Exploring the World with Pokémon Go: Greenway Bike Trail
While exploring a nearby park, I saw signs for Greenway Bike Trail. I decided to go check it out the next time I was in the area. Let’s see what I found.
Mile Marker 0.5 West:
The Greenway Bike Trail does not have mile markers as frequently as some of the other places I have explored. But I’ll stick to the same Mile Marker system I have used in the past. It works well normally. Just so happens that this time around, there will be a lot more pictures in each group. About double the normal amount.
When I first came here, I figured this trail would be a simple walk through the woods. I was pleased by how wrong I was. Just in the above images, you see several different places all worth looking at. From golf courses, to swamp boardwalks, this trail had a fantastic showing right off the bat.
While it seems like I was far away from things, no part of this trail is far from homes or smaller parks. There is something to be said when whoever built this trail managed to make it seem that way. I like that illusion of separation.
You might notice that there is an West listed on Mile Marker 0.5. It will be clear soon how the markers on this trail work. Until then, lets look at what I found further down.
Mile Marker 0:
For the next part of this adventure, I continued down Greenway Bike Trail. First I want to address a certain image above. Yes that image was a picture directly at the sun. Its blurry and I probably shouldn’t put that image on the blog at all. Yet that wouldn’t be any fun. I try to make these posts raw. That means I keep the mistakes there. I’m only human after all.
This section of the trail fit the in the woods aesthetic a bit more than the first part. But you can see houses just off to the side which is how you know there is far more going on here. This trail is in Casselberry Florida which is a surprisingly dense part of the Orlando Metropolitan area. Originally I had planned to explore Sanford, but there are several things still worth checking out beyond this trail.
A few features did stick out to me as I continued my walk. Around some of the trees, I found cute little markers. The fans were a nice touch, though it wasn’t quite windy enough when I visited to see them fully spinning. My imagination filled in that little detail for me.
There were a couple sharp turns on the trail at this point. I saw some of those mirrors used to help avoid blind spots and crashing. Well I wasn’t on a bike so they were not as helpful to me. Though I will say I felt safer having them there in case a biker didn’t see me.
Anyway you might be wondering why you can see Mile Marker 0 in the . Yet I’m only part of the way through this trail. As it turns out, there is a trailhead that splits the trail into multiple sections. I crossed from one part to another.
Mile Marker 0.5 East:
Moving past the center area and trailhead for Greenway Bike Trail, I encountered another wooden bridge over swamp land. I know that Florida natives don’t find this feature anything amazing. But I lived in Chicago, Illinois for about 2/3rds of my life so these areas are still new and unique to me. Maybe in another ten more I’ll get over this specific feature.
I saw one or two resting areas while at this section as well. Though they are not actual parks, they still are proper greenspace where one can rest while hiking this trail. The more I explored, the more I found. And I managed to bring another photo of the sun ruining the colors into the sum of discoveries too.
I need to commend Casselberry for properly marking not just the trail here, but the distance to other nearby features not just by distance, but by how long someone traveling outside a car can expect to spend getting there. Before I visited here, I let the reputation of this part of town dictate my thoughts on it. I am happy to see that I was completely wrong about this section of Orlando.
I passed Mile Marker 0.5 East and looked forward to reaching the end of this trail. There ended up being a lot more to see than I could have ever expected. This is why you don’t just look at a map. There is something special about checking a place out in person.
Mile Marker 1 East:
Away from the forest, Greenway Bike Trail took me past a school. Based on all the construction, it looks like the school is expanding its usable space. Nothing wrong with that. Kids need that space to enjoy themselves. To much crap happening in the world. Let kids have some fun before they become bitter adults.
Moving past the school, I realized in hindsight that I made a mistake with the pictures. It wasn’t marked on maps, but as Pokemon Go soon showed me, I took a picture of a park and even went past it. That is against the rules of the blog. Not that it matters since I set those rules. But it still bothered me a little when I caught my mistake later. I already decided to explore that park next. The blunder will be a small one.
As I went past Mile Marker 1.0 East, I didn’t realize that I might be stepping off the trail soon. It looked no different as I continued on. I wasn’t going into anyone’s yard and the path continued forward. But as you will see in a moment, I might have added some extra places to this journey.
Off the Trail:
For the final part of my adventure down Greenway Bike Trail, I managed to wander off the actual trail and take a hike on an unnamed sidewalk that continued where the trial ended. Not a bad thing of course. I shouldn’t limit myself to just small areas of this larger world. I added it to this blog post because I didn’t think it was right to create a separate post for just a few more pictures.
Despite being between several backyards, I didn’t feel like I was intruding. There was a calming air as the morning moved on its way. The sun continued to climb and I was in some proper shade so the warming temperatures didn’t bother me too much.
I ended my adventure when I realized that this was no longer the trail. More likely this sidewalk was built for people living here to be able to get around without needing to drive. If so, I commend Casselberry for their infrastructure. More towns and neighborhoods need this sort of sidewalk.
There was no mile marker here. After all, the trail had been left behind by this point.
Pokémon Go:
I have said plenty on how much fun I had on Greenway Bike Trail. But how does it measure up in Pokémon Go? In a weird way actually. You see, given that the trail goes behind homes and through a neighborhood, there are no Pokestops on almost the entire thing. However, spawns were plentiful, I found myself running out of Pokeballs. Something that had not happened to me in game in a long time.
So, if you want to catch lots of Pokémon and don’t need items, you might find exactly what you need on this trail. But beware of running out of resources.
I hatched three eggs on this trail. I wasn’t happy with any of them. The Togepi lacked the stats I need to make it a monster in game. The other two are nothing worth writing home about in Go, even though one of them is amazing in the main games.
Axew was happy to see this lake. If I hadn’t left Greeway Bike Trail by accident, neither of us would have gotten this admittedly pretty view.
At that same lake, I found a bit of happiness. This surprise trail was a treat from beginning to end. I’m glad I paid it a visit.