July 18, 2018

Sagamore Hills Ohio, Cuyahoga Valley National Park

Today was our day to immerse ourselves in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. After consulting with our Airbnb hosts and doing some research with printed materials and online, we had a plan. We drove about 20 minutes to a bicycle rental shop in a small town along both the Ohio & Erie Canal and the scenic railroad. There we were outfitted with a couple of bikes that we would have for a few hours. We were ready to ride the towpath along the canal. 100 years ago these canals were built in many places around the US, including in Ohio. Here they were made to connect the Ohio River with the Great Lakes to transport many things including grain and other crops from farms along the way and supplies back to the farmers. These canals included many locks to help the canal boat follow the contours of the land. Between the Ohio River the canal rose over 600 feet and then descended 500 feet to Lake Erie.  Along side the canals there was a towpath where mules would pull the boats along the very flat water of the canal. This canal was used very successfully for over 90 years, even competing with the railroad.  Then, in 1913 a terrible storm resulted in such a flood that a portion of the canal was washed into the river running close by.  It was not repaired and commerce stopped. The canal deteriorated into ruins, filling with dirt.  Trees and other plants took over. Then in the 1970s a process happened to begin to reclaim and restore these canals and the towpath. Many of these sections are now part of the national park.

So we got our bikes and headed off for an adventure on a glorious day. The temperature was the mid to upper 70s blue skies sunshine no humidity. Yep couldn't of asked for a better day for a bike ride our goal was to go to 11 or 13 miles to a place where the historic Cuyahoga Valley Railroad ran. There we would be picked up by the train which would give us a ride back to the station where we left our car. A perfect combination.

The ride was the bike ride was lovely mostly flat with some slight hills, often times riding through beautiful green Eastern hardwood forests. The canal was lovely, and a perfect place to ride a bike. We passed or were passed by some other bikers but it wasn't too busy.

Highlights included three Different times finding great blue herons who seem to be posing for us on logs in the canal. We were able to stop to quickly pull out our cameras to get some amazingly close up shots of these glorious birds. Wow! Another treat was a very large snapping turtle sunning himself on a log. Dick is used to seeing painted turtles, but this snapper was huge (shell was over 18 inches long). Wow!

We also  had the sense that we were riding through a lovely natural garden filled with many beautiful wildflowers.  We saw some of our favorite flowers from the Midwest such as Butterfly Milkweed, Chicory, and Morning Glory.

There were the remnants of some of old locks that we could still see. In another part of the canal they were a couple of these locks that have been restored, but most of them were just a shadow of their old selves. Still, worth a stop to look at them and think about how useful they had been in days gone by.

The trail took us through some small villages past little towns.  At one point we saw the train rolling by on the other side of the river as it headed north. We knew that was our train when it came back south. At 11 miles, we realize, if we wanted to catch that train, this was as far as we were going to go today. So we stopped and wandered over to the little train station.  This was where, eventually, the train would pick up maybe 40 bikers as well as many other hikers, as well as others who wanted to catch the train. We ate our lunch and then, after passing our bikes to the crew, happily hopped on board the train to head south.

It was fun, from the vantage point of the train, to identify some of the same places that we had seen from our bikes. What took us three hours to ride our bikes north ended up taking around 30 minutes to head back south. A lovely way to enjoy a chunk of this beautiful national Park.

Then we went for a hike in a beautiful corner of the park called the Ledges. This was a fairly easy couple miles through large sandstone cliffs and lovely trees.  

This was a deep woods with lots of green.  We were soaking up the “green” knowing we would be soon returning to the “brown” of Southern California. You could feel that in the shade near the rocks the temperature was maybe 10° cooler than it had been out in the sun. This was a beautiful walk. Although it was a busy day in the park, the trails were not especially busy. We ran into some families and young couples just enjoying the beauty and sometimes the mystery of these rocks. It was nice to get into the woods again.

We then headed back to our Airbnb house. It was time for a late afternoon nap and shower before dinner. We had a nice dinner at the Creek Tavern, a local spot. Then back home for a nice evening that included good conversation with our hosts, Tom and Laurie.

One of the real treats and staying with Tom and Lori’s Airbnb is that Tom is a consummate garlic gardener. He has some special heirloom garlic that a dear friend’s dad brought 80 years ago from Italy. Tom has kept this garlic going for 40 years, and generously shares much of what he grows with friends and family. We are thrilled to have some special cloves of garlic that we're going to take back to California.  We have some to eat and others to try to grow in our garden there. A couple years ago Tom mailed us some garlic. We made it last for a very long time. It was delicious! But how generous that we are now headed on our way with freshly dug garlic ready to eat and plant. Thank you, Tom.