Showing posts with label trails. Show all posts
Showing posts with label trails. Show all posts

Sunday, July 7, 2019

Zach DeVeau and Rachel Durbin hit the trail again at Munson Hills

Zach DeVeau, Rachel DurbinGulf Winds Track Club's seventh annual tour of Tallaahssee, Florida's trails continued on Saturday morning, 7 July 2019, with a six-mile race at Munson Hills, where Zach DeVeau and Rachel Durbin continued winning. DeVeau was the first man in the race, the second in GWTC's 2019 Summer Trail Series, coming in first overall in 38:24. It was DeVeau's second win of the 2019 series, and it was also the second series win for Durbin, who was the first woman in the race. Durbin ran 43:56, placing sixth overall.


The Series had first visited the Munson Hills in 2018, and this was the second time that the trails had been included in the four-race circuit. It also marked the return of the inflatable alligator. A course decoration and informal Series mascot, the alligator has probably been at more Summer Trail Series races than any of the runners. With smooth plastic skin and prominent handles, the fake 'gator really can't be mistaken for the real thing--unless you're a tired runner coming up on it suddenly around a corner.


"They punked me with a blow-up ten-foot alligator," reported Donalsonville, Georgia's Myles Gibson. "I really did jump."


However startled Gibson may have been by the 'gator, it didn't keep him from finishing second overall in 39:17, the first master runner in the race. Ryan Kunz took third in 40:22. Kunz had been second to DeVeau in the first event of the Series, the Red Bug Trail Race. The third finisher at Red Bug, Florida State University School cross-country runner Morgan Castano, placed fourth at Munson Hills in 43:30.


DeVeau had last run the Summer Trail Series in 2015, winning three out of the four events, but this was his first time racing Munson Hills.


"It was good, flat, and not a lot of roots, which suits me pretty well," commented DeVeau. "A lot easier to open up on than Red Bug."


Rachel Durbin was racing Munson Hills for the first time as well. That wasn't the case for her rivals in the women's field. Emily Molen, a rising senior on the Chiles High cross-country team, was the women's champ at the 2018 Munson Hills Trail Race. Alyssa Terry of Tallahassee had been runner-up to Molen. But it was Durbin, an alumna of Ohio's Bowling Green State cross-country team and a newcomer to the Tallahassee trails, who prevailed, taking first in the women's standings in 43:56. Terry was the second woman and eighth overall in 44:44. Molen, the defending champ, was the third woman and sixteenth overall in 47:14. Another veteran of the 2018 Munson Hills Trail Race, Laura Sellati, was the first woman master in 2019, taking sixth in the women's standings and 26th overall in 51:05.


Gulf Winds Track Club's 2019 Summer Trail Series continues on Saturday morning, 27 July 2019, with the Tom Brown Park Trail Race. The Series concludes on Saturday morning, 24 August 2019, at the Maclay Gardens Trail Race.


Gulf Winds Track Club chip-timed the 2019 Munson Hills Six Mile. 86 athletes finished the race.


[All photos used in this article were taken by Fred Deckert.]


Top Ten Men, Gulf Winds Track Club's 2019 Munson Hills Six-Mile Trail Race
  1. 38:24, Zach DeVeau (M, 31)
  2. 39:17, Myles Gibson (M, 52)
  3. 40:22, Ryan Kunz (M, 36)
  4. 43:30, Morgan Castano (M, 17)
  5. 43:48, Kyle Kraeft (M, 30)
  6. 44:16, Ryan Baumbach (M, 39)
  7. 45:13, Philip Sura (M, 49)
  8. 45:29, Jack Schwenkler (M, 12)
  9. 45:40, Fanxiu Zhu (M, 50)
  10. 45:43, Kevin Malfa (M, 35)

Top Ten Women, Gulf Winds Track Club's 2019 Munson Hills Six-Mile Trail Race
  1. 43:56, Rachel Durbin (F, 24)
  2. 44:44, Alyssa Terry (F, 25)
  3. 47:14, Emily Molen (F, 17)
  4. 47:37, Cecilia Bouaichi (F, 23)
  5. 50:00, Kaley Ford (F, 24)
  6. 51:05, Laura Sellati (F, 40)
  7. 51:11, Clifton Lewis (F, 11)
  8. 51:41, Megan Chapman (F, 28)
  9. 52:05, Stella Lewis (F, 14)
  10. 52:20, Monica Toth (F, 30)

