He Includes Natural Area In New Building Plan

He Includes Natural Area In New Building Plan

BY DOUG FELTON

News Outdoor Editor

One of the interesting off-shoots of the “environmental movement” has been an "increased awareness of and interest in health and physical fitness. Part of this stems from a concentration on the energy crisis, alternative transport methods, and similar concerns, which have caused a boom in bike sales, bike baths, and the like, and part from the simplification of life-styles, which also accounts for the interest in home gardening and organic gardening, and appreciation of natural processes.

For some, pursuit of physical wellbeing takes the form of jogging, long walks or hikes, and biking for recreation as well as commuting to work and running errands. For others it may take the form of a specific exercise (the rise in the number of tennis clubs, for instance, many of which are roofed for winter use) or indulging in the gamut of exercises and muscle-toning devides at the ever-proliferating "health clubs."

Long-time resident (native, really) Don Botsford has been in the keeping-fit business for almost 20 years, long before the "health spas” became popular long before Earth Day, in fact. His Ann Arbor Gymkhana has been a mecca for Ann Arborites who wanted to keep themselves trim, and over the years thousands of area residents have trouped out to his place on Maple Road just off Stadium either to exercise by themselves or take classes.

But for the past few years Botsford has been unhappy both with the location and size of the Gymkhana, and has been looking around for someplace to move.

"I wanted to find someplace out on the edge of town, where there would be a better atmosphere, and lots of room,” he said. “I needed two to three acres for the building and parking, and what I really wanted to find was a site that had some trees around it.”

What Botsford found was a 20-acre parcel of woods on Miller Rd., just past the expressway. That was way too much land, but the more he thought about it, the more possibilities came to mind.

Working with the architect for the new building, Botsford came up with the idea of placing both the building and the parking lot in one corner of the acreage, leaving the rest in its natural condition. Around the edge of the property he is weaving a trail that will be, with bends and curves, a mile long. Another trail will cut somewhat through the center, about half a mile long.

The trails will serve a double purpose, Botsford notes. They will be both nature trails and jogging trails. “We have quite a bit of wildlife on the property, and we hope to keep it there for the enjoyment of our members," he said.

Botsford is carefully cutting the trees from the area where the building and parking lot will be placed, and he is using the slash to make brush piles for wildlife. There is also a small pond there, which he hopes to deepen, and he wants to add some native wildflowers along the trails.

In addition the trails will have benches and observation platforms at several locations. In other places on the trail he will build, for the joggers, exercise spots similar to those on the Swiss “Par Cours” areas. These courses have proved quite popular throughout Europe.

(Incidentally, another Par Cours trail is planned for the perimeter of the old County Farm property, to be built under the auspices of the Washtenaw County Parks and Recreation Commission. It will be called the Washtenaw County Exercise Trail, and plans presently call for construction to begin in early Spring.)

Botsford’s new Gymkhana will contain exercise rooms, gym, handball courts, sauna and “cool pool,” and facilities for a variety of fitness activities. There will also be an indoor tennis building. But the buildings and parking lot will occupy only about 15 per cent of the area — the rest of it will be left in near natural condition.

Botsford is excited about the plans, and he’s been spending every available moment at the site, measuring exactly where the buildings will go, marking the trees to be left, cutting and piling brush, marking out the trails—and having the time of his life.

It’s a new experience for him, and certainly it is a novel idea he’s come up with.

Botsford is cutting the trees where building is placed himself to assure keeping as many as possible