Nuttall shows off trails, suggests routes online

For residents interested in checking out some trails but with no clue where to start, Bella Vistans John and Susan Nuttall’s website, www.wheretowalk inbellavistaar.com can provide some insight.

John Nuttall said the website has several contributors and he started it shortly after the Back 40 opened in 2016 to give people an idea of where to get started hiking.

The page contains a wide array of suggested walks, often forming into fewmiles-long loops that allow people to go for a walk and end up back at the car.

Each of these suggested walks comes complete with a short review that lets prospective walkers know what to expect — how long it is, how challenging it is, what sort of climbing they can expect, and so on.

John Nuttall said the goal was to answer the same questions for every suggested route.

“The whole idea is to give people an idea of where they can go, somewhere, and spend a few hours,” he said. “You know where to park, how long it’s going to take you.”

Susan Nuttall said the site was in part a response to people asking where to get into trails and where they went because the information was somewhat limited early on.

The new Little Sugar Creek trails in the central section are turning out particularly nice, she added, because they are incredibly attractive and take walkers to nature that would be invisible otherwise.

“You drive by there all the time and you would never see them,” she said.

John Nuttall said one of the best walks in the section is in that system. The stretch that exits the Kingswood and Berksdale parking lot to run alongside the Berksdale course before coming out on Riordan Road is one of his favorite walks, he explained.

“That is a spectacular walk,” he said.

Tweetybird on the south end of the Little Sugar Creek trails just off the intersection of Chelsea Road and Prescot Road is another great walk with a wide, level surface that anyone who can walk should be able to cover without trouble, he said.

These trails cover a variety of gorgeous flora and fauna as well as geological structures, he said, and provide a bit of seclusion in nature minutes away from the nearest road.

Susan Nuttall said one also meets lots of people out on the trails and it’s not uncommon to see whole families out walking or riding.

“It’s just another one of the things that we offer,” she said.