Gulf Winds Track Club's Summer Trail Series race winners, 2013 - 2019
YearDateRaceTop MaleTop FemaleFinishers
2013June 22Cadillac Trail 5½M37:38, Kevin Sullivan45:07, Stephanie Liles-Weyant121
July 13Swamp Forest Trail 4½M30:19, Kevin Sullivan34:12, Micah Adriani124
July 27Magnolia Trail 3½M21:44, Kevin Sullivan24:45, Stephanie Liles-Weyant114
August 3Red Bug Trail 4½M33:31, Bryce Van Dam43:46, Stephanie Liles-Weyant92
2014June 21Red Bug Trail 4½M38:30, Charn McAllister42:02, Brook Pace114
July 12Swamp Forest Trail 4½M29:06, Charn McAllister33:13, Brook Pace109
July 26Magnolia Trail 3½M26:03, Charn McAllister30:16, Emily Molen108
August 2Cadillac Trail 5½M41:38, Brian Molen48:25, Emily Molen88
2015May 30Cadillac Trail 5½M39:15, Zach Deveau42:51, Alyson Churchill158
June 13Oak Hammock Trail 5M32:59, Zach Deveau35:10, Alyson Churchill129
July 18Coon Bottom Trail 4M28:42, Zach Deveau29:14, Alyson Churchill112
August 1Red Bug Trail 4½M35:14, Greg Bargo35:24, Alyson Churchill112
2016May 21Magnolia Trail 3½M25:18, Dan Baur27:05, Katie Gorman133
June 4Oak Hammock Trail 5½M42:53, Eric Godin45:24, Katie Gorman123
July 9Red Bug Trail 4½M33:14, Dan Baur35:04, Katie Gorman130
July 30Cadillac Trail 5½M43:06, Paul Guyas42:29, Alyson Churchill95
2017June 10Munson Hills 6M36:45, Chris O'Kelley46:34, Emily Molen87
July 1Red Bug Trail 4½M37:34, Chris O'Kelley48:24, Emily Molen90
July 15Oak Hammock/Swamp Forest 5M33:35, Charles Biberg39:36, Kat Sack89
August 5Tom Brown Park 4½M32:40, Chris O'Kelley36:36, Jennifer Bayliss71
2018June 23Munson Hills 6M38:02, Vince Molosky45:10, Emily Molen124
July 7Phipps Park 4M30:49, Jim Schafer33:39, Kat Sack127
July 21Maclay Gardens 5M38:26, Brad Busboom44:39, Kat Sack110
August 4Tom Brown Park 4½M28:39, Brad Busboom32:29, Kat Sack109
2019June 22Red Bug Trail 4½M35:27, Zach DeVeau38:53, Rachel Durbin125
July 6Munson Hills 6M38:24, Zach DeVeau43:56, Rachel Durbin86
July 27Tom Brown Park 5M
August 24Maclay Gardens 4½M


Links
#2546
Bookmark and Share
Posted by Herb Wills at 2:59 PM 0 comments
Labels: , , , , ,

Friday, April 26, 2019

Pedrick Pond Park Trail

There’s no shortage of places to hit the trails on the east side of Tallahassee, Florida. There’s Tom Brown Park and Lafayette Heritage Park. There’s the Miccosukee Greenway and the Alford Arm Greenway. Between the two Greenways, there’s also Pedrick Pond Park.

Pedrick Pond Park Trail
Live Oak along the Pedrick Pond Park Trail

Leon County opened the park in 2006, stating in a press release that the county was “transforming several existing stormwater ponds into passive recreation facilities, including Pedrick Pond Park. These parks are designed for leisurely activities like walking and picnicking.” For walking or running, the park has a loop trail around Pedrick Pond. In this, it resembles Leon County’s Lake Henrietta Park, Martha Wellman Pond Park, Broadmoor Pond Park, and Okeeheepkee Prairie Park. In the Tallahassee Parks and Recreation Department system, Lake Elberta Park was designed on a similar path-around-a-storm-water-retention-pond model.


