Trails of Gratitude

Well, I am clearly very, very behind on these posts, but just as an update, as of today, I have about 4 miles left to run and I have finished the rest! So, it's likely that I'll be making these posts a bit into October to make sure I give account of all our wonderful Metro Parks.  That brings me to Slate Run Metro Park . I had been to this park one time before to run a race, but had never really explored it beyond that. I have really been missing out! This park is all the way in Canal Winchester, so it's not the closet park to me, but it was well worth the trip and I'll be going back for sure. Slate Run also has a living historical farm, so if you have kids, this is a must visit! This park has 8 named trails that are open to public foot traffic - Bobolink Grassland, Covered Bridge, Five Oaks, Kokomo, Lake, Sassafras, Shagbark and Sugar Maple. The majority of these trails are crushed gravel, dirt and grass. The Lake Trail is the only paved trail. There is also some board

 It's been a few days and I've been racking up the miles in several parks since finishing Battelle Darby Creek. A few days after finishing my last trail at Battelle, I headed over to Scioto Grove Metro Park to finish my last few trails there.  Scioto Grove is one of my most frequently visited parks (second only behind Prairie Oaks) and it has one of my favorite stretches of trail in the whole Metro Parks system - the REI River Trail. This park also boasts a few additional features including a canoe access point, archery course and a playground. It also has several tent camping spots for people who want to try out backpacking for the first time or to test new gear. Scioto Grove has 6 named trails that are open for hiking/running - Arrowhead, Connector, Mingo, Multipurpose, Overlook and REI River. I actually started this park closer to the beginning of the month with the intention of running the whole thing in one day. The original route that I planned was just under 10 miles to

  There and Back Again When I left you last, I had returned to the 7,000 acre Battelle Darby Creek Metro Park on 3 separate days to work my way through every trail. We pick up two days after my last run there, a Saturday morning, where I would do 4 separate runs in mostly disconnected parts of the park. You can read about my earlier adventures in Part 1 . Darby Creek Greenway and Darby Dan Loop I started nice and early on Saturday morning at the parking lot on Kuhlwein Rd., my turnaround point on my last run. This would take me on the rest of the Darby Creek Greenway Trail within Battelle to the Darby Dan Training Loop and back. You can see the route I ran here . There was a bit of fog which provided a beautiful backdrop to the beginning of this run as I made my way to the loop.  All the colors on the Darby Creek Greenway Trail To get to the loop you run about 1.5 miles and the loop itself is about a mile...or 10 furlongs. Yes. I learned the distance of a furlong (1/8 mile or 220 yards

I Unlocked All The Levels! After 6 days, 9 runs and 35 miles, I finally unlocked all the levels at Battelle Darby Creek . I ran my first trail at Battelle for this project on Sept. 3 and just finished the park today (Sept. 16). This was a logistically challenging park for a few reasons. First, it's just a large park, the largest in the Metro Park system at 7,000 acres. Second, while many of the trails in the park connect, there are several that do not. I had to make the decision to break up the distance in Battelle by doing shorter runs, mostly to reduce the wear on my body so I could finish the other 18 parks! I'll discuss each run in different sections below, along with the route and trails I took. Darby Creek Greenway Trail (Cedar Ridge to Prairie Bison Pasture) and Hawthorne Trail This was the first trail I ran in Battelle for this project. It was actually at the end of the same day that I had finished Heritage Trail/Homestead Park and just did this as a little recovery run

 I got a few days behind, but don't worry, I've still been running! On Monday I needed to have an active recovery day and it was beautiful outside which made it the perfect day to head over to Inniswood Metro Gardens !  The first thing that should be noted is that there is only one trail at Inniswood where running (or any other active sport) is permitted. That is the 0.6 mile Chipmunk Chatter Trail. My family headed towards the Sister's Garden and I set off in the other direction to run the out and back Chipmunk Chatter Trail.  I recorded the rest of the trails at Inniswood as a hike on my Garmin and took a nice stroll through the other 5 named trails within the park - Boardwalk, Brookwood, Frog Talk Walk, Sister's Garden Loop and Spring Run. Besides the beautiful flowers and gardens at Inniswood, there are some great forest trails too, especially Boardwalk and Spring Run.  Boardwalk Trail I eventually met up with my family on the Sister's Garden Loop. It's a co

 It was a beautiful day outside so the family and I headed over to Sharon Woods so the kids could play and I could hit the trails. I had been to this park a number of times, but have never run on the trails there. I take my daughter there because Sharon Woods has a great natural play area. Unlike Blendon Woods, this play area is all nature, no extras. It's big and it has a diverse number of things to do and see. Plenty of logs to check under and a stream to play in. It's definitely one of my daughter's favorites! Sharon Woods has six named trails - Edward S Thomas, Spring Creek, Multipurpose, Lake, Oak Openings and Connector. The route I ran was about 9 miles, but this included some double loops and a few double backs so I could makes sure I ran on every trail. You can see the route I ran  here .The longest trail is the Multipurpose Trail which is a 3.8 mile paved loop around the entire park. This trail is one way for cyclists, but foot traffic can go either direction in a

This afternoon the family and I loaded up in the van and headed east to Blendon Woods . This is a great park! There are so many things that make this park wonderful besides the trails, but at the top of the list has to be the natural play area! This place is awesome! Besides the normal exploring space that most of the natural play areas in the Metro Parks feature, this area had lots fun things including a mini ropes course and a log seesaw. If you have kids, this is a must visit!   Blendon Woods was a nice return to the trails for me after all of those bike path miles yesterday. There are 7 named trails within the park - Brookside, Goldenrod, Hickory Ridge, Lake, Overlook, Ripple Rock and Sugarbush. Most of the trails on their own are pretty short but, with a few out and backs and minimal backtracking, I was able to combine all of these trails for a pretty good run. You can see the route that I mapped out here . My two favorite trails on this run were the Sugarbush Trail which takes yo

 I wanted to mention it up top this time that a big part of this project is to raise funds for Friends of Metro Parks . You can support this effort at this donation page . Make sure you select "Every Trail Project" in the donation detail section! Thank you! Now, on to the trails! Today I hit some trails that bring back a lot of memories of training for Ironman in 2013. I spent countless miles running and cycling on this trail (shoutout to Dan and Jimmy who were with me for almost every single one of those miles). I actually have a pretty funny story about a little mishap I had on this trail back in 2013 that I'll tell at the end. Homestead Park and Heritage Trail Park are two parks that are very close to each other, connected by the Heritage Trail. Homestead has a really great playground area for kids with lots of different things for them to play on. My daughter loves the little climbing wall they have there. The only trail within the park is a .75 mile paved loop arou

Covering 230 miles through 19 Metro Parks is no easy task (for me) either physically or logistically, so I didn't want to waste any time getting started! My family and I needed to be on the east side of Columbus, which gave me the opportunity to check out Blacklick Woods Metro Park . This was my first time being in this park, and what a gem! Before I get to the trails, I wanted to share a few observations about the park in general. This park has some amazing shared space areas. There is plenty of open space, a great playground, and a few areas with different exercise options. Compared to the Metro Parks that I frequent, Blacklick Woods was much more crowded, especially on a Tuesday morning, than I had expected. It was still easy to socially distance and it was very apparent that this park is doing a wonderful job of serving the communities closest to it.  Now on to the trails! Today I ran the 5 named trails that are completely within the park. They are Beech, Maple, Buttonbush, Wal