TAKE A HIKE! – Voice Of The Township

Saturday, June 6, is National Trails Day when folks celebrate the wonderful nature trails available all over the United States, including Wayne Township and elsewhere in Allen County. Getting out into nature, especially at this time of year, is a real joy. It’s peaceful, healthy and fun. Hiking a trail is a great activity for friends and family to do together. Trails provide opportunities for talking, walking, cycling, running, or just quietly enjoying each other’s company. Best of all trails are a real bargain, and most often free!

To enjoy a nature trail you don’t need to travel far. There are lots of nature trails to enjoy near Waynedale and the south side of Fort Wayne. Eagle Marsh Wetland Preserve, off of Engle Road has trails that run through 716 acres of marshland, prairie and forested wetlands. Adjacent to that is Fox Island that has six miles of trails that go through woods, by a lake, a sand dune and more. These preserves offer many chances to see wild flowers, birds and animals you won’t find anywhere else. And talk about history, this is the area that the Indian Chief Little Turtle called the Glorious Gate because it connected the Wabash/Ohio/Mississippi Rivers with the Great Lakes watershed, making it the major route across the United States back then. People still find fossils and arrowheads in the ground there.

If you would like to take a guided tour on National Trails Day, ACRES Land Trust is offering two free hikes (at 10:00 am and 1:00 pm) led by trail guides through the Bicentennial Woods at 340 E. Shoaff Road in Huntertown. This 80-acre nature preserve is located about 5 miles north of Fort Wayne just off of Coldwater Road. From Fort Wayne, take I-69 to Coldwater Road (SR 327), turn north (left) and travel for about 5 miles to Shoaff Road. Turn west (left) and continue for 1 mile. A parking area is on the south side of Shoaff Road. The nature preserve has a well-marked 2-mile trail system. It is worth the drive, as the Bicentennial Woods is one of the only old growth forests in northeast Indiana. Many of the trees there are over two hundred years old!

A little closer to town, Foster Park has over 250 acres including four miles of riverfront along the St. Mary’s. Foster Park has woodland trails as well as paved walkways and cycle paths. It is a major trailhead for the Rivergreenway, the walking and bicycling path that runs for 24 miles throughout the city of Fort Wayne. On the Fort Wayne Trails website I read an interview with Camille Garrison that Waynedale residents have been campaigning to make a better and safer connection to the Rivergreenway. In speaking with Camille I learned that this campaign raised and donated to Fort Wayne over $20,000 for this project, and now the plans are in the hands of the city engineers. You may pass by the construction that has begun at Fairfield and Lower Huntington Roads where a ramp is being built that will connect up to the St. Mary’s Pathway. This will make the Rivergreenway more accessible to Waynedale and to the rest of the south side of town.

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It is wonderful that so many people and organizations appreciate the value of the nature around us and are working to help others access and enjoy that nature. It’s good for people when they can spend time in the beauty of the great outdoors, and it’s important to introduce our children to that beauty as well. Having just finished the Great American Cleanup I’m reminded, too, that we can all do our own part by carrying out whatever we bring in to the natural areas we visit so that the next person can enjoy the beauty as much as we did.

Celebrate National Trails Day on June 6 and every other day you can by “Taking a Hike!”