Golden retriever named Scout achieves rare feat, walking all 33 Lenexa parks

Scout and her owner Christopher Blair stand in Ad Astra Park. In the winter, they visited all 33 of Lenexa's Park, a special adventure for an aging dog. — Scout and her owner Christopher Blair visited Ad Astra Park on Feb. 27 for a walk around the paved loop. Between November 2022 and January 2023, Scout visited all 33 of Lenexa's parks. Photo credit Kaylie McLaughlin

Over the years, many kids have completed the Lenexa Playground Passport program, which challenges park-goers to visit the city’s nearly two dozen park playgrounds.

But Scout, a 14-year-old golden retriever, may be the first dog to go the full park circuit in Lenexa.

Since last fall, Scout and her owner Chris Blair have visited all of the city’s 33 parks, and their accomplishment was recently recognized at the Lenexa City Council, where Scout received — what else — a goodie bag full of treats.

Scout’s Lenexa parks tour wasn’t planned

When Blair first started taking Scout to the city’s parks, he did not have the goal of taking her to every park in Lenexa.
At first, it was just about getting her outside and finding a change of scenery, he said.
When Scout was younger, she liked to visit the dog park at Shawnee Mission Park and swim, but as she’s gotten older, the walk to the beach is just too long.
But on that first outing last fall, “she just kind of perked up,” Blair told the Post.

Scout and Christopher Blair visit Bois D’Arc Park on a snowy day as part of their 33-park adventure. Scout, who is almost 15, has visited all of Lenexa's parks as of January 2023. — Scout and Blair visited Bois D’Arc Park on Christmas Day as part of their mission to visit all 33 of Lenexa’s parks. On that day, they also visited Scout’s favorite park Sar-Ko-Par Trails Park. Photo courtesy of city of Lenexa.

It took them just a few months

After a few trips to different parks, Blair started wondering exactly how many parks there were and how long it would take to see them all.
So, they set out to walk them all, sometimes visiting more than one a day.
Each trip was marked with a photo in front of the distinctive stone sign at the front of each of Lenexa’s parks.
Blair started keeping track on Nov. 15, 2022, when he and Scout visited Na-Nex-Se Park near Lackman and 83rd Street.
Their final park visit came on Jan. 8, when they went to Manchester Park near Prairie Star Parkway and Lone Elm Road.

Scout’s favorite park is Sar-Ko-Par Trails

Scout particularly enjoys the paved walking loops that are in most of the city’s parks, finding the consistent terrain to be easier on her paws, Blair said.
She visits Black Hoof Park and Ad Astra park a lot, but prefers Sar-Ko-Par for its “proximity, accessibility and variety,” Blair said.
However, Scout just likes to get out into the parks.
“Mostly, Scout is happy to find new smells with us, although she still really appreciates a biscuit on returning home for any walk nicely completed,” Blair said.