Our Challenge: hike every mile of trail in Metro Parks

ERIC FRISCH
Guest Blogger

Hiking in the Metro Parks has been part of our relationship from the very beginning. My first date with Amanda was a long walk at Sharon Woods in 2015, and we got engaged there a few months later. We’ve spent many hours together hiking throughout the parks, but there were still a few we had never explored. Amanda suggested that we use this year’s Winter Hike series to finally visit every Metro Park, and I mentioned that I had been thinking for a while about trying something a bit more ambitious: hiking every mile of trail in the Metro Parks within a year. To my delight, Amanda loved the idea and decided to take on the challenge with me.

We decided to include any trail that was completely contained within a park (ruling out most of the Greenways) and wasn’t exclusively for bikes or horses. That left us with a list of 139 trails totaling 140 miles. I built a spreadsheet to track our progress, and Amanda began collecting park maps to highlight the routes we had completed. In the end, we finished the challenge in less than six months, half of my original goal! Between December 8, 2024, and May 26, 2025, we made 86 visits to Metro Parks over 65 days of hiking, walking just under 200 total miles. Along the way, we completed the Winter Hike series and Step Into Spring challenge, and enjoyed every bit of what these beautiful parks have to offer!

Because we began in December, the first half of our challenge was full of cold, snowy, and sometimes dark walks. Amanda is no fan of cold weather, but we quickly found ourselves bundling up and heading out every chance we could. On Saturdays, we would plan visits to multiple parks so that we could warm up and snack in the car between stops. We were rewarded with quiet time in nature, unspoiled snowy trails, and more gorgeous winter sunsets than we could count. We revisited favorite trails at Highbanks and Glacier Ridge and discovered new spots as we visited parks for the first time. Quarry Trails was a new highlight for sure!

As the weather warmed and the days got longer, we turned to longer hikes farther from home. Our final month was divided between Battelle Darby Creek, Clear Creek, and Slate Run. It was fun to spend extended time in just a few parks and have a more immersive experience of what makes those places unique. Watching the seasons turn was lovely, and we enjoyed more interaction with our fellow park goers as the trails became busier. We also saw abundant wildlife, from turkeys to owls to bald eagles and even a coyote! As spring came into bloom, we downloaded apps to help us identify the birds and plants that we encountered, which added an enjoyable new dimension to our Saturdays in the woods. Amanda’s family also joined us for some of our weekend walks.

We completed our challenge with a two-park day on Memorial Day, visiting Clear Creek to hike the Hemlock Trail (an all-time favorite and the spot where I first thought of this challenge) and then returning to Sharon Woods, where we had saved the short Annehurst Connector just for the occasion. We loved the quality time spent together in nature, and we can truly say that every day felt like a lovely day to hike, no matter the weather. Now that we’ve finished our challenge, we’re excited to return to our favorite trails throughout the summer and fall – a list that is much longer than it was six months ago!