DESCRIPTION

Turn left on Front (MP 2.0) and follow that street to Greenlawn Ave. A portion of the walk is brickwork but this gives way to concrete. At the corner of Greenlawn, bear right and you'll be on the concrete walkway of the bridge over the Scioto. This is the last river crossing and affords some nice views of the Scioto and the southern side of the peninsula. There is a slight rise in the bridge and on the other side (MM 2.5) just off the bridge, Scioto Blvd is a short street to the right. Turn right and follow the walk to the trailhead on the right side. The trail returns to asphalt and ducks under Greenlawn Avenue. There is a fairly challenging rise back up and you're in Berliner Park.

If there is a monument to baseball, it must be Berliner Park. The orientation to that sport is obvious. So much so that you have to kind of look hard to find trail access through it runs along the entire eastern side of the park.

Rising from the Greenlawn underpass, the trail intersects a connector to that street before turning straight south--and I do mean straight. It passes a spur trail which leads out to a parking area--this is the only paved access to the trail inside the park and can be reached from the parking areas around bldg 1720--and undulates a little (MP 3.0) before leveling out and running to the southern end of the park. It passes through a short glade--with a footpath access to the road--a large fenced area (MM 3.5) with some abandoned construction equipment and buildings and runs through the woods (MP 4.0) before terminating just before the busy Franks Rd. I-104. The loop which appears on the 1994 aerial image has been truncated and a final post (MP 4.1) marks the end of the section. There are plans to extend the trail under the roadway and link up with it farther to the west.

IMPRESSIONS

As detailed in Biking:Ohio's Rails-Trails (Revised Edition by Shawn E Richardson, Adventure Publications. 2000), the segment of trail from Greenlawn to Frank Rd is actually the first section of railroad converted for trail use in the entire state of Ohio. The trail has obviously been resurfaced within the past few years but, on the whole, after 30 years of service, it is still in wonderful shape.

Front St has some brick paving but it is a short few blocks to Greenlawn. The walkway over the bridge to the other side of the Scioto is your standard 4' sidewalk. Nice views but bothersome if you run into someone running or cycling the other direction. Two more turns and you are back on the trail. The area under Greenlawn looks as though it might flood (lots of mud on the asphalt.) at times.

Another relatively steep climb up to Berliner Park. Then the trail flats out mostly for an arrow straight run south to the end. The woods are the heaviest I've think I've seen on the trail. (Not to say there aren't open spots.) As mentioned, access can only be had at three points--there is a spur off Greenlawn, a paved access trail from Building 1220, and a beaten dirt path farther down just south of Field 18. (There is a parking area across the road). At about this point, the trail goes behind a long fenced in area (I believe there is a closed waste facility with a lot of abandoned construction equipment and dozens of pontoons) and runs back of a closed storage yard which means that there is no access to the park for the last mile to the terminus.

FUTURE TRAIL

There have been plans to extend the paved trail south passing under the limited access portion of SR104 and connecting to that road somewhere to the west where it turns back into a surface street. The new Columbus Greenways map, however, routes the Lower Scioto Trail along the east bank of the river south as far as London-Groveport Rd (SR 665) about another 7.6 miles with a spur trail to Williams Rd. In this configuration, the trail will intersect with a new planned trail, the Big Run Trail which will pass through Grove City and connect with the Ohio-to-Erie Trail as it approaches Columbus from the south-west.

06/02/2008