendants RV and was surprised to find Chris Robertson there. Chris is the Manager of Forsyth's Public Services Department (hope I got that right) and is currently doing double duty by watching over the park. He informed me that the park will stay open until either the traffic stops or it gets too cold and they are forced to shut off the water. He then indicated that even after that should hunters want to stay there, the park may be able to offer electrical hookups. In any case they would want to call ahead to make sure.
Chris also informed me they were looking for additional volunteers to do some painting on Saturday, September the 10th. Anyone who is interested in helping can plan to show up at about 9AM on that date. Otherwise, please make an effort to come down and enjoy all the Shadow Rock Park has to offer!
