A Walk on the “Loop”

-Dean Waters

I was able to do a 5 miler today on the bottom part of the ten mile loop or the “Loop” as it has been known to runners for more than 25 years. The “Loop” is now part of the Boundary Greenway that starts at the West End guard shack where the OR turnpike narrows from 4 lanes to two. It was a joy just to see at least part of the Loop again, though it has changed dramatically - again.

The original “Loop” goes (some would say “near vertical”) up the hill behind the guard shack, runs southwest down the ridge for about five miles until it turns left or south at the river (Poplar Creek), until it reaches the junction with Poplar Creek Rd at about six miles. At that point the trail then turns east toward and past the quarry on Poplar Creek Road until it intersects the Oak Ridge Turnpike about 100 yards west of Wisconsin Ave. The whole loop is about a quarter mile short of ten miles – guard shack to guard shack. One of my favorite 5 milers was an out and back in the reverse direction going out Poplar Creek Rd. past the quarry on the south (the rugged side) to the top of the hill where Herrill road joins on the left or south side.

There have been many changes to the old Loop. About 25 years ago, the whole loop was a genuine country road that looked just like it did before the land was taken for the Manhattan Project. During the 1940’s the thousands of pine trees were planted where there had been farmers fields and by 1980 these were between 30 to 50 feet tall. You could run the entire Loop even at mid-day without exposure to the sun. In many places one felt like you were running in an evergreen cathedral. The entire Loop road was a smooth clay road with fine sand on top. The running trail consisted of the smooth 2-foot wide double lanes made by automobiles that traveled the roads in the early part of the last century. There was about 3 feet of grass and wildflowers separating the tire tracks and about a six feet wide grass and wildflower shoulder on each side of the tire tracks. It was easy for runners to stay side by side by running in each tire track.

From 1950 to about 1980, anyone could use these roads and it was common to find campers, people having a picnic, or even waxing or doing some shade tree mechanic work on cars along the way. Then a manager arrived with a streak of paranoia about possible misuse of the land, liability, and even security threats to the government plants. The gates were closed (and some still are) but most runners still ran the Loop. Some were stopped and escorted out of the area by security guards but most still ran the loop. Then came the pine bark beetle that wrecked much of the pine. Next came the loggers to clear out the pine trees that were infected. Actually they cleared out the infected pine as well as the pine that was not susceptible to the infestation. The loggers changed the Loop because their trucks were so heavy that they dug deep holes in the clay. This they solved by laying down blue stone or gravel. Later when their trucks got mired on the muddy road, they put down large stone (about 3 inch in diameter) that made long patches of the road difficult to run on with risk of turning an ankle for several years. The road slowly improved though thanks to the hunters whose trucks pounded the larger stone back down into the clay (but also created a few potholes).

Now the road improvement campaign has taken another turn. Possibly for safety and liability concerns, bulldozers have widened the trail to two full car widths, completely eliminated the grassy shoulders, and thus eliminated all the grass and wildflowers except for the section between the quarry and the turnpike and the initial uphill section behind the guard shack. The addition of more gravel makes the road look like a modern gravel country road, still acceptable for running, but ugly to the eyes compared to what it once was and could have remained. The interesting thing is that gravel roads wash out because there is no grass to hold the soil (something quite evident on the long down hill sections of the Boundary Road part of the Loop. That washout started after the first assault of the bulldozers in the late 1980’s).

The road (it can no longer be considered a trail) will improve after hunting season commences and in time, if the bulldozers and graders stay away, perhaps some of the grass and wildflowers will return. It is still beautiful and is one of the few places where you can run without the sound or interference of automobiles and trucks. The views and the wildlife encounters are still wonderful. The huge blackberry field is still there at Herrill Rd. You can still find the remnants of the pre-1940’s houses and farms (look for the climbing roses and Yucca plants). The bugs still disappear about a half-mile from the turnpike intersection, no doubt a long-standing situation created by their ancestors being carried away on the passing windshields of turnpike cars. As you come up the long grade from the quarry, approaching civilization still becomes evident through a sudden awareness of the distant sounds of the WW II recreation from the Sportsman’s Club. The experience was good for the soul. My time for the 5 miler was decent at 1:52, a bit off my old best of 32 minutes and change. But that isn’t important, it’s a start.

Photos (1997)

1. Trail West of Quarry

2. Trail 4 Miles West of Quarry

3. Quarry

4. East of Quarry

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