A road less traveled

MONROE — The Smith’s Clove Park Turkey Trot presents a new challenge this year.
Due to the Route 208 bridge closure between State Route 17M and North Main Street in the Village of Monroe, the Park had to change the traditional Thanksgiving Weekend 5K course for the first time in 26 years.
As in the past, the event, open to runners and walkers, will start and end in Smith’s Clove Park early Saturday morning, Nov. 25.
"This year the course will be a little more challenging, but still runner and walker friendly," said Joe Mancuso, the recreational Director at Smith’s Clove Park.
Consider: Two hills; the first part of the course is inside the park to the top of Bald Hill, up a rustic serpentine dirt road and back down.
Then runners will leave the park by way of the back exit up Forest Avenue to Schunnemunk Street, down Forest to Franklin Avenue, to Spring Street and back into the park.
John Battaglia, the chairman of the Park Commission, said he is excited about the change.
He added that he hopes the course brings renewed awareness to the Peacock Trail inside the park, the commission's plans to expand on the wooded trails and the new walking path in the interior of the Smith’s Clove, which the commission plans to pave in Spring 2018.
Applications or information regarding the 5K is available online at smithsclovepark.org or at the Smith’s Clove Park Office, 133 Spring St., Monroe.