Every Trail Project- Battelle Darby Creek Pt. 1

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 while my kids played. This run started at the Cedar Ridge Picnic Area and headed along the Darby Creek Greenway Trail stretching to the Bison Pasture and back. Upon returning to Cedar Ridge, I took the Hawthorne Trail which loops around the picnic area. You can see the route I ran here. 

Cedar Ridge is a great starting point for several different routes and it has a great play area that features some wide open spaces and three or four different playground areas for kids. My daughter should start her own blog and call it the Every Playground Project because she's played on all of them!

The Darby CreekGreenway Trail is a crushed gravel trail that runs 5 miles through this Metro Park. The Darby Creek Greenway is actually an 8.5 mile trail, with the remaining 3.5 miles within Prairie Oaks Metro Park. I'll talk about this trail a little more further down. The bison are always awesome to see on this part of the trail. It's crazy to imagine that these animals used to roam in abundance in this part of the country!

The Hawthorne Trail is a paved trail that loops around the Cedar Ridge Picnic Area. Nothing too exciting, but a nice little trail, especially if you want to do a loop with your kids. 

Cobshell, Indian Ridge, Terrace and Ancient Trails

I returned 3 days later to hit several more trails in the park. This run also started at the Cedar Ridge Picnic Area and covered the Cobshell, Indian Ridge, Terrace and Ancient Trails. You can see the route I ran here. I enjoyed this route, because it's one I've run many times in the past. It was on this very route where I got my first taste of running on anything other than pavement. 

If you live in Central Ohio and want to run on some hills, there aren't a ton of options, but the Cobshell Trail has some short hills that are good for hill repeats. There are 3 hills to and from the Cedar Ridge Picnic Area that make up the Cobshell Trail. 

The Indian Ridge Trail will take you from Cobshell to the Terrace Trail, taking you along the river and through some forest. 

The Terrace Trail is a big loop that lets you get a little elevation as it winds up into more forest and down the other side until you can take a spur off to the Ancient Trail or continue your loop. 

The Ancient Trail runs through forest and prairie. It's especially gorgeous as the sun begins to get lower in the sky in the evening. 

Ancient Trail as the sun begins to set

A backdrop of native plants on the Ancient Trail

Wet Prairie, Darby Creek Greenway Trail (Nature Center to Kuhlwein Rd.)

Four days later, I was back at Battelle to run a trail that I had never been on before and to get a little more of the Darby Creek Greenway Trail done. For this run I started at the Nature Center parking lot and made my way out towards the Wet Prairie Access where there are three trails - Harrier Loop, Rail Way, Teal Trail. To do this, it did require me to run on the road and to cross Darby Creek Dr. It was reasonably safe and there was enough shoulder to run on. There is parking at the Wet Prairie Access if you don't want to mess with running across the road. After doing the loops within Wet Prairie, I headed out towards Kuhlwein Rd. on the Darby Creek Greenway Trail. I turned around here because there is a parking lot where I would start my next run out towards the Darby Dan Training Loop (I'll talk about that in part 2!). You can see the route I ran here.

This was my first time running on the trails in the Wet Prairie Access area. This features 3 looped trails that can be connected together. Doing all the loops totaled about 3.5 miles. You run through some tall grass and wetland. While it was pretty dry on this day, it was easy to imagine how awesome this area looks when the wetlands are...well wet. 

Tall Grass in the Wet Prairie Access area

After Wet Prairie, I headed back across the road and onto the Darby Creek Greenway taking me on the crushed gravel path all the way to Kuhlwein Rd. where I would turn around and head back to the Nature Center. 

To Be Continued...

I would eventually return to Battelle two days later to complete 4 separate runs that morning. I'll talk about those and the rest of my runs at this park in part 2!

In the meantime, get outside, stay healthy and find joy!