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Op have you checked out Charleston Falls by Tipp City? It is a nice park with about 5-6 miles of walking trails, and it has a falls (think like Ash Cave at Hocking Hills but smaller). And the terrain and vegetation is a nice mixture - forest, prairie, brush land, and even some wetland with a pond. If you haven't been you might like it a lot!
Otherwise if you are up for a longer drive, check out Cedar Bog north of Springfield. It is really unique and beautiful in a non traditional way - it's a fun place to go
I'll have to check it out! I just googled some pictures and It looks pretty cool. Tipp City is a good 30 mins from my house but I'm sure I'll have some time during the spring.
John Bryan state park is another one of my favorites but I never go up there because the drive is a little long.
This girl I've been talking to wants to take me to church. I'm kind of turned off by the idea since I'm agnostic, boarder line atheist, but I'm so bored that I might actually agree to go with her. I get up for work at 3am on most days so it's not like I have any sleep to lose.
I do have a few close friends..maybe 3 or 4. But they're all back in school. I have 2 friends in dayton right now and I'm not even close with them. Did you meet your spouse in Dayton? or did you have to move?
Jame22--
Give her chuch a shot. Most churches these days don't bite. But they do offer coffee and doughnuts. Ever since moving to Dayton it's been the biggest source of my social circle - and of my circle of close friends, too.
Either that, or come up to Tim Horton's by the Greene. I'm always there. Haha
John Bryan state park is pretty cool, too. Make sure you take a stop to Young's Jersey Dairy while you're out there, especially in warmer months - go play some mini golf. And check out the main drag in Yellow Springs, there's always some oddball hole in the wall place that you can check out. Make a full day of it.
As to "wanting a girlfriend"... I'm with you on that one. Being single generally blows, but the best you can do is put yourself in an opportunity to meet women.
This might sound strange but I have a beef with new growth forests..call me crazy but I enjoy old growth much more. There's a brief stretch of 'older' growth down at Caesar's Creek and another in Bill Yeck park in Centerville. These are the best I've found In the area so far and they're nothing special.
I hike Yeck Park quite a bit, and also parts of the Cesars Creek country and would like to know where these old growth woods are at.
If you live south there is Hueston Woods out near Oxford. A fer piece, but this is supposed to be a good stand of old growth.
Someone upthread linked you to Cedar Bog out near Urbana. Yes it is a drive, but well worth it. Not old growth, but interesting nonthless. It does look like a bit of Wisconsin dropped in Ohio. But, if you'd like, you could make a nice day trip out of it...visit Cedar Bog, and then drive over to the nearby Davey Woods, which is apparently a good stand of old growth out in the farm country.
I'd also suggest combining visits to Davey Woods and Cedar Bog with lunch in Urbana. There are some neat little lunch spots in town, especially this place for country cooking (or maybe breakfast/lunch):
Also north, but in Miami County, is Garbys Big Woods, which is supposed to be an old growth stand. Ive visited this spot and it is sort of neat...you are essentially exploring one of those "forest island" woodlots that float in that good old Midwest sea of corn and soybean that extends north of here.....here's the link:
John Bryan state park is another one of my favorites but I never go up there because the drive is a little long.
...what I've done is combine John Bryan, Glen Helen, and Clifton Gorge for a good mornings worth of hiking. Start at Yellow Springs and hike to Clifton Mill and back. Or vice versa. Finish up with coffee and pie or a light lunch. A longer hike makes the trip out there worthwhile.
Last edited by Dayton Sux; 02-07-2014 at 01:58 PM..
As far as the general comment about old growth and "Great Smokey Mountains" types of experiences...I take a perhaps more European approach to the outdoors.
I think Ive posted that I spent some time in Germany. Over there I'd do cross-country hikes, but this was through farm country and more tame woods, to maybe a village as a destination. So one gets more a mix of things...farmland/small town/woods & hills. Maybe more the pastoral vs the wilderness.
And Ive done this in the Dayton region as well..mixing differnt types of walking/hiking experiences. For example I combined sidwalk walking, nature preserve hiking, and roadside walking to do a 20 mile round trip between Centerville and Bellbrook, with lunch in Bellbrook...this combined Yeck Park, Sugarcreek Reserve, and Spring Lakes nature preserves into the hike....which included cutting through St Leonard on the way back.
In the Germantown area you can also do this, by combining loops of the Germantown Reserve, Twin Creek Reserve, and a cross country hike to Germantown to connect the two (via a bike trail, walking path easments through a farm field, and road walking via the village of Sunbury. This is being promoted as the Twin Valley Trail.
I've only done the Twin Creek loop trail and then a round trip to Germantown for lunch...figure the entire walk would be all day when there's longer days. Again, this is not the old growth wilderness experience, but it does offer a nice mix of countryside, village, and nature preserve.
Heres a lihk (its being promoted as a backpacking route, but you dont have to do it that way):
... the problem for singles here is finding a suitable date and that the region is a wasteland for singles socialization. Agree 100% that it's church or almost nothing else in this area. Maybe volunteering, or political activism could work - either carried out very strategically with respect to social factors.
Beyond those three venues, what you run into in Dayton (or for that matter Cincinnati) is that everyone is joined at the hip with someone else and has this full social life and has no need of anyone new. Clique city.
