My first new post in 8 years. After recently doing the commentary for pictures taken in 2015 for the last post I decided to finally tackle the next park, Battelle-Darby. I had been there a few times in the '90s, and in the last couple years used their newish campground that you backpack into. So I knew what I was getting into. Part of the lonnnnnng hesitation in photographing this one is the sheer size of the place. It's our largest park by far with over 7000 acres, not all of that developed. And since I don't have a car, getting there is a complete pain. Either I take the COTA city bus as far west and a bit south as it goes, dropping me off at the Camp Chase bike trail (part of the Ohio to Erie Trail) then walk 1 hour 45 minutes to the Park. Or use an Uber either from where I live for about $50 one way with tip.
I decided on the bus/walk combo since I'm cheap and it was a beautiful day. The only way to photograph the huge park without using the campground for a week as a base or something is to break it into sections. Which fortunately it is on their map. Cedar Ridge is the first alphabetically of their sections, so a few days ago I ventured out there to spend about 5 hours walking around. Definitely glad I put on my SPF Irish sunscreen!
The long trek in Flatsville USA. It was a 5.3 mile walk to the BD parking lot from where I got off the bus. So 10.6 round trip plus maybe 4 miles covering all of the Cedar Ridge area.
Sidewalk chalk inspiration/depression. How odd. At least the penmanship is very nice.
Maybe a mile in at a road crossing there was a trail closed/detour sign. I immediately thought oh jeez, I've come halfway across the continent to get here, don't tell me it was a waste. So since other folks in bikes continued past me I decided to push on. It wasn't truly closed though it was the weekend. I don't doubt had it been a weekday that workers and maybe excavation equipment would've been at it installing this thing.
Nice design.
The tracks go on forever. Apparently these are mainly used in spring & fall to transport grain from some mill west of Battelle Darby to I think CBus. Definitely not a main route anyway. I didn't see any activity the almost 4 hour round trip walk next to these. Before the first time I went backpacking at the park a couple years back I took my bike that I used to have from the bus stop to the park to see how long it would take and if it would be feasible to ride with a huge backpack/sleeping bag/camp chair/thermarest/etc (not feasible). At that time there were many empty rail cars parked along the rails waiting to eventually be assembled.
The farmer was doing something to this field with his tractor when I passed by. Planting for spring maybe? Seems some good ol' boys were doing outdoor target practice with their guns not far away from here. I was definitely hoping for no stray bullets.
Clouds rolling in. I knew there was a chance of minor rain late in the afternoon that day. As you'll see.
Finally made it to the Cedar Ridge Picnic Area parking lot/trailhead/bird motel. Seemed like it was nearly all starlings for some reason.
Parking lot for the Cedar Ridge & Indian Ridge trailheads. Complete with the always appreciated bathrooms (of the non-flushing toidy variety, though better than a plastic porta john. Heck, porta johns definitely aren't a given at every CBus area park, and they always take them away in winter).
Sledding hill by the lot. Definitely not too common in CBus, where you can more or less count the hills on two hands.
Good thing these creeks are considered the most pristine in all of Ohio since I had to fill a water bottle directly from it the first time I camped a couple years back. I was I'll prepared at the time, not knowing where the hand pumped water well was, nor the water fountains near the ranger station in Cedar Ridge. It was one of those deals at the time - I was 4 miles in on the backpack trail, had no filter device or iodine tablets, but all I could think of was water RIGHT NOW. It tasted alright enough, and I didn't get sick, but I've always heard that no waterways in Ohio are safe to straight up drink untreated. Now I know where all that stuff is at, and also where I can plug in my phone if need be
Beginning of the Cedar Ridge trail.
Dedicated bench to some group.
Babbling brook. One thing I dislike about CBus is the overall sparseness of woods within the entire 270 outer belt. Most of our 20 Metroparks are outside the belt. And only this and Scoito Grove offer camping. IIRC, just about all of the decent sized Hamilton County Parks in Cincy where I'm from offer camping. Oddly I never camped at Winton Woods a stone's throw from where I grew up the whole 18 years I grew up there. Only later.
I wish I had the skill to identify flowers. Or trees. Or different species of sparrows. For all I know these are weeds, though. Pretty weeds, at least.
I dunno. I just occasionally dig taking a pic of my shadow.
There were plenty of wading fishermen doing their thing this fine sunny day. I always feel weird taking pics of people unless I'm pretty far away. Like if the shoe was on the other foot I'd probably feel strange if some random person took a picture of me.
I also always dig an overlook. Back to it in a minute.
The grills were fired up in full force this day.
Overlook with a slippery slope unauthorized trail.
Nice place to reflect. I met a couple people that I had a nice five minute chat with, one of whom lived in Grandview, not far from where I used to live.
I always wear contacts, and these maybe looked to just be readers, but man, terribly near sighted as I am, if I lost a pair of glasses I would be absolutely 100% sunk. Like wandering into oncoming traffic at the cross walk kinda sunk.
I believe the scientific term for these are "leave a waffle style imprint on your butt model benches". Greyhound stations exclusively use these.
Walking back from the overlook towards the very appreciated flushing toidy & running sink style restrooms & water fountains. Kinda a far hike from the backpack camping sites depending on which one of the 4 sites you're at, but most definitely welcome.
