After a spring storm raged through Tallahassee in the wee morning hours of April 5, city residents woke up to power outages, downed tree limbs, and dead traffic signals. And runners woke up to a day where the Lake Overstreet Trails were closed.Maclay Gardens State Park isn't exempt from the weather, and the storm hit it hard, downing trees and power lines. "I couldn't even get to work this morning," said one park employee. Among the casualties was the park trail system. The Lake Overstreet Trails are heavily wooded, and it isn't uncommon to find a tree across the trail. It is uncommon to find that tree still across the trail a day later; the park staff does an excellent job of keeping the trail clear. But in this case, there were so many fallen trees that it was necessary to close the trails while the crews worked.
As of the afternoon of April 5, there is no word on when the trails will re-open. "We'll get them clear as fast as humanly possible," said a park worker. "But there are a lot of trees down." With the Red Hills Triathlon scheduled to take place in the park and on the trail on Saturday, 9 April 2011, let's hope that Maclay Gardens maintains its record of speedy trail maintenance.
In the meantime, across Meridian Road from the Overstreet Trails, the Elinor Klapp Phipps Park trails system is open and seems remarkable free of storm debris. At least this one time, Phipps Park was exempt from the weather.
Links:
- The Trouble Afoot! guide to the Lake Overstreet Trail
http://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2009/03/lake-overstreet-trail-tallahassee.html - Maclay Gardens State Park
http://www.floridastateparks.org/maclaygardens/ - Red Hills Triathlon
http://www.redhillstriathlon.org/ - "Domingo and Coates take 2010 Red Hills Tri titles"
http://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2010/04/2010-red-hills-tri.html
As of April 7, the trails are open again!
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