Category Archives: Alum Creek State Park

Featured Photo: Seasonal Mix

Posted on January 4, 2012 by Heather Dugan
Posted in Alum Creek State Park, Hiking, PHOTOS, Running/Health & Fitness Tagged , , , , , , ,

Featured Photo: Seasonal Mix (Alum Creek State Park; Lewis Center, Ohio)

Winter can be a rough ride for an outdoor lover who goes numb in freezing temperatures! Whispers of warmer seasons past and yet-to-be can help less enthusiastic winter dwellers weather the temporary chill and appreciate the architecture of a bared woods. This photo, taken last winter on a seasonally-vacated mountain bike trail, is an encouragement to bundle up and search out the beauty in a frozen afternoon.

I did my first snowy trail run at yesterday and have officially plunged into yet another Ohio winter. Sensation has returned to my toes; acclimation is complete. 

 

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Can’t Bike it? Hike it.

Posted on February 28, 2011 by Heather Dugan
Posted in Alum Creek State Park, Hiking, Mountain Biking Tagged , , , ,

An In-Town Tourist Feature:
…because Adventure begins in the heart and Travel starts at the end of your own driveway.

 

In another month, I would be risking serious injury and the rightful wrath of serious cyclists. But with only the beginnings of a winter thaw underway, there was little danger of running into two wheels on the Alum Creek mountain bike trails this past weekend. So we hiked the intermediate trail bike-less and enjoyed a uniquely lovely bit of central Ohio woodland that would be rather difficult to photograph when used as intended.

I’ve mountain biked once -in Mammoth Lakes, California. Loved it. Felt lucky to be alive -and felt fully alive, when my feet finally touched ground at trail’s end. Flying through stunning flashes of tall pines and vivid blue sky -it had felt a little like my first time driving the Blue Ridge Parkway. Knowing there was a gorgeous view to my right or left but acutely aware of the danger of lengthy admiration and left to to gather it all in with but a hasty glance here and there.

Trekking up and down hills and along the ridges of the bike trail in Alum Creek State Park, I could sense the adrenaline released into those woods and felt a twinge of lingering challenge. I also felt just a little lucky that this time my glances could grow into gazes and that I could focus not only my own eyes, but my camera lens as well.

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Moms on Monkey Bars

Posted on August 13, 2009 by Heather Dugan
Posted in Alum Creek State Park, Family with Kids, Running/Health & Fitness Tagged , , , ,

Alum Creek Dam (monkey bars)

Moms on Monkey Bars [ 4:04 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Over the past three days or so, I’ve gained a better understanding of why women of my age (the specifics of which is an irrelevant detail) lose track of their gym passes and the will to fight the good fight on personal fitness.

I’m nowhere near quitting. I’ve done this for too long and believe that exercise tones a lot more than my body. It smooths out the rough spots in my emotions; it gives me spiritual muscle for Life’s considerable challenges. It gains me “thinking time,” enhancing my sense of perspective. It makes me smile more and wrinkle less.

But wow. I get it. This past week as I scrambled between back-to-back soccer games, track meets, practices for the aforementioned and “odds and ends” that included guitar lessons and daily school transportation, work-out time kept sidling a couple of steps beyond my grasp. Forget the grocery (I did). Forget the laundry (wish I could but soccer socks require hazmat removal if not laundered within three days). Forget taxes (yeah, right), a social life (sigh) and recreational reading (sigh again). It’s a crazy, but oh-so-normal life. I know this.
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