Major Upper, Major Downer - Day 102

  Today, we made it to Zoar, Ohio. This is a major milestone upper on my North Country Trail quest. Here the NCT leaves the Buckeye Trail and heads east toward Pennsylvania. We celebrated at Donnie's Tavern- I had a yummy salad and a whole order of French fries!

I'll show you more of Zoar tomorrow when we actually walk through town. It's a very special place.

But to back up and tell you about the rest of today... No, the snow was not the major downer. This picture is a little deceptive. Today was all road, and only about a mile of what we walked was not plowed or driven. But it did feel a little wild and lonely to be the first ones on that road.

Even the fairly brutal wind was not the downer. And except for that wind, we weren't really feeling negative about the retreat from spring- hey, it's not even the middle of March yet. The snow made for some pretty views. We had just walked that road.

The major downer is sitting out there in the middle of the water. The red thing. I LOVE that red thing. It's the Zoarville Station Bridge.

Yes, the trail is supposed to go to and over it.

Let me show you what it looks like at a better time of year.

What's the big deal with this bridge? For one thing, it's one of two remaining Fink thru-truss bridges in the United States. Albert Fink began building iron railroad and road bridges in the mid 1800's. This one was built in 1868, and was originally in a different location. Although it looks spidery and perhaps weak to our eyes, these bridges were revolutionary for the time. So it's a really important piece of history-- on the National Register of Historic Places.

But it's also a story of how each mile of the North Country Trail is pieced together with love and money. The Zoarville Station Bridge needed to be saved, so a foundation was set up to raise thousands of dollars and make it happen. In 1998 the restoration was begun, and in 2000 the bridge was dismantled and moved to a shop where each piece was checked, repaired or remade.

They tried to put the bridge back in place in 2006 and realized the abutments needed to be replaced, so that had to be done. Finally, in 2007, the bridge once again spanned Conotton Creek. It is now for pedestrians only, carrying the Buckeye and North Country Trails across the creek. All that effort for 112 feet of trail. But what wonderful feet!

The bummer part is that this is the 4th time I've been here, and I have yet to be able to walk across this bridge! Maybe number five? Conotton Creek and the Tuscarawas River are seriously flooded. In the picture above, taken from the west side, you can tell that the water is above the guardrails- they aren't visible. This can't be good for the bridge. Sigh.

Sue took us by car around from the east to the west side where we needed to pick up the towpath trail. Nope. It's somewhere under all that water.

So we walked up Canal Road. We thought we were going to have to take the road bridge over the Tuscarawas River, but the pathway to the pedestrian bridge was high. This is a Pratt thru-truss bridge.

But if you want to continue north on the Buckeye Trail, you might want to wait a while. Yes, there's a Buckeye blue blaze down there. But we continued across the bridge, and we are now on North Country Trail only, headed east!

Bonus Section: Hiker Babes

We met a group of women from Hiker Babes hiking the other direction today, braving the same cold and snowy roads. What fun!
Miles today: 16.8 (those are the trail miles... our alternate route is pretty much the same, so I'm just calling it that although it might have been a few feet shorter or longer. Total miles so far: 1317.8.

See Hints of Springtime