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Wednesday, July 27, 2022
The drive to the park was just over two and a half hours. We had lunch at a local chain called The Winking Lizard Tavern. We ordered a quesadilla and the Memphis mac and cheese (it had pork barbecue in it). The food was nothing special. Then we headed over to the visitor’s center for trail maps. The ranger suggested a nice hike and informed us that the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad that runs through the park is actually administered by a private company. We’d have to contact them for tickets.
A large part of the park follows the Cuyahoga River. In the early 1800s a canal was dug alongside the river. It connected Akron to Lake Erie and was a vital transport for goods until the 1860s when it was largely replaced by the railroads. We headed to Station Road Bridge and found the Towpath Trail that follows both the river and the canal.
The Towpath trail is really the same path that the mules would have walked as they propelled cargo through the canal. The canal was completely abandoned in 1913. Parts of it have narrowed and have very little water in it but for the most part it is clearly visible. Today it supports a great deal of wildlife.
That portion of the path leads to the old Frazee Family House 2.7 miles distant. When we started walking the sky was overcast and the air was humid. As long as the sun stayed behind the clouds it was relatively pleasant. Shortly after starting we saw a large bird sitting on a branch in the river. We got close enough to see it was a Great Blue Heron. They’re rather large and very pretty. As we continued we saw several more wading in the canal looking for fish to eat. We also saw several deer and quite a few ducks. The sounds of bullfrogs were everywhere, although we never did actually see one. We even saw some brown trout in the canal.
Finally we got to the Frazee Family House. Construction of the canal in the 1830s had caused the surrounding farm land to become flooded. Several years worth of crops were lost. The Frazee Family sued the State of Ohio and built a new, large, brick house with part of the $130.00 they got as a settlement. That house still stands today.
We sat on a bench for a few minutes and drank some water before heading back. Just as we took our first steps we saw some lightening and heard the sound of distant thunder. Soon after the sky opened up in a torrential rain. Five minutes later we were hard pressed to find a dry spot on either of us. We were soaked to the skin from head to toe. We quickened our pace but it really didn’t help. The rain continued in that fashion for another two miles. The last 3/4 of a mile all we heard was the water sloshing in our shoes.
We used the towels we had with us to dry off but it hardly made a difference. Thirty minutes later we were at our hotel. Normally, when you walk into a hotel room it’s warm and stuffy. Not this time. The air conditioner was blasting away on high. We turned it off and jumped into a hot shower. We were both rather chilled the rest of the night.
Thursday, July 28, 2022
We drove down to the Akron train station, the southern most station on the line, and bought a coach ticket on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad. This park is unique in that it is the only National Park that has a train running through it. The train was scheduled to arrive at 10:30 am but was delayed due to a downed tree. Around 11:00 am we were headed north. The railroad is run by a non-profit organization. All of the trainman, engineers, and conductors are very enthusiastic volunteers. They had no end of stories about the train, the park, and many of the sights we would be seeing out the windows. We made about half a dozen stops along the way to pickup and discharge passengers. It took the train about an hour and a half to make the 22 mile journey to the northern most station.
When we arrived we got out of the train and walked over to the cafe car. We were expecting them to have some food but all they really had were snacks. We got just something to tide us over until we could get some lunch.
Around 2:30 pm we were back at the Akron station. On the way North our eyes were glued to the windows. We didn’t want to miss anything. We spent most of the return trip talking with a group of off-duty trainman. They were very entertaining.
We walked a few blocks to a restaurant called Luigi’s for lunch. We ordered from the lunch special menu. Deborah had the meat lasagna and I had penne with meat sauce. The food was very good and it was obvious that the sauce was home made. The portions was rather small but it was certainly enough for lunch. Their meat sauce, however, was more like marinara. “Where’s the beef?” Cash only.
