Wanderlust.
Camp Creek Greenway, Lilburn GA
I was out riding around looking for something compelling to take a picture of on that Sunday afternoon and ended up near a park that I’d been by before but had ruled out as there was no trail. Making a u-turn to go back the other way, I came across a sign for a Greenway. My heart started beating fast, because this one, if it was real, was close to where I live. I couldn’t figure out how to get to it and on the second access attempt, landed somewhere on this mysterious trail. Turns out I’d just located the Camp Creek Greenway.
Running in Lenora Park
The day after Peachtree Road Race, I knew I had no strength to run (see why here) but could definitely go for a walk and check out another one of Gwinnett County’s (GA) finest. So I fired up the parks and rec map and Google maps and landed at Lenora Park in Snellville, GA.
Lenora Park in Snellville, GA has many of the features that residents and visitors come to expect in Gwinnett’s larger parks including: baseball/softball fields, a track, leisure pool, dog park, batting cages, gym, pavilion, children’s playground and disc golf. I didn’t know what this disc golf was until I came back on Saturday and saw it in action. There’s something for everybody in this park and the second visit revealed it in full use. For me though, it’s all about the trail.
On Tuesday I walked it, really early around 7:00 am and walked it slow to take pictures and poke a round and what became crystal clear is that the paved trail is for EARLY MORNING or cooler weather use, unless you are the hearty type who can take the heat and humidity of the Dirty in July. There are plenty of trees but for all but the back side of the park and a little piece on the Lenora Church Road side, runners, walkers and bikers get to enjoy plenty of wide open unshaded space in which to move. That aside, I love this trail. It is relatively flat and fast for all rabbits and is a nice break for turtles like me. The paved trail is 1.7 miles which is fantastic with only three loops you’re at 5.1 miles and four loops puts you at 6.8.
What was especially beautiful for me at this park is that on Saturday morning the park was full of black people. Since my folks have such high rates of obesity, heart disease and diabetes, I was really encouraged to see so many folks out there handling their health business.
Lenora Park is great for runners, walkers and bikers with that fast trail and is great for more leisurely pursuits as well. If you’re in the area, check it out and if you’re not I encourage you to visit the parks near your home base. July is National Park and Recreation Month, why not grab your kids, running shoes, book or nothing at all and experience parks for yourself.
See you on the trail!
This is the park where the goose was found with an arrow in him. The goose was alive and was able to fly. The arrow went through the tail feathers. WSB-TV showed the story on the 11:00 pm news about the arrowed goose, but it is not yet posted on its site. Trust I will be calling Parks and Rec in the morning.
Two more parks this week
This parks post is a bit different out of necessity.
Graves Park is located on Graves Road in Norcross, GA. The parks site indicates that the main paved trail is 1.25 miles. The actual markings from my trek around it end at 1.14 miles. The park mostly consists of open fields for volley ball, has two tennis courts, pavillion, children’s play area and a really nice dog park split for large and small dogs.. Trail is about 50% shaded with some hills and inclines. The trail is just challenging enough but not so hard as to leave you gasping for air. This park will definitely be in rotation for running and one in which I can take my shared custody dogs to :-)
Having taken an extra day off during the holiday I went to these parks because I made a promise to myself to change up my routine a bit after Peachtree and run in some different parks throughout my county. Both Bethesda (visited on 7/5) and Graves (visited on 7/6) meet my criteria for good spots to run, enough hills, adequate shade, not too close to the other activities and so on. What I found most disappointing was the discrepancy in the maintenance of these parks. Both Bethesda and Mountain Park were clean, trash bins empty and doodie bags (for dogs) stocked appropriately throughout the park. Graves Park on the other hand had some trash on the side of the trail, the trash bins were full and there were no doodie bags in the stations along the route. Norcross, in which Graves Park resides is in a majority Latino area. So my mind really started racing at the point. Instead of flying off the deep end altogether I contacted the Parks department to find out why the other parks were clean and this particular park was not and was told that the supervisor for that area was out as a result of an accident. Now, the supervisor generally is not the one who cleans the park there are work crews that do this. Even after the holiday it’s highly unlikely that not every single one of the work crews was off, which means the parks still should have trash picked up. Besides, is there not some sort of contingency plan for when people are out so that the work continues? It’s all too fishy for me, because even ignoring the trash problem, there is still an element of maintenance in terms of weeds and grass and overgrowth in Graves that was not present in the other parks visited. So the question in my mind is, is there willful neglect of parks that serve minority areas and those that do not? I’ll be returning to the park to see next week and will be checking out more of the parks in the more heavily populated minority areas in the county. My desire is to be presently surprised to find them all in pristine condition. My expectation however is that they won’t be. Gwinnett County on the whole is a “majority minority” county but there are pockets where this is not the case. If I find maintenance to be equitable, I’ll let it rest, if not I’ll be calling for back up.
Stay tuned.