The park is at the corner of Mahan Drive (US 90) and Pedrick Road. Leon County lists the address as 5701 Mahan Drive, but there's no entrance on Mahan Drive, or even a spot to pull over. Pedrick Pond Park shares parking with the Eastside Branch Library at 1583 Pedrick Road. The park is bounded on the west by Pedrick Road, on the north by Mahan Drive, on the east by the Vineyards (a subdivision), and on the south by a natural gas pipeline. The Eastside Branch Library, opened in 2011, is south of the pipeline.

Pedrick Pond Park Trail
Trail on the east side of Pedrick Pond

Pedrick Pond itself is roughly what folks in the swimming pool business call "kidney shaped." If your kidneys were shaped like Pedrick Pond, though, you'd be looking for a transplant. Most of the trail around the pond is crushed oyster shell, the same material used for much of the Apalachee Regional Park Championship Cross-Country Course, but the west side of the loop is a concrete sidewalk along Pedrick Road. A lap around the pond is almost exactly 1,320 yards, or three-quarters of a mile (just over 1.2 kilometers for the metrically inclined).


For runners, you'd think this would be a great spot for repeats, the kind of workout you'd do on a track. Not really. For one thing, the circuit includes two bridges, a 40-yard bridge on the sidewalk along Pedrick Road, and a 90-yard bridge on the north side of the loop. These are handsome bridges, decked with plastic planking that should outlast real wood. They are also narrow, only about five feet wide. Imagine that the clock is running and you're trying to run fast across one of these bridges when someone is else is pushing a baby stroller across. Or when a family has paused to look over the railing at the turtles.

Pedrick Pond Park Trail
The longer of two bridges on the Pedrick Pond Park Trail

You also might arrive for a workout and find part of the trail underwater. The bridge on the north side of the trail was added to the park after that part of the trail became part of the lake during several high water episodes. The Tallahassee weather was wet enough during 2018 that the approaches to both bridges were occasionally flooded, as well as a stretch of trail on the east side of the loop.


But it's a good place to log a few leisurely miles or take a stroll. There are several sanitation stations along the loop for dog walkers. There are benches if you just want to pause and look at the water. Bird watchers have observed more than 80 species at Pedrick Pond. For anyone who wants to eat near the pond, there are picnic tables. Pedrick Pond Park has neither water nor rest rooms, but both are available at the Eastside Branch Library.

Pedrick Pond Park Trail
Trail on the south side of Pedrick Pond

For travelers, the Pedrick Pond Park Trail is located less than two miles west of Exit 209 on Interstate 10. I'm not recommending it as a destination, but I've detoured farther while traveling to find a trail to stretch my legs.


Links
#2500
Bookmark and Share
Posted by Herb Wills at 2:59 PM 6 comments
Labels: , ,

Friday, June 10, 2016

Capital Cascades Trail creeps closer to a coastal connection at the FAMU Way grand opening

"This is what an All-American city looks like," said Andrew Gillum.


The mayor of Tallahassee, Florida was speaking at the Grand Opening event for the latest segment of the FAMU Way project, extending west from Wahnish Way to Pinellas Street just south of Railroad Square. If you were at the Friday, 10 June 2016, event, you'd have to agree with him. It's an attractive stretch of road, featuring landscaped medians and borders, bike lanes, a piece of the Capital Cascades Greenway Trail, a bicycle repair station, and a playground.

Capital Cascades Trail
Capital Cascades Trail

This was the second of three parts of the FAMU Way project, which includes segment three of the Capital Cascades Trail. It's also the first part of the project to actually extend FAMU Way. Before the project, FAMU Way had just been the renamed Canal Street--a narrow lane that ran along the Saint Augustine Branch. The Saint Augustine Branch may at one time have been an attractive stream, but in living memory the creek had become a drainage ditch, ugly, dangerous, and prone to flooding. Blueprint 2000's plan for the Capital Cascades Trail included parks, trails, and roads, but it was primarily a stormwater management project. The Saint Augustine Branch is now confined underground to a box culver, and FAMU Way runs above it.


