Summer is nearly year-round in southeast Texas so it should be no surprise that the free stuff to see and do in the sprawling metropolitan area of the nation’s fourth-biggest city focuses on the outdoors.Bob Dispenza is taking his second walk of the day on the Raccoon Trail through the woods near the Visitors Center at Metea Park.
He’s as familiar with this section of the Allen County nature preserve near Leo-Cedarville as most people are with their own driveway.
But he still stops to marvel at a stand of towering beech trees, their massive tan trunks contrasting sharply with the dark shadows of the forest floor.
“This section was in cultivation,” he observes, gesturing to the woods off to his left. “But for some reason they left the beech trees, maybe because they were hard to get to. Or maybe they weren’t as valuable as other trees, so that’s why they’re here.”
The stand of old-growth beeches is just one of many interesting natural features of the trail Dispenza hopes more Allen County residents will get to know during the next few weeks.
Park and education manager at Metea, Dispenza is spearheading a new self-guided hiking program that encourages residents to get out and walk 15 trails in 14 area parks between Sept. 1 and Nov. 30.
Called Allen County Trailblazers, the program offers a bronze medallion to people who complete 10 trails. The medallions can be attached to wooden hiking sticks, which can be bought for $3.
But Dispenza hopes that enjoying the sights, sounds and smells of nature during the cooler weather of late summer and early fall will be a reward in itself.
“It’s a good time to be out,” he says.
Dispenza says hikers don’t need a lot of experience to participate. Like the mile-long Raccoon Trail, which crosses or borders at least five ecosystems, most the trails are rated “easy.” Most cover between 1/2 mile and 2 miles and take 20 minutes to an hour to complete.
The exceptions are the upper loop trail at Vandolah Preserve and the trails at Dustin & Johnson Preserve and Bicentennial Woods, which are owned by ACRES Land Trust and rated “moderate.” The only trail rated “difficult” is Vandolah’s half-mile lower loop trail.
Area parks that typically charge admission are waiving it for participants, Dispenza says.
Besides Allen County Parks and ACRES, participating organizations are the parks and recreation departments of Fort Wayne and New Haven, the Little River Wetlands Project and Fort Wayne Trails.
While walking provides exercise that can pare down the pounds, organizers hope the event will build up support for area parks, which are being hit by funding cuts, Dispenza says.
The Metro Parks system in Summit County, Ohio, has had a similar hiking program in the fall for more than 45 years, with about 14,000 people participating in 2009, he says. Dispenza used to work there, and that’s where he got the idea for the new Allen County program.
“It’s getting people out in nature, which everybody could use more of,” Dispenza says. “It (also) gets the agencies to cooperate, which, to my knowledge, they haven’t done before.”
