5034. Walk the new walking bridge in Appleton

 Back in 2020, Appleton opened a new walking bridge across the Fox Cities from Lawe Street. I said I wanted to do walk this bridge for 4 years. It has been on my 21 in 2021 list, 22 in 2022, and 23 in 2023 lists. I am very good at procrastinating apparently. 

My other "issue" was I wasn't show where to park. I really didn't want to walk the entire Fox Trot Trail just to get to it. I wasn't entirely comfortable parking at Stone Arch and walking to it which I shouldn't be. I think Grandma fear of dark and creepy places is starting to wear off on me. I also couldn't figure out on Google maps, where it ended so I couldn't park on the other end. It turns out there is parking by the trail head. Who knew??

Since it was a relatively nice day for February, I dragged Heather with me on my adventure. We left our cars at Stone Arch, the last stop on Death By Chocolate. We picked up the Newbery Trail right across from Stone Arch and took that to Lawe Street. Then we followed the Fox Trot Trail north on Lawe Street until we got to the walking bridge. We stopped and got a few pictures of Metamorphosis sculpture.

The Lawe Street Trestle Trail crosses the Fox River. It is 575 feet long so less than 1/8 of mile. It will bring you out to the apartments down by the Banta Bowl. You can opt to turn around and go back the same way you came or continue following the trail back to John Street and back down South River St. We started out following the trail but decided to turn back since we weren't really sure how far we would walk if it followed it the entire way. Our legs and ears were getting cold.

It is a lovely walk. We did not see any eagles but there were some duck. I'm sure when everything is all leafed out for the year or in the fall it would be really pretty. 

Go explore this trail or one of the many other trials in the area. There are many trials I still need to explore including Nelson Family Crossings between Little Chute and Kaukauna. I think there is another new trial/bridge in Appleton that I need to check out too. 

4961. Walk the Fox Trot Trail in Appleton

 One day while at the farmer's market or something, Danielle and I noticed blue paw prints on the sidewalk in downtown Appleton. It turns out, they are there to guide on the Fox Trot Trail. I decided I wanted to to follow this trail. This was several years ago and I kept putting it off because I didn't want to deal with parking. Heather and I had time to kill while downtown and decided to go for it.

The Fox Trot Trail is a two mile loop through downtown and the riverfront that highlights the area history. You can pick up a guide at Paper Valley Hotel or just go to the Fox Trot Trail website to download one. Since I forgot my guide at home, I just googled Fox Trot Trail and downloaded the guide to my phone.

There are 16 points of interest that the guide talks about. It starts at Houdini Plaza and continues east on College Ave. Stops along College Ave include The Zuelke Building, History Museum at the Castle, Lawrence University Main Hall, and Lawrence Memorial Chapel.

Then the route has you head south on Lawe Street. This is the start of the river are. Stops along Lawe Street include

The Vulcan Plant Replica -- the first hydroelectric plant and the industrials flats.

Once you cross the river and train tracks, the trail heads down the Newberry Trail where you can see the Lock Tender's House, Lock #2, and between the locks building.

Then you head up Olde Oneida Street to Trolley Square, The Dam Tender's House, and the Fox River Mills Apartments.

From there you go past Rocky Blair Run and end in Jones Park.

We only lost the paw prints once when it crossed the street on Lawe Street since there was sidewalk ony only on one side.

I did talk about some of the places at first but by the time we got to Olde Oneida Street, it wasn't that interesting anymore.

The walk was fun. I would suggest doing it when you have an hour or so to kill downtown. There are hills but it was not as bad as I thought it would be. There is a ramp or stairs to get you from Jones Park on the river back to Lawrence Street. Going down isn't bad, it's always going back up.