Closed "private"(I guess) trail for the Cedar Ridge Lodge. Lined with cute little gas lamps
The nice rentable Cedar Ridge Lodge. Though I've not been in it since it's locked when not in use, the building itself seems no better or worse than any of our parks rentable lodges. But it's got a super nice deck, and a great overlook of the valley. This day it was rented out for something and as you can see, someone was on the deck outside reading. So I didn't want to go poking around too much. I definitely think if I ever hired one of my favorite musicians to do a house party that this would be the place I'd have it. I can't have a house party in the efficiency I'm currently renting.
Getting close to the northern edge of the Cedar Ridge Area.
Something's moving in. I was feeling the occasional brief sprinkle.
Signs for what will be I think the third area I will eventually visit in Battelle-Darby. The Nature Center area is where they have their small herd of 15 or so bison. Looking forward to seeing that some day.
End of the northern border best I could tell from the map.
Before I got to the end I passed some lady who was walking out of this area. Decided to check it out when I turned around...
...and found not much of interest.
Heading back south to hit the rest of the trail sections I hadn't covered yet.
This pump, unlike the one at Indian Ridge Area, is not listed on the map. Not sure if it's functional, and I didn't want to walk through what looked to be tick country to find out. Plus the water fountains were pretty close. Plus plus when I used the pump at Indian Ridge before knowing of the water fountains, that water was rank. First couple pumps were so-so, but when I really started churning the thing, it was super-iron tasting. Gross.
The reading lady had left at this point so I decided to grab a couple more pics of the lodge.
Pretty cool deck.
Other side deck.
Playground area in one of the interconnecting trail segments.
Big ol' field. Ideal for tossing a frisbee or launching a model rocket.
Springtime in Central Ohio. Another plant I cannot identify.
Less woodsy but accessible trail on the other side of the road.
I think they call this succession when they manage certain parts of a park to grow a certain way.
Winton Woods, the park next to where I grew up in Cincy has in the last 25 years put up obnoxious yellow UNAUTHORIZED TRAIL ropes at the entrance to many of the highly traveled trails we all used to take as kids. Not sure why at some point they were all of a sudden off limits. They were (and still are) pretty cool trails. So I guess old habits due hard so when I see an off limits trail, I take it. I mean, there's gotta be something cool on it if it's forbidden fruit right? Actually I didn't bother taking this one. Looked chock a block with sticker plants. Those plants I can most certainly identify (yeeouch!).
Rounding the big ol' field.
Looking towards the ranger station. I know it mostly for checking in there before a backpacking camping trip. Another weird thing about Winton Woods where I'm from is they have a huge ranger station with a couple dozen vehicles. Battelle-Darby, a way bigger park has like one ranger car. Even Red River Gorge in KT, in the middle of Daniel Boone National Forest only has a few ranger cars. Strange that Winton Woods goes for such overkill.
A couple closed reserveable shelter areas. It's where I found much needed power outlets for my dead phone a while back on my second camping trip there.
I always kinda sucked at volleyball. Baseball & softball were more my thing.
And sometimes promises broken. Not really. Seriously though, the latest 20th Metropark which opened a while back, Quarry Trails is pretty great. At this point it's very much in phase one as there are still some functional quarries. 10-15-20 years down the road though, that place will be a total gem.
I don't necessarily suck at horseshoes but I never necessarily feel the need to play.
Looking towards the barely visible Oak Grove Tavern. Home of the unfriendliest bartender and unfriendliest fellow customers. Long story.
Heading back from the reserveable shelters.
I'm a sucker for physical maps.
Ranger station. I've found them here to be super friendly & helpful. Back in the day at Winton Woods we would dread seeing their rangers. Usually since we were breaking some rule/law. In the park after dark, unauthorized bonfire/camping/parking/drinking/smoking weed. Personally I never got busted but had friends/brother that did. None of us never went down for "borrowing" a peddleboat from the harbor at night and peddling it to the campground area and ditching it there. Hey, what IS the statute of limitations on peddleboat crimes anyway??
No rangers present at this point.
More pretty blooms.
Makes me want to bring a pet on a bicycle.
Looking towards the creek valley. Sprinkles started returning at this point.
I thought I read somewhere that Little Darby Creek is at some points bigger than Big Darby Creek.
I suck at swimming but always make a point if the weather is right to dip my feet in the water.
Alternate, and fully authorized trail up the one little hill in this part of the trail system.
Outdoor educational area. I took a selfie on that stage using the timer function but was unhappy with the result. I couldn't be bothered with multiple takes.
Last couple of interconnecting trail bits I took so I could finish walking every bit of the trails in the area.
More flowering stuff I can't identify.
More of the babbling brook from earlier.
Heading back towards the lot. Feeling pretty tired at this point.
An Ouch Tree.
Back at the beginning. Indian Ridge which will be the next part of my visit is 180° from here
Technically not part of Cedar Ridge but the map showed this trail alongside the road on it, so I figured I'd take it till I hit the end of the map. Plus I got to watch the fishermen doing their thing, and see the railroad bridge.
Heading back to the bus stop miles from here. Rain was definitely moving in. Checking the radar it seemed there were some tiny but potent cells moving through the area. I hate getting soaked but once you're 100% wet you can't get any wetter. It's lightning that truly worries me, especially walking in the wide open flat fields which the majority of this trail was. All in all I didn't get too wet - the rain was steady but mild to moderate sprinkles for maybe 12 minutes.
But 12 minutes was enough to make a rainbow. Being so flat, I could see the entire thing from beginning to end.
So I figure it will take me about 5-7 non-consecutive days to photograph this entire huge park. Maybe more. I may sign up for free backpack camping for a few days to make it easier to base myself close to the center of everything. We shall see.
