Gainesville's Loblolly Woods

As I had written in this past Monday's blog article, Gainesville has many "green" spots within its borders where one can go to get away from it all. One of these places is the Loblolly Woods section of the Hogtown Creek Greenway, which runs along Hogtown Creek in west-central Gainesville.

Yesterday, I parked behind Westside Park on NW 31st Drive and ran to NW 16th Avenue. I then ran four blocks east on 16th until I found the north entrance to the Loblolly Woods trail. I ran down it to 8th Avenue (where the planetary statues are lined up), crossed that street, and entered the southern part of the trail. I didn't know of this part until my daughter explored it with some of her friends on Monday. The southern trail exits on NW 34 Street around NW 5th Avenue.

There was no spectacular scenery to describe along the trail, but I found it to be quite a refreshing departure from road and sidewalk running. I didn't actually go to Hogtown Creek itself, but there were some trails that looked as if they branched off in that direction. My chief concern while running was to take care to avoid tripping over the many tree roots that jutted out into the trail.

Here are some pictures I took of my run/walk through the Loblolly Woods trail.