Posted July 26, 201014 yr Well, I found out that the map is online. In two parts. What map? The map to the Mount Airy Forest trail network. They don’t have free maps at the trailheads or park entrance (except the ones mounted at the aboreteum and entrance lodge). And that is my one an only gripe about Mount Airy Forest. This place is fabulous. Amazing. At least what I saw of it. To have something like this so close to the heart of the city is unheard of. I am mostly outdoors nowadays doing a lot of swimming & hiking (and, today, my first bike ride in decades). But I had plans to go to Cincinnati to visit the Betts House and get some cheap booze in Newport (mixers for a summer punch I do). So, instead of hiking in the Dayton area it I decided that..hey..there’s this Mount Airy Forest right in town…lets check it out. I did have a guidebook that I glanced at to note the trailhead. Area 20 (I guess this picnic area 20). Looked like a simple loop around the forest. 4-5 miles. Should be nothing. Boy was I wrong. Mount Airy actually has fairly well marked trails, but you sort of have to know where they go. I didn’t and got lost a few times. Started following the Furnas Trail and then ended up on a yellow or white trail with occasional forks with sign posts pointing to the ‘oval’ . Followed these trails roughly north through some rugged country. But the trails were well designed, with enough switchbacks and easier grades and bridges and steps in parts. This was excellent, akin to the Five Rivers Metroparks and Washington Township Parks trail development standards in the Dayton area. The landscape or vibe here really reminded me of Germany for some reason. Or the Mirkwood in Tolkiens’ “Hobbit” book. I’ve hiked the Taunus mountains of Germany and there was a similar dark and ur-wald feeling here, also because I was doing this in mid morning so you got some great light conditions. It was wonderful walking this, then occasionally coming to the directional posts (including some old ‘tall’ marker post they left up). Noticed some of these trees have unsually wide trunk diameters, probably second growth or first growth survivors. The Tolkeinesque “Middle Earth” feeling was reinforced when I ended up, unplanned, at “Everbodies Treehouse. This was something out of Rivendell. Or maybe those old handmade houses from the late 1960s/1970s counterculture. They even had this carved and smooth polished wood bench inside. Very nice touch. So, I had no idea where I was at. I really wanted to hike the southern exposure of Mount Airy, where it faces the city more. So, backtracked down that yellow trail, then started following (I think) a red trail, but it looked like it was leading down to the valley floor (thought I could start to see a road through the trees…South Fork Road?). Backtracked to the yellow trail and started following the Furnas Trail again, heading south. On and on, sun getting higher. Getting hotter too. Finally, I notice that the Furnas Trail ends at a marker post, and another trail takes off. Enough of this. Follow a trail uphill to a picnic area, I think, and then across the lawn to a parking lot and road. Follow the road through this glorious morning meadows bounded by this tall forest. People cycling and walking dogs. Wow this is so nice. Finally got to the car and drove out, noticed a signpost to the aboreteum and figured they would have maps there. Yep. This woman who was a photographer was sitting outside the aboreteum center said they did indeed have maps, but the building was rarely open, and suggested I look online. So I wandered around this very nice little…well…not so little…aboreteum for a bit before heading to…. Northside ..yep, so close! Hike in the wilderness during the morning and be walking Hamilton Avenue by noon. I wanted to get a coffee at Sidewinder and pick up a Tillers CD at Shake-It. But also notice on my way into the neighborhood there is a little neighborhood bakery on I think Blue Rock (same street the St Pius X church is on). Didn’t stop, but mental note to revist. After the visit to NS it was off to the… Betts House I wanted to see the exhibition on multifamily housing they were hosting, and it was well worth the visit. This was a fascinating look at the different types of apartment housing in the city. I was particularly interested in the local vernacular styles, like the OTR tenements and local variants on the row houses. They probably could do an exhibit just on the OTR/West End tenements if they wanted to. I was trying to figure out some of those floor plans (they hand a report on an adaptive reuse project that had before-and after floor plans); iit looks like the stair landings were shared space..you passed through apartments as you ascended the stairs (or maybe I misunderstood the plans they had available). The Betts House Research Society is one group I am really interested in supporting. I appreciate that they are researching and interpreting the local built environment, something befitting a city like Cincy, a city with such a rich architectural patrimony. I hope to see more exhibits there as they arise. And spend more time on Mount Airy as part of my Cincy day trips (its nice, too, for once to go into the woods without a map). :-)
