Urban Hiking at its finest

I needed to get in some more miles for the walking competition at work. Also, it doesn't hurt any for my Philmont training. I couldn't get the boys interested so I didn't want to go far. However, the neighborhood is getting a bit boring, so I decided to check out some of the Plano biking and hiking trails.

After a bit of hunting on the Internet, I found a set of trails that intersected and could provide me enough distance to get in 10 miles. These were the Bluebonnet trail, Chisholm and Preston Ridge trails. A map of these trails can be found at - http://pdf.plano.gov/parks/Bluebonnet_Chisholm_PrestonRidge_Legacy.pdf

I drove to the Plano Dog Park off of Spring Creek Parkway west of Custer. Here I found the Chisholm and Bluebonnet trails intersect, and there is parking.

I decided to do the Chisholm trail both directions (one way is 5.5 miles). I started going southeast. The trail was a wide cement pathway that was on both sides of a creek. I selected the east side. The trail goes past parks, lakes and ends on 15th, East of Alma. It actually comes out right behind On the Border restaurant. It was a nice walk, and I felt safe the entire way. There were families playing at the parks, and there were several bicyclists on the trail. The neatest thing about the trail is that it goes under each of the major streets (Spring Creek Parkway, Parker, Park, Alma) so that you don't have to stop to cross them.

I headed back northwest and rested at Big Lake Park. It was neat to see all of the seagulls at the lake. I passed through the dog park and continued on the north part of the trail. There sure were alot of dogs outside the dog park. I don't know exactly what they were doing. It sort of looked like they were socializing. I don't think the actual park was open. There must have been about 50 dogs in different groups. But no fights :-)

The north part of the trail ends at Legacy just west of Independence. There were more parks and very nice homes that I passed. When I hit Legacy, I turned around and headed back to the car.

The total trip was 11 miles, and I finished in just under 3 hours walking time. Not a bad day.