This is part three of a travel series of our midwest road trip covering four states and two national parks. We began our journey in Lake Geneva Wisconsin. If you missed it, start HERE!
In spite of dealing with severe weather all week, and not even traveling that far from home, would you believe that of all the vacations we have taken over the years, this one was one of my favorites? And it all started with a stop at a rest area. We were traveling home from West Virginia last year, and we stopped at a rest area in Ohio. On the walls of this rest stop were the most beautiful views of places to visit in Ohio. There were so many flower gardens and cute towns! I took photos of the pictures on the walls to keep for future reference. Well, fast forward a year later and my husband and I were trying to figure out where to go for a fall trip. We wanted to stay close to where my grandchildren lived because we wanted to visit them at some point during the vacation. We hadn't seen them since June and I didn't want to wait to November to see them again, so even though we usually drive west in the fall, this year we decided to drive east.
When telling people we were vacationing in Ohio this year, people laughed and asked "What's in Ohio?" as that is not a normal vacation destination for most people. And if I must admit, I was actually a bit embarrassed to admit I was going to Ohio for a vacation. It seems every time I get on Facebook someone is taking an exotic vacation overseas, and here is little ole me, driving to Ohio. But oh, did we have fun! Every single day was packed full of adventure and we did something different everyday. Usually when we travel, four days of our nine days is spent just driving! Not this trip! We only spent one full day driving and that was the day we drove home. Every other day of our vacation was spent doing a fun activity (with maybe a little bit of driving 😉). Our first day was four hours of driving to Lake Geneva, where we met up with friends and took a boat ride and mansion tour. Then we drove thirty minutes to a hotel for the night. The next day we drove two hours to Indiana Dunes National Park and spent the morning and early afternoon there, then we drove three hours to Toledo for our next pit stop. The following morning we drove two hours to the Cuyahoga Valley region where we would spend the next two days.
Now the week we were in Ohio/Illinois/Indiana was the week of storms which caused a lot of flooding. The storms were ferocious and caused a lot of damage in Gary and Carmel Indiana, and Columbus. I was really stressed about the storms because every time one was about to happen the weathermen were always implying "You're all gonna die! Seek cover!". Worrying about getting caught in a tornado everyday added a lot of stress to our trip, and we almost were ready to cancel and just drive home. But instead we decided "It is what it is" and to make the best of it. And I am so glad we did, because as I've already stated, it turned out to be one of my favorite trips. While the storms were severe, and occurred every single day of our trip, they were short. They blew through like a monster, then blew out just as quickly allowing us to enjoy the rest of the day. We always kept an eye on the radar and tried to plan our day based on when the next storm was about to hit, and that seemed to work for us. We only got caught in the rain once and that was when we were deep in a forest so it wasn't bad.
The first storm we encountered was in Toledo, but we were tucked safe in our hotel room at the time so the only thing I worried about was hail damage to my car. Thankfully, there was none. The next storm was to occur the following morning. This was the day we debated whether to turn around and go home or continue on with our trip. Once we made the decision to stay, we then had to decide "Do we stay at the hotel and wait out the storm or do we try to get ahead of it?". We looked at the radar and we figured out we would actually be driving away from the storm so we headed out. We were right! We only had to drive in light rain and eventually it subsided. However, by the time we reached Brecksville, it had clouded up bad and the storm we tried to stay ahead of reached us. We had planned on biking immediately, but when we saw the storm on radar headed our way, we decided to put that off. I didn't want to be stuck on a bike trail miles from no where on an E-bike when the storm hit. So instead of going straight to the bike trail, we checked out the town of Brecksville.
Brecksville
The town of Brecksville is a suburb of Cleveland in southern Cuyahoga County. It directly borders the northern portion of Cuyahoga Valley National Park. The town itself is super cute and worthy of a look, but we were there so early in the morning nothing was open except a bakery and grocery store. After a stop at the bakery where my husband enjoyed a treat ( I was too nervous about the storm to eat), we strolled about town and took these sweet photos.
