Today I managed to find the way between the two access points I had used previously to get into the forest and park behind my neighborhood. There is a 126 acre park that backs up to a 11,250 acre forest managed by the university. Plus there is the open space that belongs to my community (to remain undeveloped). I scratched the surface of these 3 "parks" today and made a nice loop that connected back to the paths through my neighborhood. I have shown an aerial map here with a rough red line giving a vague idea of where I hiked. Some of the paths are pretty curvy, but you get the general idea... This was a little over an hour and a half for the total trip, front door to front door, but I am rather tired today so I wasn't trying to walk fast.
The overlook I like is only about 700 ft in altitude, so it's not a very hard hike, but it is a good one, and is just a walk outside my door - so who can complain? I can certainly go a lot further another time - there are mile and miles of trails back there! There is another hill toward the north-west of my neighborhood that is about twice this height - I should try that one next!