"You're standing on top of these big concrete pipes," Autumn Calder of Blueprint 2000 told the people at the Grand Opening. "Big enough to drive a truck through."

FAMU Way
FAMU Way

Part two of the FAMU Way project, though, extends the road west of Wahnish Way, where Canal Street had never gone. Part three will take the road even farther, west and south to Gamble Street.


Of all the aspects of FAMU Way, I'm most impressed with the trail, and I'm not the only one. At the ribbon cutting during the grand opening, the ribbon stretched across the trail, not the roadway. When the Cascades Park Bridge over South Monroe Street is completed (not before 20 July 2016), the trail along FAMU Way will connect to Cascades Park and the rest of the Capital Cascades Trail. And when the third part of the FAMU Way project takes the trail to Gamble Street, Capital Cascades Trail will link with the Saint Marks Trail.


"A four-mile linear park right in the middle of our city," said Leon County Commission Bryan Desloge.

Cascade Park Bridge construction

I'm not sure if it will be quite as far as four miles, but when Capital Cascades Trail is done, you'll be able to walk, run, or bicycle on paved, multi-use trail all the way from Leon High School to Saint Marks, Florida and the shores of the Saint Marks River--more than twenty miles. That day is coming--plans for part three of the FAMU Way project are being drawn up, and the mother of all Grand Openings can't be far behind.


Links
#1715
Bookmark and Share
Posted by Herb Wills at 9:15 PM 0 comments
Labels: , , , ,

Friday, March 14, 2014

Tallahassee's Canopy Walkway makes beautiful connections

Canopy WalkwayI visited the Canopy Walkway on Sunday, 9 March 2014, five days after it opened. The new pedestrian-and-cyclist bridge spans the CSX railroad north of Lake Lafayette, connecting the trails of the city of Tallahassee's Lafayette Heritage Park with the trails of Leon County's Alford Greenway. Judging from the number of people who were also at the bridge that day, it has already become a destination landmark.


Bridges make good destination landmarks. I'm sure that many travelers on Interstate 75 have seen the "Land Bridge" over the highway south of Ocala, Florida, and felt compelled to find the trailhead to check it out. I did twice; once for myself and once to show it off to someone else. Pumpkinvine Trestle on Georgia's Silver Comet Trail is another bridge that I just had to see after reading about it, even though I declined to cross it. And has anyone on Florida's Nature Coast Trail not paused on the bridge over the Suwannee River?


Canopy WalkwayThe Canopy Walkway should also attract people. If they don't come just to see the bridge itself, they'll come for the spectacular views of Lake Lafayette from the walkway. It's a shame that the Sunset Limited is no longer running, because I can imagine Amtrak passengers stopping in Tallahassee just to get a closer look at the bridge that they saw over the tracks. As it is, people on the Lafayette Heritage Trail on the south side of Lake Lafayette can look north across the water and see the walkway disappearing into the treetops. They might hike, or run, or bicycle a little bit farther to check out the bridge. Paddlers on the lake might return on foot to see the bridge that they caught glimpses of from the water.


Canopy WalkwayThe structure you'll see at the Canopy Walkway is described in a City of Tallahassee press release:
The southern walkway spans 585 feet and rises up about 40 feet to meet the bridge. After crossing the 133-foot bridge, the northern walkway takes visitors 130 feet back down to solid ground.
Which gives you a total of 848 feet of boards to traverse to get from the ground on one side of the tracks to the ground on the other side. Everything is wood except for the span itself, which is steel. The bridge is covered; the walkways are not. At the top of the southern walkway you're at the same level as the treetops of the oaks lining the shore of Lake Lafayette, and you have a great view of the lake.