July 26, 201014 yr Some notes on Mt. Airy Forest: 1. Claims to be the largest urban park in the United States. Of course, this depends on your definition of an urban park. It's about 500 acres larger than Central Park in New York City. 2. Was formerly agricultural land that was abused. Clay soil and very steep slopes were not suitable for row crops or pasture, yet early farmers did it anyway, causing severe erosion. Signs of farm roads, fences, and even some structures still exist. 3. Home to the Cave Salamander, endangered in Ohio 4. Heavily studied by geologists, because access was easy. 5. Present trails and structures built by the CCC in the New Deal days. Bridges, restrooms, trails, stone steps, etc., are of high quality. The CCC camp became a home for mentally troubled men which is still in operation on Diehl Road - which is one of Cincinnati's dirty secrets. 6. Aerial photos from the 1930's show that most of the land was cleared at that time, with a few solitary trees. Maybe these were the large ones you saw? Most of the land was re-forested by the CCC, and much of it was in pine. Pine forests are not common in Hamilton County. 7. Dams built on West Fork Creek by the CCC are impressive. 8. The big road cut for I-74 split Mt. Airy Forest in two. The road cut is impressive. 9. The owners of Putz's Ice Cream wrote a letter to President Nixon asking him not to destroy their business for construction of I-74. The proposed alignment was shifted slightly to save the ice cream place.
July 26, 201014 yr Bonomi Bakery in Northside is an old school bakery that's been around for awhile. Apparently it has a reputation for wedding cakes. It can get pretty crowded in the AM. John Cleves Symmes got lost in the area where Mt Airy forest is for about 3 days once. Said he was dodging wolves by night & indians by day.
July 26, 201014 yr I got lost trail running in Mt. Airy Forest once. This was after running there from downtown. That was not a fun day. Northside actually had a bunch of random trails all over the place. There is one that ran from Bruce Ave. to right across the street from the Comet that I used to take when I kinda lived up there.
July 27, 201014 yr ^ wow! Total respect to people who trail run. I'd have a heart attack or break something if I did that. Aerial photos from the 1930's show that most of the land was cleared at that time, with a few solitary trees. Maybe these were the large ones you saw? Yes I bet they were! I recall similar things from the hill country south of Louisville, which I used to bushwack across. I'd come across a particularly large tree and notice a particularly old date and initials carved in...earlier than the second or third growth around the tree. I'd bet that was the case with those Mnt Airy trees (maybe). I'ts tough to visualize farming this land. The slopes are so steep, even if one was using a horse or mule team drawing a plow. Some of those slopes off the Furnas Trail look like they were dying off into little cliffs or outcroppings, or maybe just earth bluffs. But cool to think there are some old farm ruins hidden in the forest. I wonder if there are any trails to these. Bonomi Bakery in Northside is an old school bakery that's been around for awhile. Apparently it has a reputation for wedding cakes. I'll bet that was the one I drove by...I caught a site of some cakes in the window out of the corner of my eye.
July 27, 201014 yr Thomasbw, I am pretty sure you can get from Haight to Crawford through the woods. There's Parkers Woods & Buttercup Valley Nature Preserve. Northside Greenspace has monthly twilight walks in BVNP on second Fridays. http://www.northsidegreenspace.org/calendarOfEvents.html
July 28, 201014 yr Also, did you know there's bits and pieces of grading for a never-completed railroad in Mt. Airy Forest? There's a little bit in the south end of the park between I-74 and West Fork, and also just outside the park north on West Fork along Kleeman Court. Photos: http://homepage.mac.com/jjakucyk/Transit1/cw/index.html Information: http://homepage.mac.com/jjakucyk/Transit1/railroadinfo.html#cw
July 28, 201014 yr Thanks for the link to the Northside Greenspace site. They are on to something cool about the area..proximity to woods/nature.
July 29, 201014 yr With Cincinnati's hills, the nature vibe mixed with the old neighborhoods really gives Cincy an old-world flavor.
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