Cruisin'

TRT Shannon and I took a car ride through the CVNP and along the Ohio & Erie Canal. We were out from 9-12:30pm and logged over 60 miles- Oh my!  We took a quick drive up Riverview Rd. and stopped off at Rockside station, got out walked around, checked out the environmentally friendly parking lot. Identified key signs and the bulletin board info. We we were driving in to the secluded-like lot, we saw what appeared to be a family of five starting their bike ride. We overheard the mother say to the two children, in that motherly voice, " Ohh-kay, we're getting ready to go up a hill." Precious.

We even looped around by the Ohio & Erie Canal Reservation area. TRT Shannon pointed out the cool bridgesleading to the next section of the Cleveland Metroparks- the "Emerald Necklace" around Lake Erie. We made our way south, stopping off at the Canal Visitors center that hadn't opened yet but we peeked at the canal spot anyway. And who should we see as we strolled back to the adventuous Jeep... the cute family from the Rockside Rd. station and boy, did it look like the kids were hitting their stride. Adorable.

Station St. Bridge

"Wood" bricks of the Station St. Bridge

We continued down Canal Rd. after getting around detour and jumped out at the Frazee House, which happened to be under construction. We then made our way to the Brecksville Reservation the side with the "green dotted" metropark line and crossed Riverview Rd. to the national park side. We scanned the Brecksville station lot and boarding area, listened to some background information about the area while we "cranked" the voice box, just before we set out to cross the Station Rd. Bridge. I definitely have a thing for bridges- steel, concrete, whatever. I couldn't take my eyes off the wood bricks and the awesome canal view.

Great Blue Heron on watch

Empty eagle's nest

We made our way to the towpath trail in search of the Bald Eagles Nest. There were dozens of walkers, runners, and bikers on the path. We even saw a few people fishing! I recalled some of the background on the dam and the water quality issues they were having there. On our way to the Nest area, we spotted a Great Blue Heron patrolling the path from a tree branch and not long after that we got a glimpse of the eagle's nest but no eagle, an overzealous biker wanted us to know, "THEY'RE NOT THERE, THEY'RE GONE, THEY'RE NOT THERE!!!" Oooo-kkkkay. We still enjoyed seeing the nest and coming up with theories as to when, where, if they would return.

We headed back the way we came and were surprised as a black mink crossed our path and scurred toward the canal via the bushes. Cool. We practically skip back to the Jeep, "we saw a mink, a mink crossed our path."
And as we are driving along the Towpath, we spot none other than the adorable family of five from the Rockside Station and the kids are full steam ahead, leading the way. They were obviously in the grove and did not appear to need a reminder or heads up about any hills that could be coming up! Inspiring.

River view from Station St. Bridge

We dipped in to Brandywine Falls and marvelled from the upper deck and vowed we would be back to see the lower deck view and hike the trail. With lunch on our minds, we decided to make one last stop off at the Boston Mill Visitor Center. We got out looked at some of the exhibits. Checked out the wares and made our way over to the TrailMix store. No way! I had to take a double take of the family enjoying some ice cream treat before turning around to finish their bike ride. I looked around and quickly assessed that they were just a family of three and not the family from Rockside Station. Hilarious.