Sugarcreek Metropark: Green Trail (Blog Hike #114)

Trail: Green Trail

Hike Location: Sugarcreek Metropark

Geographic Location: between Centerville, OH and Bellbrook, OH (39.61734, -84.0963)

Length: 3.1 Miles

Difficulty: 4/10 (Moderate)

Date Hiked: March 2002

Overview: A mostly easy, occasionally moderate loop hike along the south side of the Sugar Creek Ravine.

Park Information: http://www.metroparks.org/places-to-go/sugarcreek/

Hike Route Map: https://www.mappedometer.com/?maproute=717888
Photo Highlight:

Directions to the trailhead: Take I-675 to SR 725 (exit 2).  Exit and go east on SR 725.  Where SR 725 turns left to join SR 48, continue straight on Centerville-Alexander through downtown Centerville.  The road narrows and descends a small hill before ending at a T-intersection with Wilmington-Dayton Rd.  Turn right at this intersection and proceed 0.5 miles to a 3-way stop.  Wilmington-Dayton Rd.turns right, but you must continue straight for another 0.4 miles to the park entrance and blacktop parking lot on the left.  Park in this lot.

The hike: Like many preserves in the Dayton area, the 618 acres of Sugarcreek Reserve consists of reclaimed farmland.  What many preserves do not offer, though, is the variety that can be found in this Metropark.  For starters, the park contains 6.5 miles of well-maintained bridle trails, an unusually large number for a county park.  There is also a group camp and an archery range that set this park apart.

            The park’s variety extends to the terrain as well.  While it is obvious from its name that streamside forest can be found within the park, one may not expect to find upland forest, both young and mature, sycamores growing atop a ridge, or a large prairie planting.  Indeed, one of the features in the park is the “Three Sisters,” a trio of 550 year-old oak trees just uphill from Sugar Creek.  Indeed, trees this old are rare in parks consisting of reverting farm land.

            It is this variety that makes Sugarcreek such a compelling hiking destination.  The park offers four marked, interconnecting hiking-only trails plus one additional trail that is unmarked.  Trails are denoted by color, while intersections are referenced by number.  The route described here, the Green Trail, is the longest marked trail in the park and goes around the parks perimeter for most of its journey.  The other three trails (denoted red, orange, and blue) are shorter and often intersect or coincide with the Green Trail for a stretch. 

Tallgrass prairie planting near trailhead

            From the back of the parking lot, follow the blacktop trail for 0.1 miles into the woods where you arrive at a picnic area and the trailboard which serves as the trailhead.  Post #1 also marks this spot.  The combined green, orange, and blue trails head right through young forest with dense honeysuckle underbrush towards post #2.  At post #2, the blue trail departs to the left, heading for Sugar Creek.  The Green Trail continues straight with the tallgrass prairie planting on the right.  Bright yellow ornamental grass grows as high as eight feet here in the late summer.

            Pass under a set of powerlines and reach post #4 where the orange trail exits to the left.  The green trail, now solo, descends steeply and crosses a tributary of Sugar Creek using large stepping stones.  The trail begins paralleling the stream, heading upstream with the bubbly brook on the right.  Just before reaching Conference Road, the trail turns sharply left and ascends the opposite ridge.  There are some good-sized beech trees atop this ridge, where the trail can become rather wet in spots.  After 0.2 miles atop the ridge, the trail drops back to the tributary using an old road, crosses again on stepping stones, and rejoins the orange trail at post #7.

            After 0.15 miles of level hiking, the trail comes to post #8, where the orange and green trails part ways again.  I suggest turning left here and taking a short detour onto the orange trail.  The reason for this is the orange trail passes through a natural osage orange (also called hedgeapple) tunnel, another highlight of the park.  The branches of the trees reach out over the trail, in some cases touching the ground on the other side.

Osage orange tunnel

            Post #11 sits on the opposite side of the tunnel.  The orange trail turns left here, but I suggest taking the connector trail going straight, which descends slightly and connects to the Green Trail at post #10.  Now right along the bank of Sugar Creek, turn left and begin hiking upstream with the wide stream on your right.

            After 0.5 miles along the stream, the trail crosses a metal bridge and begins ascending a large bluff along the stream, coming to post #15 where the blue trail joins from the left.  Now assuming a constant elevation about 30 feet above the stream, the combined blue-green trail heads west to post #16 where the unmarked Big Woods Trail exits right, crossing Sugar Creek.

Sugar Creek

            Our trail continues straight and in 0.3 miles curves left while completing the ascent of the ridge in a moderate climb.  Post #17 sits atop the ridge where the Blue Trail exits left, while the Red Trail enters from the left.  The trail climbs slightly more to arrive at sycamore ridge, a narrow hogsback where sycamores live atop the ridge, not in the valley in their usual locale.  Since sycamores need plenty of water to grow, their presence suggests an underwater aquifer exists that supplies the sycamores with the moisture they need.

            The ridge widens a bit as the trail reaches post #18, where the blue and red trails rejoin from the left.  From here, only 0.15 miles are left to arrive at the trailboard that marks the trailhead.  Retrace your steps along the blacktop path to the parking lot and complete the hike.