I love how they lit the town square up at night with these pretty string lights. It was so dark this morning because of the storm the lights were still on when we were visiting.
It was too bad we were there so early in the morning as their Main Street was absolutely charming and it looked like they had a lot of nice stores.
After walking about town for a bit my husband went into the local grocery store to use the bathroom and get some beverages for our bike ride while I chose to sit in the car and wait. Big mistake, because that is when the storm rolled in and boy did she storm. The rain came down so hard, and the wind was so fierce I could feel the car move. Hubby eventually ran back to the car so I wasn't alone. We watched the wind bend tree branches and hail pelted our car. It was a light hail so it didn't do any damage thank goodness. I said to my husband, "It probably would have better had I gone inside the grocery store with you". But I wasn't about to try in run into the grocery store now in the pouring rain, so we decided to stay in the car for now...unless we saw a tornado then we'd make a run for it! 😉
Like I mentioned earlier, all the storms were violent, but they pushed through rather quickly. The weather still looked iffy to us, so we didn't think we should hop on the bikes quite yet, so we looked for other things in the area to do. I saw there was a nature center nearby so we checked it out.
Brecksville Reservation
Sometimes when weather forces us to make changes to our itineraries on a vacation, it's a good thing and the Brecksville Reservation was one of them. I never would have visited this place, nor known it was here, had it not been for the weather. And, actually we discovered that there are SO MANY other public parks and trails that border the Cuyahoga Valley National Park that in many cases, are nicer than what the national park has to offer. The Cleveland Metropark System features two major reservations -- Brecksville and Bedford that border Cuyahoga Valley National Park. The Brecksville Reservation is the largest Metroparks Reservation. It features deep gorges, the Brecksville Nature Center, and trails that connect directly into the national park. The Bedford Reservation offers high cliffs, water falls, and hiking and biking trails (more on Bridal Falls located in the Bedford Reservation, in next week's post).
The nature center was a beautiful log building located in a forest. The walk to the nature center was an experience in itself as you can't see it from the parking lot and you have to walk this lovely path through a magical forest to get there. There is something special about walking through a forest after a rain. The leaves are still dripping and you can hear the plip-plop as they fall. The foliage glistens as the raindrops still cling to them looking like little glass beads. The colors are deeper as wet bark turns a rich, dark brown and moss glows a vibrant, electric green! Suddenly, all my worry and sadness about the weather having to alter our plans turned into pure appreciation and awe over the beauty of nature.
We spent a little time in the nature center looking at all the animals like snakes and frogs, and we also talked to the ranger about hiking in the reservation. He recommended hiking the gorge, and since we were still leery about getting out on the bike trail, we decided to take a hike. Hiking in light rain is ok and quite normal for us, but I wouldn't want to bike in rain.
Can you spot the little frogs in the picture below? There is one sitting in the middle of the main branch in the foreground and the other frog is crouched inside the fork of the branch.
The water is the Chippewa Creek, an eight mile tributary of the Cuyahoga River.
The trail elevation drops and climbs 60 to 100 feet via natural stone staircases and a little help with some wood ones too!
The Towpath Trail in Cuyahoga Valley National Park
I was so excited to finally take my new E-Bike out on an actual trail. It was a birthday/Christmas gift to me from my hubby and up to now, I only rode it on my own country roads near my house, but I really wanted to start taking it on some trails. Unfortunately after this vacation, my pretty new E-Bike doesn't look so new anymore as it got scratched in transport and riding the crushed gravel roads after a hard rain got it pretty dirty. I've since cleaned up, and I put a sticker over the scratch, but it sure did bum me out. One E-Bike rider on FaceBook commented "it gives your bike character" 😀 so that cheers me up a bit.
