7/11/2010 Miami Whitewater Forest - Shaker Trace Trail

I had one more trail at Miami Whitewater Forest that I had not walked.  This is the outer loop of the Shaker Trace Trail, which is a paved trail that is just under 8 miles in length.  The entire trail is paved and gently graded with distances marked every .2 miles. There are some great views along the trail of restored wetlands and prairie, creeks and farmland. There were many different wildflowers in bloom.  Unfortunately, I only had my Blackberry camera, so I did not get great photos of the wildflowers.  There were quite a few bees that were interested in the flowers, so I kept my distance. 

I walked this loop trail counter-clockwise.  The sign said I should be able to walk this in 2.5 hours, and that is about what it took.  I am not in as good of shape as I was when I started to hike the Buckeye Trail a few years ago, so 8 miles was a good distance for me for now.

There was a Ranger “courtesy cart” that I saw go by once.  The cart patrols the trail with cold water for those that don't bring enough water.  Some of the bicyclists did not carry any water, which I thought was a little odd.  It is a short loop for a bike, but if I had a failure, I would want some water on a hot day like it was today.  My cycling shoes are not good walking shoes either.  There is water at the 1.9 and 6.1 mile markers, and I carried about 2.5 liters, which was plenty.  The heat managed to warm up a couple of the metal bottles, so I did stop for the colder water at the stops.

I saw a few people walking within the section of the trail that is part of the shorter 1.2 mile inner loop, but I was the only soul walking the longer outer loop.  I met a couple of horse riders who were riding the Shaker Trace Horse Trail, which intersects with the walking trail in a few spots.  We passed each other a number of times over 4 - 5 miles of the trail.  The horses have the right of way at all of the bridges, and I had to wait a couple of minutes at one bridge while one of the riders had to coax her horse across a short bridge that spans one of the creeks.

I prefer walking the wooded nature trails over paved trails, but there isn't a nature trail that is this long.  There is not a lot of shade on the Shaker Trace trail, and the sun warms up the pavement to add to the discomfort.   The best alternative is to walk the three short loop nature trails that are close together at Miami Whitewater.   These are the Badlands, Oakleaf, and the trail that used to be called the Parcours trail.  They have a new name for it, but I can't remember what it is.

A portion of the American Discovery Trail (which runs from Delaware to California) passes through the Shaker Trace Trail, however, I did not see any signs that marked any part of it.