Yesterday (Sunday the 28th) I took advantage of the great spring-like weather that we had and spent several hours just walking around the Olentangy Trail between the wetlands area and campus. I started out at the crowded Tuttle Park Rec Center where there were families on the playground with their small children and looped my way around the wetlands.
At one point I stopped and relaxed on one of the benches for the better part of an hour. I saw people riding bikes, walking, jogging, walking their dogs, hiking, fishing, and sitting on the riverbank. It was a busy day on the trail, and I was surprised at how many different kinds of people I saw. I saw children riding bikes with friends. I saw college students of course, but they were seriously outnumbered by the adults using the trail. I was not expecting to see a crowd of middle-aged and elderly folks in a park so close to campus. My favorite thing that I saw was two college aged guys sitting on a limb of one of the trees that hangs out over the water. There is a picture attached that shows someone sitting in this tree, but the two boys I saw were way out on the end of the branch and they looked really comfortable just hanging there soaking ups rays.
When I was done sitting on the bench, I opted to take a hike right along the riverbank past the wetlands area. There is actually a well defined foot path that follows the curvature of the river. The river itself is pretty gross (I noticed lots of trash floating), but it feels good to step out of the city. From this path you can’t see the trail and it really feels like you’re hiking in the woods. I was overtaken by more than one person on a hardcore mountain bike using this trail like a single-track mountain bike trail. I never knew this was here. I’ll have to come back with my bike and give it a try. The other thing that I found when I got off the paved trail was this massive lean-to that someone obviously spent some time working on constructing.