Our story so far: I continue to prepare myself for a June encounter with England’s Cotswold Way.
By hiking one GNV trail at a time.
And the really splendid thing about GNV is that no matter where you live you really don’t have to go very far to find a trail.
Loblolly Woods Trail is only about a mile away from my house in Forest Ridge. It traverses a splendid city nature park that borders both sides of NW 8th Avenue between NW 22 and NW 34th streets, and continues north until it ends hard up against NW 16th.
And once you step into Loblolly you encounter a mini-wilderness. (Of course you’re never really free of traffic noise, but that’s life in the city.)
My AllTrails app says you can hike 2.5 miles through Loblolly Woods. But the thing is these woods hold not just a single trail but a rabbit warren of intriguing side paths that loop off in every direction.
Which is how I ended up walking just over four miles without substantially retracing my route.
I dunno why, but something about strolling aimlessly in these GNV woods put me in mind of that old Jim Stafford song: “And the next thing you know You’re just wand’ring ’round behind the little animals.”
But I digress.
Of course the beauty of walking in these lovely woods is that you keep coming upon stunning scenes of Hogtown Creek.
And if you do happen to be a student of Stafford’s “Wild Weed,” you might just see Hogtown Creek in an entirely new, um, light.
Present company excepted of course. As a trained observer of the human condition, I see things just the way they are.
Oops, another digression.
My point being that if you are up for a good hike you don’t really need to drive yourself off to Paynes Prairie, Barr Hammock or some of the other GNV area trails that I’ve been negotiating of late.
In this a city of winding creeks and shady hammocks chances are you can find your dream walk within, well, walking distance.
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