Andy Niekamp will complete his 1,444-mile hike of the Buckeye Trail on June 15 at Deeds Point MetroPark. Photo courtesy Andy Niekamp.

Niekamp has been hiking since his Boy Scout days, tackling such terrain as the 7,400-mile Appalachian Trail, a continuous footpath that runs through fourteen states from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Katahdin in Maine. He has been awarded three “2,000 miler” certificates by the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, recognition conferred on hikers who have completed the entire trail. Last year alone, he logged nearly 1,600 miles of backpacking on 16 different trips in 15 states.

The Buckeye Trail, which is the longest circular trail in the country, is a new challenge for Niekamp. “Hiking the Buckeye Trail is about discovering Ohio. It is not a wilderness experience. It is about learning Ohio’s history. It is about the people of Ohio,” he writes in his blog, outlining his trip. “It is a journey around Ohio on trails and roads in both rural and urban areas. Hiking the Buckeye Trail is about the people, the places, the present and the past.”

Photo courtesy Andy Niekamp. Discover Ohio's past, present and future along the Buckeye Trail.

Marked with “blue blazes” along the volunteer-maintained trail, the Buckeye Trail reaches all four corners of the state. It passes through several MetroParks (Eastwood, Deeds Point, Island, Taylorsville and Wegerzyn Gardens MetroParks), running with the North Country National Scenic Trail. You can learn more about this 4,600-mile trail stretching across seven states from North Dakota to New York at the annual conference that takes place right here in Dayton August 11-14!

The public is invited to welcome Niekamp, who started his journey on the Buckeye Trail from Dayton on March 20, as he wraps up his hike at Deeds Point MetroPark on June 15. If you want to be part of the action and hear Niekamp’s experiences, head to Eastwood MetroPark at 3:00 p.m. on the Buckeye Trail/Mad River bike path near the bridge in the parking lot farthest from Harshman Road. Finish the hike with Niekamp around 4:00 p.m. and be rewarded with a reception at the Five Rivers MetroParks office at 224 N. Saint Clair St. (There will be cake and ice cream!)

Photo curtesy Andy Niekamp. Encounter nature as you hike the Buckeye Trail!

Getting inspired to get out and hike? Why not join a group of friendly folks who will keep you motivated? Niekamp is the founder and leader of the Dayton Hikers group, Dayton’s largest and most active hiking group. You’ll be in the company of about 500 members who take advantage of the group’s variety of day hike and backpacking trips. You can also get outside and enjoy the nearly 175 miles of trail available at any MetroPark. Why not check out an upcoming fitness and health program? It doesn’t matter what your skill level, intensity or frequency with which you hike, just as long as you get out and live!

Fall at Cox Arboretum MetroPark

Greetings Daytonians! I’m Val Beerbower, a Jack-of-all-pens writer, novice cook, bad movie paramour and public relations specialist with Five Rivers MetroParks. I’ll admit, I wasn’t much of an “outdoorsy” person when I took up my marketing mantle in the summer of 2009, but since then , my journey with this park system has opened my eyes to a world of educational experiences, recreational opportunities and conservation principles that are waiting right in your own back yard. For those who have a little trepidation approaching nature and haven’t quite wrapped your head around tree hugging methods, fear not. I shall be your guide to Dayton’s Wild Side, taking the baby steps right along with you. Together, we’ll divest ourselves of the remote or mouse and step outside into the glaring, glorious light of day. I promise it won’t hurt a bit.

Let’s start with something easy – fall color. Who doesn’t like pretty trees? I learned that shedding leaves is a survival strategy for the trees. Broad leaves from deciduous trees, even though they collect a huge amount of sunlight for photosynthesis, do require more energy from the tree to maintain. Because Ohio winters are dark and dry, it’s easier for the tree to just shed the leaves and remain dormant until the warmer months return.

Leaves change color for a variety of reasons. Some leaves are naturally yellow or orange, but the activity of photosynthesis (process plants use to turn sunlight into glucose) produces a green hue that overpowers any other color present in the leaf. When photosynthesis shuts down, the other colors shine through. In other instances, the glucose gets trapped inside the leaf and the hues you see are actually the sugars (maples are a vibrant example).