Canopy WalkwayIf you want to make the Canopy Walkway your destination, go to either Lafayette Heritage Trail Park at the east end of Heritage Park Boulevard, or the Alford Greenway parking area at the south end of Pedrick Road. From Lafayette Heritage Trail Park, you'll need to go east (on foot or bicycle) on the path along the lake till you get to the impoundment dike. Follow the path along the top of the dike to the north shore of the lake and the Canopy Walkway. From the parking lot to the Walkway is just over a mile and a quarter, depending a lot on where you start in the parking lot. For a shorter route, start from the Alford Greenway parking lot. After leaving your car there, you'll have only have to go about a quarter mile southwest to get to the Canopy Walkway. Access there is a road, really; cut through the woods so construction equipment could get to the bridge.


Links
#1103
Bookmark and Share
Posted by Herb Wills at 1:28 AM 0 comments
Labels: , ,

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Storm damage closes Lake Overstreet trails indefinitely

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:
Bookmark and Share
Posted by Herb Wills at 2:09 PM 1 comments
Labels: , ,

Thursday, August 12, 2010

US Forest Service's Back To School Special

The National Forests in Florida are having a "back to school" special this weekend, August 14 and 15. That is, the United States Forest Service is waiving fees in select recreation areas in Florida's three National Forests (Apalachicola, Ocala, and Osceola). Folks in the Tallahassee area will find it convenient to take advantage of free admission to the Leon Sinks Geological Area. Without going into a full trail report, Leon Sinks is a great place to take a walk. The trails are not a difficult hike; the land is piney woods that is all but absolutely flat. The trail is unique, though, in wandering the Woodville karst plain, and along the way you can see several sinkholes including Big Dismal Sink. There's also a river sink, where the waters of Fisher Creek disappear into the ground to wander the labyrinth of the Floridan aquifer.

Leon Sinks is the only site in the Apalachicola National Forest for which the USFS is waiving the entrance fee this weekend. In the Osceola National Forest admission will be free at the Olustee Beach day use area. In the Ocala National Forest fees will be waived for the Fore Lake day use area, the Farles day use area, the Lake Eaton boat ramp and pier, the Mill Dam Boat Ramp and Swim Area, and the Lake Dorr Boat Ramp.

Links:
Bookmark and Share
Posted by Herb Wills at 9:49 PM 0 comments
Labels: , , ,

Monday, July 12, 2010

"Stretch Your Legs" trails on I-10 in west Florida

If you're driving back to Florida from one of those dreary Gulf coast destinations like Biloxi or New Orleans, chances are (unless you're unfortunate enough to live in Pensacola) you'll be heading east on Interstate 10 through Santa Rosa County. Where, if you're feeling road-weary, you can stop at the rest area near mile marker 30 and walk on the "Stretch Your Legs Trail."


The trail is a narrow concrete loop that meanders around the perimeter of the rest area. Several signs are posted that give the length of the loop at 0.267 miles. Clearly someone out there has a compulsion about precision. The trail passes between parking areas and the rest rooms twice, which means traffic on the trail crosses traffic heading to and from the plumbing. Because of that I wouldn't recommend running on the trail, so forget about staging a four-lap "Nautical Mile Championship of North Florida" at the rest area. It is a good place to, well, stretch your legs, though, fighting fatigue that leads to auto accidents. Someone should be hitting up auto insurance companies to fund these at every highway rest area.


This isn't the only such loop on I-10. About another 30 miles east, the Okaloosa County rest area at mile marker 59 (eastbound) has an identical 0.267 mile loop. According to the Florida Department of Transportation, the westbound rest areas in Okaloosa and Santa Rosa Counties each have similar 0.256 mile walking trails. That's it for Interstate 10 in Florida, except for the Fanny Bay Trail in Baker County at the westbound rest area at mile marker 318. A real trail through the Osceola National Forest, the Fanny Bay Trail is in a league of its own. I still dream about the Florida Division of Forestry and the Florida Department of Transportation getting together to put together a similar trail in the Talquin State Forest next to the I-10 rest area in Leon County at mile marker 194. But I'm not holding my breath.


Links:
Bookmark and Share
Posted by Herb Wills at 2:32 PM 0 comments
Labels: , ,

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Apalachee Regional Park Trail is ready when you are

At this time of year, here is what you need to know about pavement.

