Earlier this month I had an opportunity to get a long hike in: I could take the day off, the weather looked cooperative and it was in a location where I'd have transportation on both ends without requiring too much of a detour for my wife.
Frazee House to Alexander Road
I started this hike opposite the historic Frazee House (pdf) standing on the same Towpath Trail where I started and ended my journey the previous week. (Now, I'll just have to hike this segment and connect the two!)
From the Frazee House, the Buckeye Trail heads south along Canal Road and then onto Sagamore Road a bit to the trailhead. There is a parking lot at this trailhead. From there it heads into the woods and largely follows a small creek which on this day was swollen with the previous day's rains. I'd forgotten how the BT crosses this creek and I wasn't looking forward to a foot-wetting.
The soil seems quite shallow in this area and it doesn't take much for a rivulet to form, erode into the soil to the rocks and form these steep waterfalls that appear near the trail from time to time. The one pictured is oddly silent but I could hear the wild rushing further downstream where it joined a mightier flow.
It was a dark morning and few of the brilliant maples seemed worth capturing on film.
But it's undeniable that Fall is here and colder temperatures are on the way.
I'd started just before 9:30 and by 10:00, I was on the Metroparks Bike & Hike Trail, a multipurpose trail for bikers, hikers and the dog walkers. It's an old rails-to-trails project and the railroad's viaduct is what got me over the raging torrent with dry feet.
Alexander to Egbert
This trail crosses over Alexander and into an interesting thicket where I saw my first deer of the day. They were content to watch me and didn't even seem to mind when I approached. What finally spooked them was reaching for my camera and all I caught was the white tail waving good-bye.
It was nice to be off the multipurpose trail and back onto a foot-only trail.
And I was looking forward to seeing the quarry.
Egbert to Tinker's Creek Gorge Parkway
From Egbert, the trail rises fairly quickly for the first quarter mile, reaching the highest point on today's segment (1088 feet).
The firs on this stretch are probably the most noticeable natural elements of this segment. The smells of wet boughs and the sighing of the wind through the needles are what sticks in my memory the most.
The BT stays west of Overlook Lane (which leads into the Bedford Metropark). It's here that an old quarry can be found, cut right into the Berea Sandstone. Unfortunately, the BT's status as foot-only changes again and one finds signs of horse quite soon.
By this point, the sun had come out and the leaves were flashing gold and orange.
Tinker's Creek Gorge Parkway to Bridal Veil Falls
One of the parts of this trail that I'd been looking forward to was just around a few more bends: Bridal Veil Falls. With all the rain, I was hoping for a spectacular sight and I was not disappointed.
Silver Creek flows into Tinker's Creek from the south and depending on the recent precipitation can be bone dry or downright lovely. Today was the latter.
It's not uncommon to find a bride and groom here on their special day along with a photographer. In all honestly, I think its best characteristic may be the sound it makes running along and down all that Bedford Shale. A blue jay in the distance makes it even better.
After a break of appropriate length, I pushed on to the east.
Bridal Veil Falls to Route 8
The vertical distance from here to Route 8 is about eight feet! Over those two or three miles, however, we descend a good 150 feet only to climb them again as we get closer to the entrance of the park.
This part of the trail is some of the more remote-feeling. Down from the level of the Parkway and skirting the edge of the gorge, there's a sensation of isolation: one can't hear the cars and can't go any further toward the bottom of the gorge. It was good to rest here a bit and take it all in.
BT along Hawthorne Parkway
Once across Routes 8 and 14 and upstream from the waterfalls at Viaduct Park, Tinker's Creek changes character, and we see it in a wider, slower stage of life.
Here, one begins to see signs of beaver again, geese and ducks, with deer snorting and coughing on your approach. The forest is more mature in this part and some of the beeches, maples and oaks are enormous, especially east of Interstate 271.
There's a footbridge over the Pennsylvania Turnpike (and probably other points, too) with a nice sign indicating that the Appalachian Trail crosses overhead. I think it would be neat to have a pair on i271 marking this point of the Buckeye Trail. How many commuters pass this way every day without ever knowing what they're passing by?
By this point, my ride had called and we had set up a stopping point at Richmond Road, a natural end of this segment.
My quest of passing by Shadow Lake on foot would have to wait for another time.