The Towpath Trail in Cuyahoga Valley National Park is 20 miles long, but it is also part of a 90 mile regional trail system. We had planned on two days of biking (but ended up only doing one day) where we would ride 10 miles on one end, then bike back and the next day do the other 10 mile section. Because weather interfered with our plans once again, we were only able to bike the northern section, which was a bummer as the park ranger said the trail from Peninsula to Beaver Marsh was the prettiest part of the trail.
We parked our car at the Brecksville Train Station. I read that the parking lots in Cuyahoga can fill up pretty fast on summer weekends, and that this station was the least popular so it is a good place to park. There was an attendant at the station who told us "Good thing you weren't here earlier, a terrible storm just moved through with such strong winds it blew my sign into the woods". We told him we were inside our car when the storm went through, but it looks safe to ride now.
I should mention here that Cuyahoga Valley National Park offers scenic train rides which travel between Akron and Cleveland. We didn't take a train ride because we didn't have time but I also read a review that the scenery wasn't that great because the train mostly traveled through neighborhoods and forests. The reviewer did say if you wanted a nostalgic, old world train experience it was worth it, but we just did that last summer in Osceola Wisconsin so we didn't need to experience a train ride this trip. However, one great aspect of the train is that if you're hiking or biking the Towpath Trail you can take the train back for only $5.00!!!!! So if you want to bike the entire Towpath Trail but not have to bike a 20 mile return trip, why, just hop on the train! You have to flag the train down at the station, pay in cash, and they will load your bike for you. The only drawback is this service is only available Wednesday through Sunday and of course we were there on a Monday and Tuesday, so we never got to see a train 😢.
The Towpath Trail once was the path where from 1827 to 1913 mules pulled canal boats loaded with passengers and goods up and down the Ohio and Erie Canal. All along the Towpath Trail you will see evidence of old Canal Locks which were used to raise or lower boats between stretches of water at different heights. There is always a historical marker at each lock explaining the history and the mechanics. It was quite fascinating to read about the ingenuity of how they used to move/travel before the train, plane, and automobile.
We got a variety of views on our bike ride that ranged from river views to forests. The water was really muddy and I wasn't sure if it always looked this way or if it was due to all the rain. One thing I discovered about bike riding verses hiking is that is so hard to take photos! I purchased a phone stand for my bike, but it is impossible to take the phone off while riding so I kept having to stop my bike to take a photo, which annoyed my husband. Eventually, I just kept the phone in my coat pocket and tried to take a photo while pedaling, which was quite the challenge plus I kept worrying about my phone falling out of my pocket. So I didn't take many photos of the Towpath Trail and I would love suggestions from my bike riding readers how you take photos and ride your bike at the same time. Are there any helpful gadgets out there I should purchase?
The Towpath Travel is crushed limestone and in good condition, however, because of the severe storm that just went through, parts of the trail were blocked with fallen limbs and small puddles formed in the path. When we hit a deep puddle or blocked path we tried to ride on the grass if possible, but our bikes and ourselves got so filthy! Both my husband and I had mud all over our backsides and we had to change our clothes when we were done bike riding. I've since decided I would avoid gravel bike paths in the future and stick to the paved ones if possible 😊, they are so much nicer.
We rode our bikes almost five miles before we reached the Boston Mill Visitor Center area. Here was a cute country store (seen in the background) where you could purchase ice cream, treats, and souvenirs. I liked the little boat in the park out front. We stopped inside the store where I bought a "Buckeye Chocolate" and I learned why Ohio is nicknamed the "Buckeye State". Would you believe the Buckeye is a poisonous nut? How crazy to name a state after something poisonous. Well, because people can't eat the nuts, they make Buckeye chocolate which is basically a chocolate peanut butter candy that resembles the nut. We kept running into Buckeye chocolate candy everywhere we went in Ohio; I even had Buckeye Ice Cream!
In this same park were lots of plaques telling the history of the area and of the building which is now The Boston Store.
Well, I know it was a long post, but I had so much to tell, and the day wasn't even over yet! We got such an early start that we were able to take a few hikes...but more on that next week!
Have A Great Day! Amy
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