Columbus, OH

Last Saturday, just before the Michigan game (Go Bucks!) my friend Lisa & I went for a quick run. We thought of going to Highbanks, but since that park is a good distance from her house and we wanted to get done in plenty of time to hit the bank and be back to make chili before the game, we decided to go to Blendon Woods to run instead.

Now Sugarbush, the longest trail at Blendon is 2mi. round trip, so we chose that one as 2mi. is the marker I have set my current goal to. The path we chose is marked “unimproved hiking trail.” Hiking is the activity I would get into on this trail, as the “unimproved” part is definitely correct. There are lots of exposed roots on the trail and that made for a difficult jog. I even tripped and fell once. The one positive thing that I can say about jogging on this trail is that my tibia muscle, which is usually screaming at me by 1/2 mile, didn’t even start to burn at all until I was almost finished. I think the softness of the trail had a lot to do with that. On the other hand, the end loop was quite overgrown with grass, and felt almost like running in soft sand, which makes the work all that much harder.

Another interesting thing to note about this trail is it is open to cross-country skiing. Actually, it is specifically closed to hiking when cross country skiing conditions exist.

This time of year there are far fewer families in the metro parks. The people we encounter now seem to be older couples out for the morning walk and dedicated running enthusiasts, but on this particular day, the most interesting people we encountered were a father and his pre-teen son, who were hiking the trails completely loaded with heavy backpacks in preparation for an upcoming scout hike. All I can say is “great job staying involved dad!”

Blendon does have several shorter trails, including a pet specific trail, in case you prefer to exercise with your best friend. One very nice thing about Blendon is that not only do they provide doggie clean up bags, but these are easy to find. Most other metro parks that have pet-trails also provide bags, but they are not always easily found.

Blendon Woods is on the northeast side of Columbus, near Westerville and across 161 from the Little Turtle area.

Blendon Woods
4265 E. Dublin-Granville Road
Westerville, OH 43081
Open 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. April through September
6:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. October through March

Columbus, Ohio, OH, Ohio parks, Columbus parks, Columbus Metro Parks, Highbanks, fitness, jogging, hiking, walking, cross-country skiing, Blendon Woods