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GOING NORTH: NEXT SECTION | GOING SOUTH: NEXT SECTION |
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NEARBY PARK AND TRAILS | NEARBY TRAIL | ||
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Though you can start the trail from a variety of points around Westerville, the dedicated trail begins in earnest at the south west corner of W Main St and the Alum Creek. From the trail head, you proceed south along the river. On the opposite side is Alum Creek Park. The trail through Westerville, runs mostly through lightly wooded areas and open meadows. It passes a small lake and some very large open fields. There are connectors to Cooper Rd. and Park Meadow Rd along the way. There are no challenging elevation changes. It crosses to the east side of the creek via an old metal rail or vehicle bridge. The woods get a little thicker and the trail ducks down under Schrock Rd.
The underpass of Schrock tends to flood in heavy rain. Happily, there are ramps up to the roadway and its sidewalks on both sides and lights on either side (Cooper or Park Meadow Rds) to cross in busy traffic times.
Below Schrock, the trail runs adjacent to a couple of office parks, past some retaining ponds popular with Canadian geese and the through a short woody section to the underpass of I-270.
The City of Westerville has a lot of good information on its extensive recreational trail and path system. You can find it here:
or here: http://www.ci.westerville.oh.us/Portals/0/2008%20Bikeway%20Map.pdfThe Ohio-to-Erie Routing exits the Alum Creek Trail at Schrock Rd and uses that road's bike lanes and the Westerville bikeway to connect north to the Genoa Trail and points north.
The section north of West Main St. is run on concrete and asphalt walkways of busy thoroughfares which, while they pretty much isolate you from vehicular traffic, don't separate you from the noise and exhaust. The area though the Sports Park is nice with its loop (about 1.1 miles). Once inside Heritage Park, things quiet down although this is a short respite. West Main varies in traffic. I have no preference in crossing.
Once on the trail proper, things resume a more recreational flavor. It is a nice, relatively flat run. The terrain varies enough to keep interesting. The issue with the Schrock underpass flooding is fairly limited though it was closed for over a week in the Spring of '05.
06/02/2008