I'm married - being single here completely, utterly blew.
I gather that most locals make their romantic connections in high school or college. Those who divorce later in life, tend to have a Plan B. The hardest, I think, is for professionals - busy people who don't really have much interest in bars or churches, and virtually all of whose colleagues are married and busy with family.
It's not necessarily the case that everyone has a full social life. But I definitely find the "community" to be insular, as if there were some hidden code known to the cognoscenti but hidden from everyone else.
Another data point is examining the meetup.com options for singles. Look at Cincinnati or Columbus. There are 3-4 singles groups in either city. But Dayton really only has one singles meetup.com group, and it is overtly Christian ("ministry-based").
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jame22
This girl I've been talking to wants to take me to church. I'm kind of turned off by the idea since I'm agnostic, boarder line atheist, but I'm so bored that I might actually agree to go with her.
As an atheist myself, I actually recommend acceding to your girl[friend]'s offer. A first foray can be perfectly innocent. If the church is judgmental, or the girl make religious demands upon you, there's always the ejection-button. Otherwise, this could be a segue towards a new circle of acquaintances, if not outright friends. I think that many people are lukewarm church adherents, going through the motions merely to maintain a social connection.
Give her chuch a shot. Most churches these days don't bite. But they do offer coffee and doughnuts. Ever since moving to Dayton it's been the biggest source of my social circle - and of my circle of close friends, too.
Either that, or come up to Tim Horton's by the Greene. I'm always there. Haha
John Bryan state park is pretty cool, too. Make sure you take a stop to Young's Jersey Dairy while you're out there, especially in warmer months - go play some mini golf. And check out the main drag in Yellow Springs, there's always some oddball hole in the wall place that you can check out. Make a full day of it.
As to "wanting a girlfriend"... I'm with you on that one. Being single generally blows, but the best you can do is put yourself in an opportunity to meet women.
Yes, most churches are have friendly and awesome people. I'm more concerned about myself. I'd feel like a hypocrite hanging out at a church. Even if i did make friends it wouldn't feel right (unless they just go for the social aspect as well..who knows)
I used to work at that Wendy's off and on for 5 years so there's a good chance we've crossed paths. I hope you're not that guy who plays games on his laptop all day haha
Yes, most churches are have friendly and awesome people. I'm more concerned about myself. I'd feel like a hypocrite hanging out at a church. Even if i did make friends it wouldn't feel right (unless they just go for the social aspect as well..who knows)
Nobody said act like you belong or believe it. Observe.
would like to know where these old growth woods are at.
Well they're not necessarily old growth but they're pretty good for the area. I haven't been to Bill Yeck in a while but I can remember a lot of big trees in general..more than Sugarcreek at least. And if I remember right, there's a real nice stretch of older growth north of the visitors center at Caesars Creek.
I go to Sugarcreek 95% of the time. Mostly because it's close and has a decent amount of well maintained trails.
I guess I just don't have much faith in the Dayton area haha
Another data point is examining the meetup.com options for singles. Look at Cincinnati or Columbus. There are 3-4 singles groups in either city. But Dayton really only has one singles meetup.com group, and it is overtly Christian ("ministry-based").
Otherwise, this could be a segue towards a new circle of acquaintances, if not outright friends. I think that many people are lukewarm church adherents, going through the motions merely to maintain a social connection.
I would never go to anything labeled as a "singles" event. That's just asking for awkwardness.
I hope this is true. I'd be comfortable regularly attending a church if I knew a good amount of people were there for the same reason as me.
A friend dragged me to a Bible study once and it was awkward as Hell. Avoid Bible studies at all cost if you're an atheist/agnostic haha
Location: A voice of truth, shouted down by fools.
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I agree with the positive remarks about church attendance. Our society has turned some corners in the last few decades, and it's not taken as a universal truism today that everyone will believe at the same velocity or even at all.
The reason you'd go to (a) church as a committed agnostic or even an atheist is for objective learning and also for the attitude of acceptance and caring.
Dayton and Cincinnati are tough cities, really. People in this region studiously don't care if they p*** on you and set you on fire. Church around here is an enclave from that stony mentality of treating someone you don't know like crap because you don't know them, which is what I despise the very most about the people of this region.
Most mainline churches are struggling for new members and the LAST thing that most Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist, etc. churches will do is lay a guilt trip on you. 20 years ago, f'rinstance, a gay person would get critiqued to death at most mainstream churches but today they're generally glad to have any new attendee.
The churches where you're going to get a lot of pressure to commit and they look you in the eye with all of the critique attitude and you get members making a lot of judgements tend to be the evangelical churches.
We go to a mainstream church regularly and I drink and cuss anyway (just not in church) and I have my doubts like anyone.
And, really, I'd never bother with an evangelical church anyway. I just believe that the in-your-face confrontational approach to faith is really, really stupid.
Something else - even bible studies are alright if you're agnostic/atheist for this reason: as long as you're not a downer and not projecting negativity, if you went for the learning about something foreign or not your cup of tea, you'd be fine and accepted at my church and most churches. Depending, of course, whether you're interested in listening and stepping through the logic, history, etc being presented.
Consider it anthropology if you never intend to be a believer.
Last edited by Ohioan58; 02-08-2014 at 10:48 AM..
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