(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Unhealthy air from Canadian wildfire smoke was not keeping dozens of people Wednesday from their fitness routine of climbing the stairs at Swallow Cliff Woods in the Palos Park area.
Maryellen Reedy had just finished her sixth full cycle of going up and down the Swallow Cliff stairs, and she planned to do it 12 more times.
Reedy is 71 years old and knew about the air quality issues.
“It hasn’t affected me,” she told WBBM Newsradio. “I mean, I ran yesterday. It was fine. Haven’t noticed it. I mean, I’m always struggling going up stairs so, I haven’t noticed any difference -- the heat or the air.”
Danielle Reardon was a bit concerned about the air quality, yet she and her visiting friend Sarah Roe were doing the stairs, anyway.
“We’re just going to go for it.”
Sharon Bowers had a conundrum. She wanted to do something healthy and try to get fit by climbing the stairs at Swallow Cliff Woods. But she knew the air quality was unhealthy.
“We’re just going to see how it goes and, if it’s troublesome, we’ll get back in the car,” Bowers said as she and a friend stretched ahead of their climb.
Stair-climber Rich Aycock, 64, said he was not feeling the effects of the poor air quality.
“Rode my bicycle yesterday and we were out walking yesterday and I noticed the haze and I noticed a little bit of the wood in the smell but, other than that, it hasn’t been bad,” he said.
There are 125 stairs at Swallow Cliff on the left side, 168 on the right side of the hill.
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