Cuyahoga Day 1

We took our bikes on the train from Rockside to Botzum and rode the bikes back to Rockside.

The train trip was very easy, you hand your bikes to the stewards and they load them on the baggage car. The trip took almost two hours, it left pretty close to the scheduled time, but ran late. As we passed under the I-80 bridge, the conductor told us to look for the Peregrine Falcons that nest under the bridge. I spotted them, but didn’t have a chance to get a photo.

We passed through the beaver marsh not too far north of Botzum. This was a nice area for wildlife watching and we planned to come back after supper.

The path back is the mostly the old tow path for the Ohio and Erie Canal that was built in the early 1800’s. The remnants of the canal and locks are still there.

Sometimes the canal is just a marshy area, but the wildlife thrives in it.

We stopped at the Boston Mill Visitor Center for lunch. It sprinkled a little bit during lunch, but we managed to get a covered table.

When the canal was constructed it changed the local resident’s lives quite substantially. During construction crop lands were often flooded, but then the canal traffic brought easy access to market crops and livestock and opportunities to sell to the boatmen as well.

The Frazee House was built 100 yards east of the canal after the canal was constructed. The construction process had flooded their crop lands and they won a judgement of $130 as they had to buy food for themselves and their livestock for several years.

I was able to get a photo of the Peregrine Falcon when we came back under I-80 on our bikes.

I highly recommend doing this bike ride if you enjoy history and/or wildlife. We had great weather and did it mid-week when there wasn’t much of a crowd.

After supper we went to Beaver Marsh to spot wildlife and watch the sunset.

Donna spotted a Rose Breasted Grossbeak on the way into the Beaver marsh.

We also saw: