Crooked Valley Comes Alive
We Have Eagles in the Cuyahoga Valley!

Several weeks ago, on the Towpath north of the Station Road Bridge, signs warned “Shhhh!” because eagles were trying to nest. Well, nest they did, and we now have infant eagles. Take a look at the Cuyahoga Valley National Park’s website (http://www.nps.gov/cuva) and see the first chicks to hatch in Cuyahoga County in over 70 years. They’re quite the stars, those furry-headed birds with startled eyes.

If you want to see the nest of the eagles and great blue heron nests, get to the Cuyahoga Valley National Park’s Towpath, fast. Once the leaves fill in on the west side of the Cuyahoga River, the huge nests that sit high in the trees will no longer be visible. The herons, with their graceful long necks, perch on their nests, and once in a while, a bird leaps out of the nest and into the air, wings spread wide, to soar over the River. A week ago we also watched two bald eagles fly with graceful flapping of wings but they didn’t land and reveal their nest.

The nests are north of Station Road Bridge in Brecksville, about a ten-minute walk from the parking lot south of Route 82, near the dam where fish are flung over the top and get trapped. The birds have a great place to fish.

Our crooked Cuyahoga River created a fantastic valley. Witness the sight of downtown Cleveland from the Valley View Bridge or the expanse across the Valley at the overview in Virginia Kendall. At the mouth of the river, from atop a downtown Cleveland office building, the waning sun’s rays tint the River pink at the point where Moses Cleveland settled our town.

The Ohio-Erie Canal was built in the early 1830s next to the River so goods could be shipped up river by use of locks from the Ohio River all the way to Lake Erie on a 308-mile waterway dug by hand by mostly German and Irish immigrants. The Ohio & Erie Canalway (http://www.canalwayohio.com) and Ohio & Erie Canalway Coalition (http://www.ohioeriecanal.org) promote events in the Valley, provide maps of the Towpath, and support preservation of the natural and recreational resources along the canal.

The National Park Service now protects over 33,000 acres of primitive and urban lands between Akron and Cleveland. It’s a wilderness of flood plain ravines and forests rolling down to the Valley. The River runs through it. Over 900 species of plants, close to 200 bird species, 32 mammals, 22 amphibians, 20 kinds of reptiles, and 91 aquatic life forms live in the Valley, which, through protective practices of the Park Service and others has returned to its lush natural form. The Cuyahoga Valley National Park is Ohio’s only national park, and the Crooked River has come a long way from its low point of burning with industrial oil.

Protecting the Valley is one way to protect the environment from further damage: trees filter our air, fresh water clean, animals interact in a sustained bio-system, and native plants thrive. The Valley is a place where we can be spiritually connected with the Earth and re-charge our overstressed psyches.

At this time of year, ephemeral short-lived spring flowers decorate moist areas--the forested areas are home to spring beauty, yellow trout, Virginia bluebells, violets, jack-in-the-pulpit, and trillium. Salamanders have moved from vernal pools to more permanent quarters, but low-lying areas remain ponds primed for growing tadpoles. Deer, woodchuck, beaver, fox, mice, moles, and coyote camouflage under the flora and within caves. Bats circumvent the skies.

Despite our love of nature, many Greater Clevelanders confess to not getting down to the Towpath Trail. The Towpath is now more than 73 miles long, a multi-purpose trail, to eventually extend from Cleveland’s Canal Basin Park to Dover and New Philadelphia. It’s rumored that development has hastened due to development dollars in the Steelyard Commons project.

Along the Towpath, we travel through forests and swamps, cross farmland, and witness architectural ruins. We stop and read the plaques, and can choose to participate in an organized hike or night-time bike ride. Programs are interesting and varied. For example, on Sunday, May 27, there’s the opportunity to see art at the M.D. Garage and participate in the Ramblin’ River Retreat for Songmaking. The Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad provides excursions through the CVNA from Independence to Akron and soon to Canton, stopping in Peninsula, Hale Farm and Village, Quaker Square, Inventure Place, Akron’s Northside, Canal Visitor’s Center, and Rockside Road.

The Canalway is one of 37 National Heritage Areas designated by Congress to be preserved as an important aspect of America’s heritage. Towns like Peninsula, Navarre, Canal Fulton, Dover and Massillon existed as canal towns. The Canalway Coalition historically restores houses along the Canalway, including the Richard Howe House, known as the “Howe Mansion” in Akron, an 1836 high-style Federal structure. The Boston Store began serving canal boats plying up and down the Ohio & Erie Canal beginning in 1827; a visit to the Store provides insight into the canal era. Station Road Bridge, now a pedestrian bridge across from the train station in Brecksville was once the only way to travel from the east to the west side of the Cuyahoga River at that point.

A favorite hiking trail in the Cuyahoga Valley is Haskell Run Trail in Boston Heights, starting at the Happy Days Visitor Center on Route 303, west of Route 8. It’s a half-mile loop behind Happy Days that connects with the path over in Virginia Kendall and connects with Ledges Trail which circles Virginia Kendall. The stratified rock formations with hanging gardens along a mossy path that leads to Icebox Cave are reminiscent of Zion National Park.

One longer excursion is the 8-mile Towpath from Boston Mills to Peninsula, which passes locks on the canal and views of turtles sunning on logs in the Cuyahoga River; parts of the trail follow the Buckeye Trail. Towpath Companion, a Traveler’s Guide to the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail, published by the Ohio & Erie Canalway Coalition, provides maps and areas of interest along the Towpath and is a book that doesn’t weigh down the backpack. From the Towpath, one has access to the paths in the Cleveland and Summit County Metropark systems and the Buckeye Trail.

The eagles can be your excuse to get out there and explore by walking, running or riding through the Valley along our own Crooked River -- a great opportunity to get outside for birdwatchers, hikers and families with kids.

I dream of riding the entire Towpath, spending one night at either The Inn at Brandywine Falls or Stanford Hostel in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Make a goal to visit the Crooked Valley as it comes alive this spring, and experience the dream.

From Cool Cleveland contributor Claudia J. Taller ctallerwritesATwowway.com
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