Asphalt is black. The blacker it is, the better it is at absorbing all the energy that the sun shines on it in the form of visible light. It can only give up that energy as infrared radiation. Heat. By the late afternoon or early evening any blacktopped road you run on is going to be a grill. A long, hard grill. As if the air wasn't warm enough already.

Which is just another reason why I like to get off the pavement. Thanks to the Leon County Division of Parks and Recreation, we have another place to run off pavement this summer. The Apalachee Regional Park Trail is open for running, fully repaired after the winter storms, and even better than it was last cross-country season.

The directions to the trail haven't changed since last year. The sign to the parking area, set up during the 2009 FSU Invitational, is still there.


The sign directs you north through a gate and on a road through the woods.


The road emerges through the woods in Field #2. One thing that you'll immediately notice in Field #2 is hundreds of feet of log fencing that has been built since last year. The fencing is rustic and discourages people from driving on the trail. The parking area for the trail is on the left as soon as you come out into Field #2. The road continues ahead to Seminole Radio Control Airfield. Stay away from Seminole RCA! There are plenty of places to run out here; the air field is not one of them.


Once parked, walk to the north end of Field #2 and then turn left to go through the oak hammock and west into Field #1. The starting line is at the far west end of Field #1. The course heads east from the starting line, back toward the oak hammock. In this view of the course from the starting line, you can see from the grass clippings that the starting straightaway was recently mowed.


Last year at this time if you were to pause 200m from the start in the middle of Field #1 and look down, you wouldn't see a lot of grass. You would probably see deer prints, though, because the ground between the scant blades was soft enough to take tracks. This year the grass is growing thick and the ground is firm.


About 400m from the starting line you reach the oak hammock between Field #1 and Field #2. The course underneath the oaks has been surfaced with crushed oyster shell. This tends to wash away when it rains, so the Leon County Division of Parks and Recreation has placed a low ditch at the top of the oyster shell to catch water and carry it north. We'll see how well this works. The ditch isn't much of an obstacle, and it's certainly less of an obstacle than the gullies that rainstorms erode in the oyster shell.


In Field #2, the course runs along the treeline on the north edge of the field.


At the east end of Field #2, the course leaves the grass for a road surfaced with crushed oyster shell.


The road takes you on a dike that holds back a "moat" of water, which you can see on your right. Yes, the water is seepage from the old landfill. The green stuff floating on the surface doesn't look pretty, but it's only duckweed. The water isn't going to jump out of the canal and poison you, though, so as long as you resist the urge to drink it or swim in it you should be perfectly fine.



The dike and the course make a 90-degree turn to the right, after which the course leaves the dike. On the two-loop five-kilometer course, the first time by here you stay to the right and cross Field #3 to head to the Piney Woods. The second time by this point, you make a hairpin turn to the left to head directly into the Jungle.


Leaving the dike, on the first loop the course crosses Field #3. Like the other fields, Field #3 was a cow pasture before Leon County bought the land. Over the last couple of decades, the north end of Field #3 has grown up to become the Piney Woods.


After crossing the open part of Field #3, the course winds first north and then south through the Piney Woods.


Through the Piney Woods, the course is firm, weed-free, and shady. Turning to the south, the trail takes you out of the trees and back into the open part of Field #3.


Shortly after leaving the Piney Woods, the trail takes you through an old gully, the Dip. Watch you step going in and out of the Dip, especially if you're running in a group.


I can never resist taking a picture of the course immediately following the dip. For a few yards, the trail follows the oak-canopied rim of Field #3.


Leaving Field #3, the course turns right to descend into the Jungle. The course here has been covered with crushed oyster shell. This washed away during the winter, but the Leon County Division of Parks and Recreation has replaced the surface and it is as good as ever.


Near the 1600m mark, the Corbin Trail is a north-south shortcut for spectators and coaches. The Corbin Trail runs between the 1600m mark and the 3200m mark (or the "mile" and the "two-mile" as us Old Guys call them).


Beyond the 1600m mark, the course traverses a causeway through a swamp. Some people refer to the causeway as the first bridge. The swamp gets less savory names; "Silkwood" is the least impolite of them. The causeway is covered with crushed oyster shell, a better surface than some tracks.


After the causeway, the trail is a wide, well-drained path winding through the woods.


To the left of the course immediately following the causeway, the Braman Trail is a shortcut for spectators and coaches that runs from the finish area to a point about 800m from the finish. Walking up and down the Braman Trail, you can see the start, the finish, and three other stages of a five-kilometer race.


The course after the causeway isn't all smooth sailing. There are about three "moguls," dips in the trail left by old waterways.


The second bridge (if the causeway is the first bridge) washed out once during the fall and again during the winter. This time the County Division of Parks and Recreation rebuilt it for a flood.


The course steadily climbs after the second bridge, finally reaching the base of the Wall--a climb flatlanders only speak of in whispers. Actually, as hills in Tallahassee go it's not that impressive, but try telling that to a runner from Tampa.


At the top of the Wall the course returns to Field #1. The county has put a ditch here to keep water from flowing down the Wall and stripping it of oyster shell. The first time around, the five-kilometer course goes straight ahead to the south edge of the field. At the end of the second loop, the course turns sharply to the left to follow the north edge of the field.


At the end of the second loop the course follows the winding north edge of Field #1 to cover the last 400m to the finish line.


Midway through the last time across Field #1 a warm-up trail forks to the left, but the course itself keeps to the right, heading straight ahead to the finish line at the oak hammock.


The finish line is between the trees in the oak hammock. The line itself is at the tree on the right.


That was the state of the cross-country course at the Apalachee Regional Park Trail on 16 June 2010. There aren't any races scheduled there before October, but there's nothing to prevent you from going out there for a run. It'll be better than the pavement, even if it isn't exactly cool.

Links:
Bookmark and Share
Posted by Herb Wills at 1:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: , , , , ,

Friday, June 11, 2010

Now that's a trailhead (Red Bug)

On a mission to find out what one the Tallahassee Parks & Recreation Department's "standard kiosks" looks like (which is another story entirely), I swung by the youth sports fields at Elinor Klapp Phipps Park (aka Meridian Park) earlier this week. The first kiosk I saw happened to be at the trailhead for the Red Bug Trail.

Wow!

This is also the trailhead for the Coon Bottom Loop hiking trail. There's a tendency for Tallahasseans to run off to Torreya State Park or even farther away for a good hike, but you can get quite tired and dirty right in Phipps Park. And you can start your walk at the Cadillac of trail heads right off Meridian Road.

There's parking right next to the trailhead, which is a pretty minimal requirement but one that's not always met. Then there's the kiosk. Which is huge. And roofed. With built-in benches. You could live under this kiosk. And the city of Tallahassee and the Florida Trail Association actually post some useful information on it.


For cyclists who have been out on the Red Bug Trail, there's a bike wash.


After your bike or hike if you're sweaty or dirty or just don't want to take the ticks home with you, there's a shower (with an attached re-hydration device).


And then there's the trail itself, with a mailbox for dispensing maps. This is the entrance to the Coon Bottom hiking loop. Cyclists shouldn't be too miffed by the "No Bikes" sign; the Red Bug Off-Road bike trail is just a few feet away.


It's not perfect. The Meridian Park rest rooms are at least a hundred-yard walk away. But if you've ever gone for a hike and ended up spending a good chunk of time just trying to find the trail, this Red Bug trailhead looks pretty good.

Links:
Bookmark and Share
Posted by Herb Wills at 3:34 PM 2 comments
Labels: , , ,

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Leon County dedicates new bridge in Lake Henrietta Park

The new bridge over Munson Slough in Lake Henrietta Park has been completed for several weeks now, but Leon County made official notice of the opening with a ribbon cutting on Thursday morning, 20 May 2010. County Commission Chairman Bob Rackleff headed up the dignitaries at the event, which seemed to be attended mostly by people with large video cameras. Through it all, people kept using the park for their morning walking or cycling, without giving the ceremony much notice.

