MTM Cincinnati: Back To Nature?

Last week, for Reader Request, I mentioned my favorite place in the entire Greater Cincinnati area: The Little Miami Trail. As far as trails go, it’s not spectacular, just an old rail bed paved over for bicyclists, roller bladers, runners, and hikers who don’t feel like dealing with hills. But for me, it was meditation. It starts in the suburb of Newtown, one of those “real America” places Sarah Palin liked to talk about. Actually, this is not supposed to be the start of the trail. It’s actually supposed to start as a spur off the trail around Lunken Airport (which most certainly does have hills) and connect with another walking park, Armaleder Park.

Until that final stretch from Newtown, over the Beechmont Levee, to Lunken (and eventually the Ohio River) is built, none of the trail actually exists within the Cincinnati city limits. And maybe that’s why it’s my favorite place around here. Even if I don’t dump the iPod and walk in silence for the 8-12 mile round trip between trail heads, the only sounds are the river, bikers and skaters rolling by saying “To your left!”, or the muted roar of a nearby road or highway. Get north of Loveland, still on the I-275 loop, and suddenly it’s all farmland, woods, and the odd small town.

I miss the trail and can’t wait to walk it again this spring. Or ride it. Nita and I are looking at buying a couple of cheap Huffies to take out to Loveland or further up the trail. But what I didn’t realize was that my recently acquired love of hiking was having a positive effect on the brain. I discovered this when I found this article in the Boston Globe. Apparently, urban life, where I tend to thrive and survive best, hurts the brain.  Scientists claim that having to deal with crowds, traffic, and noise reduces the mind’s ability to store memories or process information.  The cure?

Glimpses of nature.

Now, keep in mind I love big cities.  I mourn not getting to go to New York or San Francisco last year.  I love Chicago.  And even my hometown of Cleveland has a certain energy about it that no amount of rough economy or bad weather seems to sap.  But, with the exception of San Francisco, with its magificent bay opening to the Pacific via the Golden Gate, these cities are also paved over, excessivly tall (except Cleveland) and mind-numbingly gray when the sky is.  Unless you can get to Lake Erie, Lake Michigan, or Central Park, you’re pretty much surrounded by a cacophony of traffic, huge buildings, and large crowds.  Even Cincinnati, with around 350,000 people, can get claustrophobic at times.  It’s one of the reasons I used to abandon Hamilton County every summer for the wilderness of Hocking Hills or the mountains of West Virginia.

The city has one thing a lot of even larger cities don’t:  An enormous amount of greenery.  Cincinnati and its suburbs are perched on a series of hills (supposedly Seven Hills, but I suspect someone in the territorial days coined that phrase trying to compare George Washington favorably to Julius Caesar), which means more parks are perched on hills than any other place I’ve visited.  Ault Park overlooks the Little Miami Valley, Beechmont Levee, and Lunken Airfield across into Mt. Washington (which Cincinnati often forgets is part of Cincinnati).  Alms Park provides a closer view of the airfield.  Eden Park looks across the Ohio River to Northern Kentucky while across the river in Covington, Kentucky, Devou Park provides the most spectacular view of the Cincinnati skyline  in the area.

Some time after it warms up, I’ll get a little more in detail about the Little Miami Trail, complete with photos.  In the meantime, I probably owe you a couple more posts about chili.

[While Travis Erwin recovers from a recent fire, Junosmom and Chris will be hosting My Town Mondays. And please consider helping Travis rebuild. Insurance helps but won’t cover everything, so any little bit makes it that much easier for Travis and his family.]