Springfield Parks, Greenways, and Outdoor Spaces

3/28/216
We went out to Lake Springfield this evening and walked the trails plus stopped at Springfield Fire Station #11 and walked on the track.

#21. Lake Springfield Park, Boathouse, and Marina. 5324 S. Kissick Ave.
This 150 acre park on the shore of Lake Springfield in south Springfield has a boathouse with community room available to rent, canoe/kayak rentals, a special events pavilion, a public picnic pavilion with playground, and three connected trails. One end of the 4.5 mile James River Water Trail begins here and you can fish from the bank.  We have been here many times and have walked on all three trails but tonight was the first time we had walked all of the Lake Springfield Park Trail. We parked at the Kissick Trailhead and walked down the paved James River Greenway Trail until it intersected with the Lake Springfield Park Trail. This trail is unpaved with  wood chipping in some areas that goes uphill to the north park boundary then travels east until it intersects with the Greater Ozark Audubon Trail which continues east until you get to the bluff then heads south along the bluff until you get back to the boathouse. There are several great views along the bluff including at Eagle Point. One humorous note--At the intersection, you can either stay on the Lake Springfield Park Trail or go north on the Audubon trail-which is the way we wanted to go. The signs indicated the Lake Springfield Park Trail went one way and the goat trail went the other way.....I thought(only briefly...lol..) Goats???..I though it was birds!!" But of course, goat is an acronym for Greater Ozark Audubon Trail!!!...duh...We had a very nice walk and the part of the trail running along the bluff was especially enjoyable. We did see some birds! We rejoined the James River Greenway Trail at the boathouse and walked back to our vehicle along the lakeshore just as the sun was setting. We spent about 1 1/2 hours and walked 2.8 miles, walking all of the trails.

#22 James River Linear Park/James River Greenway  Lake Springfield Park/Iron Bridge
This greenway trail is in two unconnected sections, one at Lake Springfield and the other section from Galloway Trail near the iron bridge. We have hiked or biked both sections multiple times but were just on the section at Lake Springfield tonight. The Ozark Greenways site states that a future bridge over Lake Springfield has been "suggested" to connect the two sections.

James River Water Trail
This is a 4.5 mile water trail for travel by canoe/kayak That runs between Lake Springfield and the iron bridge. We didn't have a boat but walked along the bank a short way here at Lake Springfield.

Springfield Fire Station #11 4940 S. Fremont Ave.
There is a 1/4 mile asphalt walking/running trail with a 15 station Parcourse Fitness circuit at this fire station in south Springfield. We primarily just walked around the course and read the signs. The signs at each station tell you how to do the exercise and the number of repetitions suggested for three different fitness levels. I did a couple of the stations that involved stretching and jumped for--and missed--the chin-up bar--not that there was any chance I could DO a chin-up--but we wanted to have time to walk around Lake Springfield before it got dark so we only spent about 10 minutes here. According to the Springfield Fire Department website, 5 of the 12 fire stations have tracks and it states that citizens are always welcome at Springfield Fire Stations. This is the first time we had ever been on one of the tracks at a fire station.

We spent about two hours outside tonight and walked just over 3 miles. We checked two Springfield-Greene County Parks facilities off my list, leaving 80 to go. We had been to Lake Springfield before but this was the first time we had stopped at the fire station.