The bridge is the last link in a 380-yard trail that connects the city of Tallahassee's Silver Lake Park with Leon County's Lake Henrietta Park. The trail is a path lined with crushed oyster shell running along a creek, the East Drainage Ditch. (Someone really needs to come up with a better name for that.) Turning to follow Munson Slough, the trail mounts a ramp of planks made from recycled plastic. Another turn takes the trail over the slough on the actual bridge, a sturdy affair of concrete and steel. Whoever engineered it must expect our national obesity crisis to get worse before it gets better. Once across the bridge, you are on the Lake Henrietta Trail, a 6600-foot loop around Lake Henrietta.

Lake Henrietta Park and the new connector trail are part of the Capital Cascades Greenway, which combines upgrading stormwater management with building new recreational facilities. Speakers at the ribbon cutting also said that the Lake Henrietta Trail will connect with the Tallahassee-St Marks Historic Rail Trail via the Dr. Charles Billings Greenway. For more than a few years, the Billings Greenway has been one of those trails that people like to include in reports and articles, but is very difficult to walk or run or bike because it doesn't exist outside of those reports and articles. However, an unpaved trail already connects Lake Henrietta with Lake Munson. In spite of my impatience, the community's network of trails continues to grow.

Links:
Bookmark and Share
Posted by Herb Wills at 6:18 PM 0 comments
Labels: , ,

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Walking on water--hiking across the Apalachicola

If you're through-hiking the Florida National Scenic Trail or you have some other reason to be walking across the Florida panhandle, you're eventually going to have to cross the Apalachicola River. Some river crossings on the Florida Trail are a bit iffy. At St Marks, for instance, the trail simply stops at the banks of the St Marks River, where a small signs advises you to "Hail Boat to Cross." Crossings of the Aucilla and Suwanee rivers are on highway bridges. The crossing of the Apalachicola is also on a highway bridge, the eastbound span of the Trammell Bridge, which carries traffic on SR 20 from Blountstown to Bristol. But you don't have to worry about sociopaths in motor vehicles trying to knock you into the river because the bridge has a dedicated lane for pedestrians and bicycles.


The hiker/biker lane was included when the eastbound span was built in the late 1990s. Before that, the Trammell Bridge was an old two-lanes-with-no-shoulder span that dated back to the 1930s. I remember riding to track meets in Panama City on a school bus back in the 1970s; going across the old bridge could be thrilling. The old bridge is now the westbound span of the bridge, with no room for pedestrians or cyclists who want a long and healthy life. The hiker/biker lane on the eastbound span, though, is a model of safety.


For one thing, the lane is separated from motor traffic by a low concrete wall. This isn't a typical highway bike lane, with only a four-inch painted line between fragile bicycles and hurtling tractor-trailers. A breakdown lane and a wall divides the human beings from speeding tons of steel. Your protection from motor traffic assured, you can turn your worries to the river, 55 feet below. Another low wall separates you from the drop into the Apalachicola, but this is topped by a high railing. You could still fall into the river if you heaved yourself up onto the wall and then climbed to the top of the railing, but I don't think that you could call it an accident.


The exact length depends on how you want to measure it, but the biker/hiker lane across the Apalachicola is about 1.6 miles long. This distance will probably inspire someone to think of staging an out-and-back 5K across the river, but forget it. The lane is quite narrow--"ordinary sidewalk width," the signs say--and eastbound runners would be sure to interfere with westbound runners. Because the Apalachicola River marks the boundary between the Eastern and Central Time Zones, it might be interesting to do a "Time Warp 3K," where the runners start on the east side of the bridge and finish before they started (according to local clocks) on the west side of the bridge. Or at least it would be interesting if there weren't a possibility of eastbound cyclists needing the lane at the same time as the westbound runners. Then it would be too interesting.

Best just to leave the biker/hiker lane as a safe way for the non-motorized to cross the Apalachicola River. For Florida Trail hikers, it's not much of a wilderness experience. But even the Appalachian Trail crosses the Little Tennessee River on the spine of Fontana Dam, which, as one of the largest concrete structures in the world, is hardly a woodland.

Links:
Bookmark and Share
Posted by Herb Wills at 4:35 PM 2 comments
Labels: , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)