Wolf Creek Recreation Trail in downtown Dayton

Wolf Creek Recreation Trail
AKA Paul Laurence Dunbar Connector
In Montgomery County, Ohio
Ohio State Route 38 (1)

North-West from Downtown Dayton via
James. H. McGee Boulevard. (existing trail)
To Wesleyan MetroPark
3 miles (OPEN)

Surface: Asphalt 8' wide. The trail is built along the South bank of Wolf Creek. It starts in downtown Dayton where Wolf Creek empties into the Great Miami River.

Route: The trail runs West from downtown Dayton along and next to the Wolf Creek at the bottom of the levee. At the end of about one mile the trail which at this point is called the Paul Laurence Dunbar Connector, rises out of the Wolf Creek and connects with the pre-existing trail (wide sidewalk) on the North side of James. H. McGee Blvd. The trail continues another two miles to Wesleyan MetroPark and Adventure Central. From Wesleyan MetroPark here is still a gap of about four miles from the end of the trail until the Wolf Creek Recreation Trail starts again in Trotwood and runs another 13 miles to Brookville and Verona.

Construction Alert 1

The Edwin C. Moses Bridge -(see below) that crosses the mouth of Wolf Creek and the Great Miami River in downtown Dayton, closed in February 2009. The bridge will be demolished and replaced with a new $4.5M dollar bridge that is planned to be finished in December 2010. Nothing in the Dayton Daily News article (Thursday 15 January 2009 page A9), made any mention of the Wolf Creek Recreation Trail that runs under the bridge. I’ll let you know when I find out. The article also talked about the replacement of the Broadway Street bridge across Wolf Creek that will start reconstruction in late 2010, which will probably also impact access to the trail. Please look at this Yahoo Maps photo that will show you both bridges over the Wolf Creek.

Bike Trail Detour - I asked the City of Dayton Engineering Department for a detour for the construction described above and was given both text and a MAP. "Great Miami Detours The bikeways on both sides of the Great Miami had been detoured to follow Edwin C Moses Blvd and use the Washington Street Bridge. With the Edwin C Moses Bridge know closed the detours will enter and exit the river bed just north and south of Wolf Creek (Basically, use the trail crossing to get across Wolf Creek but still using Edwin C Moses Blvd the rest of the way.) Wolf Creek Trail Detour From the Great Miami the detour will use Third Street to Grimes Street to Second Street to Antioch Street to the intersection of Oakridge Drive and Antioch Street where the trial exits/enter the Wolf Creek levees. I’ve attached a map showing the detour route (red is the Wolf Creek Trail…blue is the detour route)" See The Map.

	As you can see from the photo at left the trail starts in downtown Dayton. The Great Miami River Recreation Trail in downtown Dayton is on both banks of the Great Miami River. Here we see the West Bank looking South. On the left the trail is coming from the South and you can see the 3rd. Street Bridge in the background. At the top of the photo is Edwin C. Moses Blvd. and in the foreground the trail runs across a small bridge on the river to continue the trail. The person on the trail at right is about to go around the curve to the West and start walking on the Wolf Creek Recreation Trail by going under the bridge which we will see next.

As we can see at right above us is the bridge over the Wolf Creek. Edwin C. Moses Blvd. is above us and in the distance we can see several more bridges that cross over the Wolf Creek.	Click on thumbnail for larger photo

	Edwin C. Moses Bridge. This is the bridge being demolished (February 2009) and being replaced. This picture is of both arches of the bridge over the Wolf Creek in downtown Dayton. Here you see again the small path over the water where the Great Miami River Recreation Trail continues North. Across the river is the new Sunshine Park that was refurbished with the trail construction. The Wolf Creek trail runs due West at this point.

This photo was taken from the top of the bridge over Wolf Creek at Edwin C. Moses Blvd. looking West along the trail. The trail is on the South bank of the Wolf creek at water level. You can see the levees on both sides of the Creek. In the background is the bridge over Wolf Creek at Williams Street.	Click on thumbnail for larger photo

Click on thumbnail for larger photo	At left we are looking back downtown from the bridge over Wolf Creek at Laurence Dunbar Street. You can see the trail in the right of the photo. Paul Laurence Dunbar attended Central High School in the 1890s with Orville and Wilbur Wright. Mr. Dunbar was a noted poet. In the background we can see beyond the Miami River and see the tower at Sinclair Community College

Here you see the bridge over Wolf Creek at Dunbar street. This picture was taken near the Broadway Street bridge over the creek. The trail is on the right or South side of the creek and you can see downtown Dayton in the background.	Click on thumbnail for larger photo

Click on thumbnail for larger photo	At left we've shifted our focus to show the small waterfall (about 1') at the base of the Dunbar Street bridge. Since we are still looking downtown we can see the buildings of downtown Dayton in the distance.

In this photo we are looking West from the Dunbar Street bridge. There is a railroad bridge in the background with the trail on the left, or South, side of the Wolf Creek. Just beyond the railroad bridge the trail goes up and off the river level to meet with the existing trail on James H. McGee Blvd.	Click on thumbnail for larger photo

Click on thumbnail for larger photo	After the trail comes back up to street level from the Wolf Creek it becomes a wide sidewalk along the North side of James H. McGee Blvd at shown at right. There is a trail and also a sidewalk. The trail follows James McGee Blvd for about 2 miles until it reaches Wesleyan MetroPark.

Construction Alert 2

Click on thumbnail for larger photo	Construction will start soon (February 2010) to replace this bridge, which has been closed for about three years. The bridge will be replaced with a bridge that will be about 150 yards East of the current bridge. The new bridge will connect Philadelphia Drive to James H. McGee Blvd. A detour for the Wolf Creek Recreation Trail is yet to be determined.

Bike Trail Detour 2	f you look at the Acme Mapper picture above you'll see the bridge from the air. The trail which is on James McGee Blvd. by this point, goes by the South end of the bridge. A detour is not yet determined. Click on the link above to see the bridge for yourself in Acme Mapper.

Wesleyan MetroPark

Here we have arrived at Wesleyan MetroPark and Adventure Central. This is one of Five Rivers MetroParks facilities in Dayton. The new bridge and trail as shown below is to the left or South of the building and has a ramp from the trail next to the road.	Click on thumbnail for larger photo

Click on thumbnail for larger photo	In Summer 2004 Five Rivers MetroParks spent $500,000 to build this beautiful bicycle bridge and trails to connect the two parts of Wesleyan MetroPark together. The trail within Wesleyan will further the plans to connect this section of the Wolf Creek Recreation Trail with the section that starts at Trotwood and runs 13 miles to Verona, Ohio

Here we have crossed the bridge and are now in the park. The trail turns right and runs down to the Wolf Creek to clear the active railroad bridge that you can see in the background.	Click on thumbnail for larger photo

Click on thumbnail for larger photo	In this picture at right we have come down the trail from the new bicycle bridge, gone under the railroad bridge and are now looking back around the corner to where we came from. We are at the Wolf Creek level and you can see the River.

After a short walk through a nice woods we go back up from the River to the other half of Wesleyan MetroPark. This is the building in the other half of the park. The trail continues to the right through the park, following the park road and ends at Riverview Avenue and Wesleyan Road where the park road enters a residential area. Five Rivers MetroParks plans to build an 4 additional miles of trail to get the trail from Wesleyan MetroPark to Trotwood. The schedule is to complete it by 2012..	Click on thumbnail for larger photo