The best seat in the house for nature's annual fashion show is reserved for you! Visit Twin Creek MetroPark and other natural parks while the display is still up.

If you want to learn more, there are a few programs you might want to attend:

(For the kids)
• Stroller Strut: What Do Leaves Do?
• Tike Hike: Pile of Leaves
• Tike Hike: My First Leaf Collection
(For grown-ups)
• Nature Center Discovery Hike

For hike ideas and places to spot fall’s radiant color (hurry! Limited quantities available while supplies last!), visit metroparks.org/FallColor.

This man is exerting far too much energy for this to be considered a "relaxing" activity.

As Spring hurtles uncontrollably into Summer, my mind reaches out to find the activities I can do outside. My own definition of “outdoor activities,” however, has little or nothing to do with being active at all. More to the point, I like to try and find places where it can appear that I’m doing some sort of activity, while remaining completely inactive. Fishing usually fits this bill. I will confess here that I have rarely ever caught a fish (which would go against my goal of being inert) and sometimes, to insure that some fish with either a death wish or a very slow mental acuity won’t inadvertently leap onto my baited hook, I usually fish with no bait. This serves a twofold purpose: one, a fish will generally avoid my barren hook in search of a more agreeable dinner, thereby allowing me to remain in a seated position and two, it makes it so that I don’t have to put my hands near any icky worms which, on especially humid days, feel much like a semi-solidified string of undulating snot. I guess that while I’m confessing things here, I might as well add that, even if I had the misfortune of catching a fish, I would throw it back as I can’t stand to eat fish and I can assure you that a mounted fish on my wall would definitely clash with my rather eclectic form of interior design. Moving on…

On one of my excursions, I was trying not to fish on the shore of one of the lakes, but my wife insisted that I bait my hook so that I could catch her a catfish to fry up that evening. Not wanting to exert that much energy trying to reel in a catfish, let alone the potential injuries I may sustain from the stinging barbels, I convinced her that all the good catfish were in the middle of the lake. I got out my trusty inflatable raft and, utilizing the convenient foot pump, filled it with air and pushed off from the shore. Now I could actually lie down in public without seeming as if I were a lazy ne’er-do-well. This was pure genius. Well, while I was floating about on the water, I noticed some splashing and activity nearby. I didn’t even dare to have a hook on for fear that a catfish might be attracted to the shiny metal and hook it’s stupid self, so I just kept casting sinker in the general vicinity of the splashing, which seemed to create more splashing. From the shore, I’m sure that it must have looked impressive. Well, the splashing began to come closer to where I was floating and, after a few more casts, seemed to make a beeline directly for me. Now, I’ve seen Jaws I and II, so a tremor of fear trickled down my back until I remembered that the Great Whites were destined for deeper waters than those found at Possum Creek. I was rather shocked, however, when the splashing got really, really close and I found it to be caused by a very pissed off beaver that I had apparently conked in the head several times with my sinker. Apparently there are a literal ton of these flat tailed rodents gnawing about Possum Creek and, thankfully, I was able to extricate myself from the situation unscathed.

The walking trails are incredibly intriguing as well. You can explore areas that range from lakeside trails to wildflower fields to farmland and then into a beech tree forest, full of loamy trails and deep ravines. This is where I found some things that struck me as odd and made me explore the history of the park further. I came across a massive trestle, a large square expanse of concrete and several rusted out trolley car frames sitting inexplicably in the middle of the woods. The name of the woods also intrigued me: Argonne Forest. While it may sound like something out of Lord of the Rings, history’s most famous forest of the same name was a deadly battle site during World War I. Why would someone name a forest in Dayton after the site of such an epic battle?

