Four Days into Buckeye Trail Hike

 
As it turns out, I have not been able to get internet access except on my phone. Today I'm at the library, so you'll get a blog post. We have hiked a total of 49.6 miles so far. We did two 14-mile days in a row. That was a stretch, but we wanted to shorten up Monday, so we did it. The weather report for today was in the 90s and thunderstorms. So far no storms, but the temperature is brutal. We're glad we are taking today off even though it's a little earlier than we wanted. We've done laundry, cleaned up, eaten out (a yummy big salad we split and a local potato side dish called Jo-jos. Those are big potato wedges breaded and fried. I won't need to have any again, but we had to TRY them.) Now, we're at the library so I can blog and do some annoying real world things. Next stop... Ice Cream!

On this trip Marie and I are walking portions of the Medina and Bedford sections of the Buckeye Trail, and all of the Akron section. These three meet at a triple point which we passed the day before yesterday. (See "You Are Here" on the map) We'll come back to this place on Tuesday and hike south on the Akron section.



I'll just give you a taste in this post, and share more details when I get home. Don't want to spend all day at the library!

One thing that has been a nice surprise for us is that although these parts of the trail work their way through the very populated area between Cleveland and Akron, a lot of the trail has been in beautiful woods off road. There are a number of Metroparks and preserves and reservations (protected land) in the area, and the trail winds through many of them. There has been less roadwalk then on many Ohio hikes.

For example, yesterday we wove our way through a long greenway beside Tinker's Creek. There was also a paved multi-use trail, but I was impressed that the Buckeye Trail got permission for a real footpath mostly off the hot paved trail in open sun.



Another big surprise about northeastern Ohio is the amount of rock. It really seems more like southeastern Ohio. This area is at a place called The Ledges. You can see the scale with Marie in the picture. I'll show you more of this after we get home.



Today it's hot, but a couple of nights have been really chilly. (Fine with us since the following days were great hiking temperatures.) We were actually cold enough in the breeze to set up the table and eat inside the trailer. Yeah, I'm just having fun playing with my "new" toy.



Yesterday we crossed the Cuyahoga River on the old, low truss bridge, but the highway bridge that sails way above the river is pretty spectacular. We walked under it.



Are we having fun? You bet!

Tomorrow the temp is supposed to drop back to the 70s so we'll be back out on the trail again.



I haven't been able to get my phone working as a hot spot to blog from the campground, so unless I get that resolved I'll continue to just put a couple of pix a day on Facebook and blog when I can.

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