After lunch we decided to try one of the hikes that one of the trainman had suggested: Beaver Marsh. In most cases National Parks are formed to try, as much as possible, to preserve the natural beauty of their lands. Cuyahoga Valley National Park is different. Its lands were mostly industrial. In this case the park service has a long term goal of converting the land back to its original natural state. The beaver marsh was originally a junk yard. The park service decided to clear the space and create a parking lot. Once the land was cleared beavers migrated in, created a dam and flooded the space. Undeterred the park service removed the beavers, destroyed the dam, and once again tried to pave the area. The beavers had other ideas. They came back and built another dam causing 77 acres to become flooded. The park service got the message and awarded this one to the beavers.
The area has become a Mecca for wildlife. It’s replete with beavers, otters, turtles, waterfowl, snakes, and a whole lot more. We walked along the marsh looking for beavers. We never found any but we did find a huge snapping turtle, some fish, and some rather exotic ducks.
Friday, July 29, 2022
This morning we went back to the park and did another hike that was suggested by one of the trainman: The Ledges. This is a 2.7 mile loop trail that winds through a heavily wooded area. The guide says that the maximum evaluation change is 100 feet. We must have done that several times.
The area is known for its rock formations. The trails are lined with large sandstone rocks that have eroded into all sorts of interesting formations. The easily identifiable layers are also highly colored. It makes for a very pretty outing.
Afterwards we went over to a nearby State Park called Metro Park. It contained two curiosities. One was an old abandoned sandstone quarry. We hiked uphill to see what remained of a once large, and very active quarry. The stones were initially used to create locks on the canal and were subsequently sent through the canal for building projects all over the world. Next we walked down to the canal to see Lock 28. At 14 feet it was the deepest lock on the entire canal system and was the embarkation point for the quarried sandstone.
For lunch we went to Fisher’s Cafe in Peninsula. One of the trainman told us that they had great ice cream. For our meal we ordered mahi-mahi tacos with a side of onion rings. The tacos were spicy and the onion rings were delicious. We also ordered a bacon cheeseburger with a side of eggplant fries. We’d never seen eggplant fries before. We just couldn’t resist. They were absolutely delicious. What a brilliant idea. As promised the ice cream was very good. It would have been a great meal except for the 2.5% charge for using a credit card. Since almost no one pays in cash this amounts to pure graft and corruption. If you want to raise your prices go ahead but don’t nickel and dime your customers we HATE that.
Not wanting to call it a day yet we decided to go back to the Frazee House, the terminus of our hike the first day, and continue on North. We walked for about a mile before deciding to turn back. We’d finally had enough.
Saturday, July 30, 2022
For the last time we headed into Cuyahoga Valley National Park. We’d never really heard of this park before but it turns out that it is one of the ten most popular parks in the U.S. According to one of the rangers we spoke to its because there’s no entry fee and its proximate to about 4 million people.
We drove over to the Canal Visitor’s Center; this was another one of the things the trainman told us to do. The building, situated just alongside one of the few locks in original condition, was operated as a tavern for many years. The downstairs was divided between a gift shop and an informational display about the canal. The upstairs had information on how the canal changed life for the locals, for the State of Ohio, and for people across the country. We learned that the first canal in the U.S. was the New England Middlesex Canal that ran from Boston to rural New Hampshire. Most of that canal has been paved over but there are spots where it can still be seen. There’s also a visitor’s center / museum about that canal in North Billerica, MA.
Next we drove to the Southern part of the park to the Tree Farm Trail. We followed the obvious trail around a small lake and wound up at a dead-end near a covered picnic area. Oops! We backtracked and found another, less obvious, trail and continued on that way. Soon we saw signs that indicated we were on the right track.
The trail wended its way through a wooded area. Part of the path was gravel and part was grass. About halfway through we came to a clearing and saw what we would colloquially call a Christmas Tree Farm with groups of evergreens at various stages of growth. I don’t know what we were expecting but that wasn’t it. In any event it was a pleasant hike. 2.7 miles later we were back at the car.
We went into a nearby town for gas and lunch before returning to the hotel. We wanted to make sure we had enough time to do a few housekeeping chores before we were off to our next destination.