West Orange Trail has twenty miles of trail with quite a few different stops along the way that allow you to join in on it. Since the entire thing is a point-to-point trail, I thought I'd check out as much of it as I could on a few different trips. Some of these spots were so amazing I ended up going back a few times.
While it would have been nice if I was closer to the West Orange Trail, it’s at least worth the time to get out there and enjoy a couple of hours of mostly nature and some decently paved pathways. I ended up selecting to start at Ingram Outpost which is around the middle of it. From there only time will tell where I'll branch out from.
With this trail being right in the middle I had a choice to make. I could either go west or east. Since the east path looked like it ran for a while next to the road and was less than two miles to the next outpost, I ended up heading towards Captain Station.
This was one of the earlier trails that I used to get back into the swing of things. Summer had been quite hot and from the issues I had at Gemni Springs Park trail, I was willing to wait for some cooler temperatures to arrive before embarking on what would end up being quite a lot of different trips hiking and walking along different trails.
The interesting thing about trying to get to Captain Station is on the map it only claims it’s 4.6 miles away. Now that alone after I built up some endurance and strength again, I don’t feel it would be much of an issue. That is, however, just getting there. With this being a point-to-point, the entire trip would end up being 9.2. Which for someone who has been as inactive as I have been would be quite a struggle. I could do it but then I'd be out of being able to do things for a few days at least for now.
Since this section of the trail is open from sunrise to sunset, I was not going to get up super early to hit it. I however wanted to be out of the place before it would start to heat up too much.
Out of all the stops along the way Ingram Outpost is the smallest of them all. It only has parking and nothing else. This also means you need to have some kind of plan. There is not even a place to fill up on water let alone do anything else.
The best part that more than made up for it felt as far as the section of trail I was doing. There was only one crossing you had before you would run into another one a few miles down the trail. This was just getting across which was getting out of the parking lot to get onto this trail. While some access roads would run along you would not have to deal with it.
After a couple of trips to this section of the trail, I have noticed quite a few people on bikes also like to ride this section. They also have a bike path a few miles past an outpost. I’m sure the lack of having to cross the road for a while is the same reason, they enjoy riding down this section of the trail as well.
One of the fun parts of this section of trail is it runs alongside a golf course. Some sections have tall fences to try and catch any balls that might have been hit too far to try and prevent anyone on the trail from getting nailed with a golf ball.
A fun little thing at least for me is seeing if I can spot any golf balls that have made it over. It would sure be a shame if I filled up a backpack with lots of them. I would not know anything about doing that at all.
Usually, when I go on this trail it is a mostly decent day. Most of the photos for this one will, however, be a bit cloudy. I’m not exactly sure what I did with the couple of other trips out to this section's photos. I’m sure I'll recall what folder I dumped them in once I no longer need them!
Next to the golf course is also a cemetery and they have their access road going in. It can get a bit strange when it looks like it’s another part of the trail but then a car starts driving down the other side. I’ve seen a few people on bikes switch over to using that as a lane and getting a rude awakening when a car shows up.
This section of the trail has some places to rest. There are only two benches close to each other for quite a while. It looks like there used to be more places set up for a place to rest but there are no longer any benches like this one.
I at least find these benches to be a great place to drop off anyone who is with you who is not feeling up for going further along the trail. There is no shame in that. The first time out and only made it to this bench before taking a short break and deciding it was time to head back to the parking lot.
Then another time I made it up to a bridge. It turns out there is more than one bride to cross under along this trail. I would not find that out for a couple more trips.
On another trip, I decided I was going past that bridge. I wanted to know what more there was to see so I kept walking for a bit more. Turns out there is a bit of a hill to go up. I’m not the biggest fan of hills but at least it would be fun to go down. So, I pressed further on.
There was then a stop sign I ended up making it up to. I was not looking to cross any extra roads, so I turned around and started the process like before back again.
The next time out I naturally had to know what was beyond the stop sign. It turns out there was a school back there that the trail ran along. There was also another bridge.
That bridge I started to call the midway point. I did not feel like pushing far beyond it and I always knew if I could make it out that far that I was having a great day. Not everyone I would go out on the trail with would be willing to make it out that far. So, in my mind, it was a decent goal to have every time.
Overtime I did want to see what was beyond the midway point. I, however, was not going to tackle that from this side of the trail. I will at some point be going in from the Chapin Station entry point intending to make it to that exact bridge at some point.
Final Thoughts
After a while I worked out many of the short-term issues and struggles, I had to go along a trail for around two hours sometimes more and sometimes less. This part of the trail ended up being a great starting place for me. It was, however, time to move on many other sections and even entirety different trails. I was on a mission to find something better than this.
This place was also not as close as I'd like it to be. So that in itself gave me a good reason to want to keep looking and seeing what else is out there. Not to mention as you will soon slowly work out in any future posts I'll make about this trail. I slowly get tired of having to deal with the bikers that roam these trails on their e-bikes barely putting any effort into things while trying to fly past you at twenty miles per hour.
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Photos were taken and content was written by @Enjar about my personal experiences in the real world away from the computer at home.
