A Sunday walk in Maumee, Ohio

The Wolcott House

Last Sunday (Oct 23) I decided to do a local year round walk.  It started at the Maumee Police Station. After picking up my map and directions, I walked past some historic houses and St.Paul's Episcopal Church. The church bells started ringing just as I passed the church and were they ever loud. After passing the Maumee Library the walk went to the Wolcott Museum Complex. Besides the house, there is an old church, log cabin, train and garden at the Museum. Although we have had some cold days lately, there were still plenty of flowers in the garden at the museum and around town.

After walking past  more historic houses, including one that was part of the Underground Railway, I entered a park and walked along the old canal towpath by the Maumee River. While walking along the towpath, I was surprised to see a deer laying in the brush beside the path. It seemed to be used to people and did not get up or run away. I had to take a few pictures of her.

From here the trail continued into Side Cut Metropark. In the park I walked on a trail with stone steps to view several of the canal locks.

After exiting the park, I walked through St. Joseph Cemetery which has some old head stones in it. The remainder of the walk was past many more historic houses back to the Police Station.

Canal Lock

This is a very nice walk by the Maumee Valley Volkssporters, the local club for the Toledo area. If you are interested in doing this walk, look for directions to the start point on the American Volkssport Association's website.

Some favorite walking websites

Since most of the walks I do are volkswalks, one of my favorite websites is the American Volkssport Association site. At this site people can look up walks all over the United States. Walks can be searched for by state, whether they are a regular (traditional) event or a year round or seasonal walk, and by special programs, such as Covered Bridges, Murals, Waterfalls and many others. This can be a good way to find walks that are near you or interesting to you.
Another web site that I like is About.com's walking site. Here you can find everything walking-from walking for weight loss, fitness walking and walking programs to shoes and gear, problems like blisters and heel pain, what to eat and drink and walking marathons.
I also like the Buckeye Trail site. For those who don't know about the Buckeye Trail, it is a trail that loops around the state of Ohio. It is 1444 miles long. This site lists events from short hikes to longer hikes to trail maintenance and work parties.

A little about me

I am Val, a non-traditional student. Right now I am taking 2 courses, Blogging and Social Media and Fundamentals of Surface (an art course about 2-D design). When I'm not working or taking classes, I enjoy walking and taking pictures, which is why I want to blog about those subjects. I also like art and playing computer games.

What is a Volksmarch?

Most of the walks I do are known as Volksmarches or Volkswalks. Here is a video that explains what it is about and may explain why I like to do Volksmarches.
It is something I do for my health and I enjoy it because I have seen so many interesting places I would not have seen any other way.

My first post

This is my first post on my new blog.

Dogwood Pond

Last Saturday I went to a walk that started at Hills and Dales metropark in Montgomery county. This walk started at Paw Paw Shelter in the park.  It had 2 5K trails. I decided to do the park trail first, so I headed out on the Adirondack Trail to Dogwood Pond. After visiting the pond,which had an Adirondack style overlook shelter and benches, the walk left the park out into the neighboring city of Oakwood. It went through some trails in a couple of gardens, Elizabeth and Loy Gardens. It also went past a property with a pond that had swans and a heron. Of course, I had to stop there to take some pictures.

Stone stairs at Loy Gardens

White swan



Blue Heron



Black swans

After returning to the Paw Paw Shelter I continued to walk the city trail, which went around Oakwood and into Kettering. This walk went through the Old Farm Camp area of the park and then on to the town and city residential streets.

I enjoyed the walk very much.



Chimney at Old Farm Camp

Tower at Hills and Dales Metropark