Cuyahoga Valley National Park is on the Ohio-Erie Canal. It’s a beautiful valley with over a hundred miles of bicycle trails. It’s our 33rd National Park to experience and enjoy!
We cycled of 20 miles of the bike trails on Tuesday, enjoying the vistas of the river, the beaver pond, the hills, and the green landscape at every turn with a sprinkling of early fall colors.
Dozens of old locks, used to raise/lower the barges of the Ohio-Erie Canal to the next water level, were evident – some in good condition, and some with just one wall remaining. They provided the opportunity to imagine – time to wonder just what it was like, two hundred years ago before the railroad took away the need for barges and canals. President Washington owned land in Ohio, we learned, and pushed for canals to be built in the wilderness. Twenty years after the canal was done, Cleveland had the coal it needed to be a steel powerhouse.
On Wednesday, we cycled the remaining 12 miles of the Ohio-Erie Canal Towpath Trail in the park, under a cloudy sky – the remnants of tropical storm Irma. It was a wonderful ride, included a train ride inside the NP as they have a deal for cyclists to experience a short train ride, and ended at a pub that served a good stout beer for Ted and an apple cider for Sue. We even got to see the Cleveland Indians win their 21st baseball game in a row, on the TV in the pub. A great day, indeed, and no we did not wear our Golden State Warriors shirt here!
The rain from Irma woke us up around midnight, as did the many trains that always seem to be near RV parks. We drove on Thursday morning through Pennsylvania to Maryland, feeling great about exploring a wonderful national park that we knew nothing about only three months ago.