Oak Leaf Trail

Today I started the long journey down the Oak Leaf trail in Milwaukee County. Since the east-west connector is so close to home and I hit it most days I decided to take it as far as I could. 

I like the way it starts (from my starting point at home). I go down past St. John's Lutheran toward the village of Wauwatosa and head down along the Menomonee River (I think). After passing through Hart Park it goes through some residential area along the river.

Also I found one of the mountain bike trails that juts off.

As I said before the biggest challenge to this trail is that there aren't really any natural loops so it's hard to get more than three or four miles at a time before it's time to turn around. This time I got three before I hit this sign:

 Oops. This is the end of the Oak Leaf Trail for today and the beginning of what's apparently the Hank Aaron State Trail. Cool. I did about a mile of that before I turned around.
I continued along the newfound Hank Aaron which was basically a sidewalk in a neighborhood north of Wick Field. I decided to turn around before I got the Miller Brewery.

I haven't written a lot about the run itself because it was a pretty plain experience. It was a nice run in the city and what made it trail running was the fact that there were signs that said it was a trail. There were some really nice parts where the trail left the road and went into a wooded area. I ended up taking Blue Mound Rd from where it splits with Wisconsin Ave all the way home. I did get a nice picture on the way.

I also ran pretty fast.

http://runkeeper.com/user/SethLK/activity/15632348

So three miles of the 100 mile excursion is done. This will take a couple days.

One thing I thought of was that if I ever play in Major League Baseball, or if my softball league gets entrance music, this will be my at-bat song:

(Unfortunately they don't allow embedding of the real video for this song so just listen, but don't watch because there's nothing to see.)

Milwaukee: Oak Leaf Trail

The map may be kind of hard to read. I made it as big as I could but you probably still can't read it. The Oak Leaf Trail more or less goes around Milwaukee County with a few loops and connections along the way. It is made up of five main parts which run through county parks and along municipal streets. There is also 5-10 miles of mountain bike trails. 

The Oak Leaf Trail is the main portion. It is marked in red on the map. This is the trail that circumnavigates Milwaukee County. The Oak Leaf comes in at 71 miles. There is is an east-west connection, marked in yellow, that starts near where I live on the far west side of Milwaukee, or Wauwatosa, and ends up around the Bay View area on the southeast side. That connector is 15.5 miles long. There is the Lake Loop marked in blue on the East Side right on the lakefront. I've run this route about 600 times but will be more that happy to do it again and snap a few photos. This is one of my favorite runs in the city. There's always lots of activity along the lake which provides some fun scenery. It is officially listed at 5.9 miles. but I usually extend it a little to just over 6 miles. Sometimes I'll keep going up the lake to Capitol Dr. or head around the UWM campus and get 8-10 miles out of it. Finally there is the Lincoln Creek Spur marked in green. This is a tiny 1.7 mile thing off of Hampton Ave. I don't know much about this one.

This could take a while to complete. There isn't really an opportunity to hit a big chunk at a time since there aren't really any loops, it'll have to be mostly out and backs. The good thing is I can do parts of this at any time during the week. No matter where I've run in Milwaukee I've usually ended up on one part of this trail or another for at least a little bit. I was on the east-west connector for a time today, but I won't count it yet. Here it is though:

http://runkeeper.com/user/SethLK/activity/15564982

I might try to start on some of this monster trail tomorrow. Until then here's a song I like.

Invitation

I would also say, that if anyone (eventually) reading this would like to join me on one of these little trips to a running or biking destination you should. It's always more fun with other people. It doesn't have to be a 10 mile run every time either, although it could be.

Thank you.

Madison

I'm a big fan of running in Madison. I know it's not really a trail run, but whatever. That's the beauty of "trail" running. There's trails everywhere.

That says "Capital City Trail" so it counts even if it is just a sidewalk for college kids to ride their bikes on. 

I figured Madison would be a good place to start since it is the center of the state. Everyone comes back to Madison at some point. Whether it's for a football game, a night out on State St, a field trip to the capitol, or going to school it's the place to be. 

It's also become kind of a running haven for me. I've run the Madison Marathon twice. In 2009 I ran a 3:25 and gained a ton of confidence as a runner and in 2010 I ran a 3:40 and lost a lot of confidence as a runner (it was 87 degrees and I was out of shape). Anyway, I like to run there once a month or so. 

This time I made sure to hit the main spots. 

Camp Randall

The Capitol

and I think Monona Terrace is in the first picture. On second look, maybe not. I did run on State St but did not get a picture. Maybe next time. I know I'll be back.

The running itself was ok. I started strong, but didn't necessarily hold on to my momentum. I was taking some pictures and I didn't realize it was going to be almost 90 out. Anyway, here is the route:

http://runkeeper.com/user/SethLK/activity/15375611

What's up next? Hopefully something cool. 

Outdoors in Wisconsin

I'm not a native of the state of Wisconsin. Yes, I was born here in Milwaukee, but I left the state almost immediately for the Detroit area, and then spent most of my childhood in wonderful Nebraska. After another stint in Michigan, college in Minnesota, and a cup of coffee in China I ended up back in the Badger State. I guess I always knew I would.

I started out in East Troy, a small community about 30 miles southeast of Milwaukee. It also happens to be very near the southern unit of the Kettle Moraine state forest which is in my opinion some of the most beautiful parts of our country. I also began to embrace running and general outdoor activities which are tailor made for this area.

I've since run tens of thousands of miles and explored most of the state on my various travels. I've gotten in to destination runs around Wisconsin and have decided it's time to document some of these excursions. This picture is from when I used to run on the East Side of Milwaukee. I need to get back there sometime soon.

I know I can't run every trail in the state, but between running and mountain biking, I think I can come up with some pretty cool pictures and maybe some stories if I ever learn how to articulate my own thoughts. 

Enjoy.