David Berger National Memorial

One of the smallest units of the National Park Service is this sculpture dedicated to the memory of David Berger.  Mr. Berger was one of the eleven Israeli athletes and coaches taken hostage and subsequently murdered by Palestinian terrorists during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich.  We visited the site just a few days after the 40th anniversary of the massacre.  

From some angles, the sculpture is dark and foreboding

Mr. Berger grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and was a scholar as well as a weightlifter.  While earning a bachelor's degree in psychology at Tulane, he won the NCAA weightlifting title in his weight class.  He also earned an MBA and a law degree from Columbia University.  He emigrated to Israel with plans to open a law office in Tel Aviv.  The sculpture by David E. Davis was commissioned in 1973 by friends of Mr. Berger.  Congress designated it as a national memorial on March 5, 1980.

Quoting from the plaque mounted nearby:

A monument in the memory of David Berger stands as both a reminder of violence and a hope that man will one day overcome violence.  The Olympic emblem of five inter-locking rings has been broken to symbolize the stopping of the '72 Games.  But there is an upward motion in the broken rings to suggest the peaceful intent of the Olympics, a search for understanding and hope for the future.  The ten semicircles rest on eleven steel segments representing the eleven who died at Munich.  One of the segments is slightly different from the rest to symbolize the unique events in David's life that led him to the Israeli Olympic Team and to his death.

Broken, but reaching out and up

Title Plaque

The unique pedestal is slightly tapered from top to bottom while the other ten are of uniform width.  The title plaque is also mounted on this pedestal.  The sculpture is on the grounds of the Mandel Jewish Community Center in Beachwood, Ohio.

The memorial website is http://www.nps.gov/dabe/index.htm.

Cuyahoga Valley National Park - Short Hikes

In my opinion, one of the great innovations at Cuyahoga Valley National Park is the availability of free single-page flyers with detailed maps of sections of the park.  Flyers are posted at most trailhead kiosks and are also available in the pamphlet racks at Boston Store Visitor Center.  Many of these maps are also available online.  From these maps, we found several short trails to explore.

Blue Hen Falls

Blue Hen Falls is accessible via a one-half mile trail from the small parking lot off of Boston Mills Road.  While there wasn't much water flowing, it was still a very picturesque fifteen foot drop in Spring Creek.  The round trip was about one-half mile.

Spring Creek from trail bridge

Blue Hen Falls

Blue Hen Falls

Indigo Lake

While we could have parked at Indigo Station, we chose to walk south along the towpath from Hunt Farm Visitor Information Center and then west on the trail to Indigo Station and the lake.  The side trail skirts some private property that includes a well-kept trailer park.  The round trip was less than two miles

Indigo Lake looking south

Indigo Lake looking southwest

Everett Road Covered Bridge

This is the only remaining covered bridge in Summit County.  The bridge is normally only open to horse and foot traffic.  While we were there, some maintenance work was being performed that occasionally closed the bridge completely.  Near the bridge is a memorial to the people that had the vision to preserve the Cuyahoga Valley for future generations by creating the park.  The bridge spans Furnace Run which has flooded enough to damage or destroy both the Everett Road bridge and the Ohio & Erie Canal aqueduct on multiple occasions.  The bridge was likely originally built in the late 1860s.  The current bridge is a historically accurate reproduction built in 1986.  The round trip walking distance from the parking area is about one-half mile.

Northeast end of the bridge

Covered Bridge from the Founders Wayside exhibit

Founders Wayside

Horseshoe Lake and Tree Farm Trail

One evening, we chose to take a ranger-led hike along the Tree Farm Trail.  Since we arrived a bit early, I took the opportunity to explore a short trail that I found on the site map.  It begins as a paved trail from the parking lot down to a viewing platform on Horseshoe Lake and then continues as a paved trail to a boardwalk through the woods before turning into an ADA-accessible packed gravel trail to a picnic shelter with a view of the lake.  The total distance was about a quarter-mile.  Since the ranger-led hike began near dusk and explored the old Christmas tree farm, photographic opportunities were very limited.  Even though Major Road is within sight of the trail in a couple of locations, we learned about nurse trees, numerous wildflowers and the sounds and fragrances of the forest.  While there is very little elevation change, this trail is through the woods with many opportunities to stumble on the numerous roots.  I would suggest taking this trail earlier in the day or using a flashlight.  At 2.75 miles, this really isn't a short hiking loop, but it is flat enough that it doesn't seem that long. 