In the late eighteen-hundreds, a boy was born named Null M. Hodapp. His boyhood friend was a boy named Ralph Clemons with whom he shared many adventures. They grew into adulthood together and enlisted in the Army to fight the Germans in World War I. In a sadly ironic twist of fate, Ralph was killed mere hours before the Armistice Treaty was signed. Ralph’s death was devastating to Hodapp as he returned to Dayton to resume his life. He eventually married LoRean D. Hodapp and became a widely regarded judge in the Dayton area. In the 1930s, Hodapp purchased 400 acres around Germantown Pike and dubbed the land Argonne Forest Park, in memory of his friend and the place in which he had died. The first building that was constructed was a clubhouse for veterans. Eventually, the park consisted of a dance pavilion, a horse track, a car racetrack, a shooting range and a swimming hole with a diving platform. “Swimming hole” is more than a slight misnomer as the “hole” was actually constructed by building a huge wall to block the Possum Creek, which created a massive swimming area replete with diving platforms, the remnants of which can still be seen today. Hodapp also bought several streetcars from the Oakwood-Dayton lines to be used as impromptu cabins and for the children to play in. Hodapp would also perform the Battle of Argonne Forest every Fourth of July, in memory of 322nd Field Artillery Unit who had fought there during World War I.

As the world moved into the next War, rationing and depletion of money contributed to the eventual demise of the park. Some sections were sold off, but the bulk of the park remained and was made into what is now known as Possum Creek MetroPark. Walking amongst the paths and seeing the relics of a bygone era, one can almost squint and see the shrieking children cannonballing off the diving platform or hear the music and the shuffling feet scrape over the dance hall floor. The grandeur is gone, but the memory remains indelibly etched into the sodden trails and the swaying branches of the forest.

While volunteering on this important campaign for Issue 4, former MetroParks employee Angie Sullivan discovered something unsettling. “People just don’t know about the MetroParks,” Sullivan laments. “Most folks I talk to might be familiar with one or two parks they frequent, but when I tell them we have 25 facilities located throughout the county, they’re shocked.” Responses like those are the reason the Kettering resident decided to do something that would showcase all Five Rivers MetroParks has to offer – Sullivan, along with her fiancé Shane Sheldon, will hike to each MetroPark in just one week.

The couple will cover about 125 miles in approximately seven days, blogging, tweeting and snapping photos of the parks along the way. “We thought this would be a great way for people at home to take a virtual tour of all the MetroParks,” says Five Rivers MetroParks Outdoor Recreation Department Director Greg Brumitt. “It’s imperative during this election season that we make sure the voters know exactly what they get with a ‘yes’ vote – or what they’ll miss out on if they vote ‘no.’ Our park-wide festivals and entertainment events are fun, but if you just visit the parks during festivals, you’re not getting the whole picture. Park Trek will raise awareness of all our facilities in a context of nature and conservation, the core reasons why citizens founded the MetroParks in 1963.”

Park Trek started and will end in downtown Dayton. A kickoff celebration and press conference took place this past Saturday at the National City 2nd Street Market. Then, Sullivan and Sheldon commenced their Park Trek, heading to Eastwood, Huffman and Carriage Hill MetroParks. The next day, the couple traveled to Taylorsville, Aullwood Garden and Englewood MetroParks. Monday’s stops include Trotwood’s Wetland Mitigation Bank, then onto Germantown MetroPark. On Tuesday, the couple will hike to Twin Creek and Possum Creek MetroParks, followed by Cox Arboretum and Sugarcreek MetroParks on Wednesday. Hills & Dales, Sunrise and Wesleyan make up day six of Park Trek, and Sullivan and Sheldon wrap up the first-ever Five Rivers MetroPark facility circumnavigation at Wegerzyn Gardens, Island and Deeds Point MetroPark. When the couple arrives at Deeds Point at about 9:30 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 30, Sullivan, who is registered to vote in Montgomery County, will hike to the Board of Elections in downtown Dayton and cast her vote to “protect our parks.”

Sullivan and Sheldon say they understand the importance and unique value of Park Trek, and they are looking forward to getting to know the MetroParks in a new way as well as generate awareness about the park system. “I know what people might think when I tell them Shane and I are going to hike 125 miles in a week,” Sullivan laughs. “But we love taking on challenges like this. It took us five months to hike the 2,170-mile Appalachian Trail, so I think it’s safe to say we’re prepared for Park Trek.”

Follow Angie and Shane’s Park Trek on their Trail Journal blog, Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter.

(from a post at the MetroParks 2009 Levy website)