Living in a small town has its benefits: the traffic is manageable, the lines at the store are never too long, and you always feel pretty safe wherever you go.
But, if you are looking to find really long and adventurous hikes, you’re probably not going to find that in Van Wert, Ohio. It doesn’t take too many places to the same locations for Caesar to get bored. I noticed after we go to the same place too many times in a small amount of time, Caesar is much slower at walking, he’s uninterested in his surroundings, and he fights to go back to the car. He’s just not into the walk.
Dogs need a change of scenery or at least new smells to investigate when going on daily walks. They have such active minds , and just like us, they can get bored of the same old thing. That’s why when I’m choosing a location for our daily walk, I make sure to choose a place we didn’t just hit up the day before.
In my hometown there are really three options for taking walks: the reservoir (if you walk both it’s a little over 3 miles), the bike path (from one end to the other and back is around 4 miles), or a stroll around town. Typically, we end up walking all three of these options each week.
There are only so many ways to keep these options fresh; I switch up where I park at the reservoir and bike path, but it often doesn’t get much more exciting than that. Also, there are hardly any trees at these two locations, so on a hot day, we try to avoid them (too much open sunlight). While walking through town, we often take different roads. Still, this only offers so much and in a small town, you eventually run out of interesting streets or places that even interest a dog.
Caesar, like most dogs, loves to take walks where there are trees to smell, tall grasses to root through, and rivers and lakes to drink from. That’s why, our three favorite walks are actually just a short drive from our small town and are places we highly suggest for people who love to take their dogs on walks with them.
River Greenway – Decatur
This trail is by far our favorite and takes us less than 30 minutes to get to. If you take US 224 from Van Wert into Decatur you will see a Dollar General. The trail starts just beside the store and offers a TON of shade right off the bat.
This trail runs next to a river which offers lots of fresh water for Caesar. There are many branches you can take to extend your walk to make it as long or as short as you’d like. Decatur has over 19 miles of trail with many different staring locations! Sometime’s the Dollar General trail head is flooded after a rain, but that’s no problem, we just park near the hospital and start from there. Caesar has never gotten bored at the River Greenway trail because there is so much variety. We’ve even started on the trail and then took a stroll through downtown Decatur to check out their sculptures. I highly suggest starting at Dollar General because it will take you onto an abandon train track; the scenery up there is stellar.
Decatur’s trail system is wonderful if you have a dog (or if you just want to go on a long walk alone). While it’s in town, it often feels like we are in the Smoky Mountains or out somewhere far away. It’s a very peaceful area.
Kreager Park – Fort Wayne
Fort Wayne has a ton of really great parks (and one day they even plan to connect to Decatur’s!), but Keager Park is great for Caesar and I because it’s actually only around 30 minutes away as it is on the New Haven side of Fort Wayne. Depending on which way you go, this hike will take you further into the countryside or right under a busy highway, but both are great paths as they are paved, ofter tons of shade, and are very peaceful.
The Kreager Park trail runs along a river, offering a great view of nature. It’s a great place to see a ton of different birds, which keeps Caesar very interested in the pathway. His nose is usually hard at work at Kreager Park.
Like Decatur, depending on which way you go, you can extend this walk as far or as short as you’d like. Fort Wayne has over 90 miles of trails, so there’s no way to really run out of places to go on a daily walk.
Black Swamp Nature Preserve – Paulding
We’ve only been to this location a few times but I was downright impressed with it. While it doesn’t offer a very long hike, Paulding’s Black Swamp Nature Preserve is a definite gem in such a small town. This location takes me about 20 minutes to drive to but it makes me feel like I am a totally different State.
The Preserve is very shady and feels like a maze so you can easily extend your hiking time by taking a bunch of different routs even if you reuse some of the same paths. Caesar and I walk pretty fast through, so it only took us about an hour to hike every corner of the Preserve.
The Preserve offers paths around various swamps and even includes a small waterfall in one area which I found very serene. Not to mention, there is a ton of wildlife! On our last visit we saw a deer, a rabbit, fish, birds, and a TON of painted turtles. This trail definitely kept Caesar’s attention because of how much wildlife there was. I imagine that gave him a lot of smells to discover. My only wish for the Preserve was that it was a little bigger, but it is truly a great spot just a short distance from Van Wert.
We are always looking for new and exciting places to hike that are dog-friendly in the area (and even in Ohio/Indiana/Michigan area). If you know a place, leave a comment and tell me where Caesar and I should go next!