Accessible trail

Picnic shelter

Horseshoe Lake from picnic area

Wildflowers on the Tree Farm Trail

Haskell Run Trail

The one half mile loop  hike along a portion of Haskell Run begins at the parking lot across West Streetsboro Road (Ohio Rte 303) from Happy Days Lodge in the Virginia Kendall Unit of the park.  It proceeds to pass under the road by way of a tunnel and then climbs some steps to the entrance driveway.  The lodge was the last and largest structure built in this area by Company 567 of the CCC in the 1930s.  It was named after FDR's 1932 campaign song "Happy Days Are Here Again".  We kept walking past the lodge to find the trail head at the edge of the woods behind the rear parking area.  An available trail booklet is keyed to numbered posts along the trail.  Although the booklet has not been updated since the area was a National Recreation Area, it still provides quite a bit of information about the geology, geography, flora and fauna of the area.  After passing a cemetery on the left, the trail winds down toward the creek by means of an old gravel road.  The temperature drop was noticeable as we descended the seventy feet or so to the creek.

Tunnel under Streetsboro Road

Happy Days Lodge

Haskell Run begins as drainage from the Ritchie Ledges

At times, the creek hugs the edge of the ravine

Reflections in Haskell Run

Solid bridge over the lower crossing of the creek

The trail emerges onto the lawn of Happy Days Lodge

There are numerous other hiking opportunities in the park, waiting for our next visit.

Sunset meadow at the site of the former Coliseum at Richfield

The park website is http://www.nps.gov/cuva/index.htm.

Cleveland Metroparks - Bedford Reservation

While located almost entirely within the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, the Bedford Reservation is owned and managed by Cleveland Metroparks.  Metroparks has also been a partner with the National Park Service since 1974.  The organizations coordinate closely on a broad range of visitor services along with protecting and interpreting cultural and natural resources.  Metroparks also owns and manages 4,750 acres including Bedford and Brecksville Reservations inside the park boundary.  Park districts in Ohio such as Cleveland Metroparks and Metro Parks, Serving Summit County are independent political subdivisions of the state and are primarily funded by additional property tax levies.  

The key feature of Bedford Reservation is Tinkers Creek Gorge, a National Natural Landmark.  I started my brief visit by turning off of Canal Road onto Tinkers Creek Road.  After passing through the community of Valley View, I crossed Dunham Road and proceeded up Button Road to the parking area.  Along the way, a small waterfall on Hemlock Creek caught my attention.  Immediately downstream of this waterfall, the creek flows under Button Road and then into Tinkers Creek.  Passengers should have a good view of the falls without having to leave the car, but the better view is to walk down to the creek bank.

Small waterfall on Hemlock Creek

After driving back down Button Road, I turned left onto Dunham Road, crossed Tinkers Creek and then turned left again onto the Gorge Parkway.  The road quickly climbs through a forested area until it is about two hundred feet above the creek.  After passing the intersection with Overlook Lane, there is a small parking area on the left with a wooden platform for viewing the gorge as shown in the picture at the top of this post.

Plaque at gorge overlook

Driving further up the Gorge Parkway leads to the parking lot for Bridal Veil Falls.  The trail head is across both a multipurpose trail and the road from the parking lot.  The sight distances seem to be sufficient to avoid being surprised by traffic.  The round trip to the falls is about one quarter mile and the trail is well maintained.  Visiting in late summer, especially several days after the last rainfall, the falls wasn't very impressive.  We'll have to plan another trip to view the falls during the higher flows of spring. 

Trail to Bridal Veil Falls

Bridal Veil Falls from the viewing platform

I ran out of daylight and vacation days before getting the chance to explore the Great Falls of Tinkers Creek.  Great Falls is outside of Cuyahoga Valley National Park but still within the Bedford Reservation in a section called Viaduct Park.

The Cleveland Metroparks website is http://www.clemetparks.com.
The Cuyahoga Valley National Park website is http://www.nps.gov/cuva/index.htm.

Metro Parks Serving Summit County - Deep Lock Quarry

Deep Lock Quarry is a 73 acre park within the boundaries of Cuyahoga Valley National Park.  It is owned and managed by Metro Parks, Serving Summit County and is open from 6 AM until 11 PM daily.  Metro Parks, Serving Summit County has been a partner with the National Park Service since 1974 when the Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area was established by Congress.  The two organizations coordinate closely on wide range of visitor services activities and cultural and natural resource management issues.  From the parking lot on Riverview Road near its intersection with Major Road, a 1.2 mile round trip trail leads to the abandoned quarry that produced stone for the nearby Deep Lock (#28) on the Ohio and Erie Canal.  Later, workers at a site near the quarry produced millstones for the American Cereal Works, a predecessor to Quaker Oats, in Akron.  The first part of the trail is paved and heads trackside  where the Quarry Trail branches off to the left.   In just a few minutes, a pair of millstones can be seen on the right.  After a steady climb, piles of abandoned or discarded stones appear and then the quarry face comes into view.

Millstones

Some stones are very large

Test fit before shipping

Lock wall capstones

Rough cut to nearly finished

Berea Sandstone on the quarry face

View from the top of the quarry wall
(note the person sitting on the park bench)

Deep Lock Quarry also includes Lock 28 and the towpath south of the river crossing.  It is one of four areas within the national park owned and managed by Metro Parks, Serving Summit County.  The others are Hampton Hills, O'Neil Woods, and Furnace Run.  The regulations and operating hours are somewhat different in these sections of the national park.

The Metro Parks, Serving Metro County website is http://www.summitmetroparks.org.
The Cuyahoga Valley National Park website is http://www.nps.gov/cuva/index.htm.

Hale Farm & Village

While situated within the authorized borders of Cuyahoga Valley National Park, the Hale Farm & Village is owned and operated by the Western Reserve Historical Society.  The Western Reserve is the area between the 41st parallel and Lake Erie and extending 120 miles west from the Pennsylvania border.  Its creation dates back to colonial times when Connecticut held a royal grant to lands west of the Allegheny Mountains.  After the Revolutionary War, the new federal government offered to assume the war debts of several states in return for relinquishing any claims to territory west of the Alleghenies.  During negotiations, Connecticut demanded that it be allowed to retain title to the Western Reserve as it had suffered relatively more damages than other states.  Connecticut sold the land to the Connecticut Land Company for $1.2 million in 1795.  The land east of the Cuyahoga River was surveyed by a team led by Moses Cleaveland in 1796.  The area was incorporated into the Northwest Territory in 1800 when Connecticut ceded its claim to the federal government.

Jonathan Hale of Glastonbury, Connecticut arrived in the Western Reserve in 1810 after having purchased 500 acres of land.  He began work on the brick house above in 1825.  When it was completed, it and the Frazee House were the only two brick houses in the Cuyahoga Valley.  The property was transferred from a descendant of Jonathan Hale to the Historical Society and opened as a living history museum in 1958.  The current admission charge is $10 per adult with children aged 3 to 12 admitted for $5.  During our visit in September, 2012, the farm was only open on the weekends.  The carriage museum was closed, but most of the other buildings on the farm were open.  We saw demonstrations of weaving and spinning as well as candle making and broom making.  In addition, the broom maker also had a set of bagpipes that he played for his own enjoyment (and ours) when no visitors were nearby.  All of the crafts people wore period costumes of the mid-1800s.  The weaver used thread produced on site to create rugs for the floors, curtains for the windows of all the buildings on the site and even made some of the costumes worn by the interpreters.  As it was drizzling rain and the interiors were only lit by natural light and a few candles, I didn't take any pictures of these areas.

Across Oak Hill Drive to the east are a number of historically significant buildings that were transported from other sites around the area.  Additional costumed interpreters were stationed at several of these to discuss features of the buildings and gardens.

1845 Stone House

"Wheatfield" commons

Meetinghouse

Pipe Organ in the Meetinghouse

Goldsmith House

House closed for renovations

Saltbox House

General Store and House

Because so many buildings have been moved to the site from other locations and placed in a seemingly haphazard manner, there isn't the sense of a village or community in the same way as Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia.  While each building has some historical significance, it has been plucked out of context and placed in the field.  For example, one house had its privy located adjacent to the creek where the pit would flood if it could even be dug.  However, seeing some of the old tools, like spinning wheels and butter churns, brought back some memories from childhood for my wife.  

While there is some cooperation between the historical society and the park service, the historical society is not a park partner like the railroad and both Metro Park systems.  

The museum website is http://www.halefarm.org.
The park website is http://www.nps.gov/cuva/index.htm.

Cuyahoga Valley National Park - Kendall Lake

Kendall Lake is in the Virginia Kendall Unit of Cuyahoga Valley National Park.  It is located just south of Truxell Road and west of the Ritchie Ledges area.  The lake was created by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.  There are several trails in this area as noted in the detailed map available online or at most visitor centers.  

Since we had already biked quite a bit on this day, we decided to tackle the easy Lake Trail around Kendall Lake.  Our first task was to find the trail head.  We walked over to the Lake Shelter shown above but didn't find a path beyond the shelter.  However, we did find several geese on the lawn.

Geese on the lawn at Kendall Shelter

Retracing our steps back to the parking lot, we chose to take a wide trail up into the woods until we came to a signed junction or we had walked a while.  When we came to a junction, it did note the location of the Lake Trail as well as the Cross Country Trail.  We decided to hike clockwise around the lake and started out.  After just a few minutes, we came to this underpass or tunnel and wondered why it was there.  On the far side, we found an interpretive sign that showed we had just walked under the route of the toboggan chute or slide that was built in 1939.  The tunnel was built to allow trail access without having to walk across the toboggan slide.  According to the sign, the slide was removed in 1990.

The "Tunnel"

Continuing on around the lake, we saw trails leading across open fields and over the hills to the south and  west.  The first few of these are connecting trails through the Kendall Hills.  The last of the trails is a 3.3 mile loop called the Salt Run Trail which we saved for another visit.

An intersecting trail heads over the hill

 One odd thing to me about the Lake Trail is that the lake is only visible from about one third of the trail.  The rest of time the trail meanders through the hills and wetlands.  

Kendall Lake and Shelter

Kendall Lake with the first hint of fall colors

Kendall Lake is impounded by means of an earth dam with a concrete core.  The trail crosses the dam and provides a nice view of Salt Run as it emerges from the tailrace of the dam.

Salt Run emerges from the tailrace

Looking back at the crest of the dam

While the trail map shows an elevation change of 20 feet, it didn't mention that it was by way of a flight of stairs just beyond the dam.

Two dozen timber steps in this flight of stairs

Once the trail crossed the entrance driveway, it headed into a canebrake and then crossed one of the tributary creeks before heading back up the hill south of the parking lot.  

Tributary creek

Bridge over the creek

We easily found the wide connecting trail leading back to the parking lot.  The trail is a one mile loop and took us about an hour, including my photo stops.  Some additional signage near the parking lot denoting the trail system would be helpful, but it is possible that it was temporarily removed while a contractor resealed the parking lot.  Overall, this was a very pleasant stroll around the lake.

The park website is http://www.nps.gov/cuva/index.htm.