CurlyShavings

The Northeast Ohio Hiking Club sponsored a Meetup to hike the Wetmore & Langes Trails in a 9-mile loop this past Saturday.

It was well-attended (about 15 hikers & two dogs) and we kept up a very quick pace (about 3 mph). The Cuyahoga Valley National Park has a good topo map with the trails marked (pdf) and while a couple of us took the map along, the trails were obvious enough that we didn't risk getting lost. There are also a few trailhead markers when some of the spurs/loops or trails connect. Two of the paths we took had large signs indicating that the bridle trail was closed but we hiked it on foot anyway.

Yes, this is also a bridle trail. If you don't like picking the trail around horse scat or if you don't like how horses can destroy a foot path (see update below), then this may not be the trail for you.

We started at the Wetmore Trailhead (near the "X"), crossed Wetmore Road and headed south on the Valley Trail. From there, we picked up the Langes Run Trail in a counter-clockwise loop, crossed Wetmore Road again and connected with the Dickerson Run Trail headed west. Joining the Wetmore Trail again we continued west (now clockwise), passed near the parking area and continued the loop north toward Quick Road.

We briefly considered taking the Tabletop Trail and then continuing on the Wetmore or perhaps looping around (counter-clockwise) and adding another 1.6 miles, but that was quickly vetoed.

Instead, we continued west (clockwise) on the Wetmore, duplicated a short section of the trail and ended up at our cars.

All together, it was a 9.1 mile hike in just over three hours setting a pace of about 3 miles each hour. We started (and ended) at 850 feet elevation. Our highest point was 1047 feet and our lowest was 730 feet. The GPS indicates that we ascended (and descended) about 1300 feet on this route. To do all of this at once made it a fairly strenuous route for this area.

The trail winds its way through the standard Cuyahoga Valley collection of trees including oaks and hemlocks. We saw Erythronium americanum (Trout Lily) and Trillium grandiflorum (white Trillium) along with four or five different violets.

Wildlife was scarce (with two dogs and fifteen quickly-moving hikers) but I did see some chipmunks and we heard downy woodpeckers, flickers and red-wing blackbirds. This was the same hike we saw the hooded warbler last year during the 2010 Cuyahoga Challenge.

I'm not a big fan of these two trails (Wetmore and Langes) largely because of their dual-use nature with also being bridle trails. As Andrew (the hike leader) said in the Meetup page, these trails are always muddy, even in a late-summer drought. The horses contribute greatly to this, but the trails are also situated on shallow dirt over clay. Just be prepared for mud.

Would I hike this again? Probably. Averaging 3mph, it's hard to really care about the trail surface. You just go. Since it was on last year's Cuyahoga Challenge list, it's unlikely to be included in 2011. So I'll gladly hike it again some other year.

Update (20110526): I found this quote about shared horse/hiker trails on a Captain Blue blogpost (he's section hiking the Buckeye Trail) that I thought I'd share:

Whenever a footpath is shared by horses and hikers the hikers usually get the losing end of the deal. The trail was doubly muddy from all the hoof prints. Every hoof print makes an indentation which becomes a small puddle. The small puddles make one long stretch of muddy trail.

The CVNPA has released a sneak-peek of the 2011 Cuyahoga Challenge (pdf).

Hikers will hike ten of the twelve listed routes between June 1^st and September 30^th. There are a number of excellent routes listed ranging from the super-easy (Haskell Run Trail at 0.5 miles) to the pretty-long (Boston to Jaite at 8.4 miles). 

Last year we started late in the season and worked hard to complete the challenge. This year we intend to start sooner and see if we can get some others interested in it, too!

If you're interested in joining us on one of these, please leave a comment or follow along here.

This week is Cleveland Bicycle Week and I have decided to take the challenge. I just arrived at the Shaker LaunchHouse where I consult, leading technical projects and people for startups.

Here's the route I took.

From my Bell F20 cyclometer, here are the stats:

Distance

3.339 miles

Time

14:05 mm:ss

Average speed

14.4 mph

Maximum speed

27.3 mph

Here are some of my observations:

Borderline weather can be nice

It was 49°F today and overcast. I started out in shirtsleeves and chilly and ended up nicely warmed by my arrival.

Bike lanes can be a hindrance rather than a blessing

Having a painted bike lane for my whole Lee Road segment in Cleveland Heights made me feel like I couldn't move out of the lane to avoid the many manhole covers, etc. in that narrow confines.

All stop lights/signs should be at the top of hills, not the bottoms

With stop lights at the bottom, all one's momentum (from riding down the hill) is killed by stopping at the light.

It's doubtful that cyclists are taken into consideration when placing manholes, etc.

See note on bike lanes above.

Fenders on bikes are nice

I didn't hit too many puddles today but it was nice not worrying about them.

Using your front and back lights during the daytime doesn't create a force field.

But it feels like it helps

We need more bike racks

Or perhaps when the LaunchHouse gets further along, I'll be able to lock my bike up in the back.

One final lesson I may have picked up. Normally in the car, I budget about 15 minutes to get here. Not counting some extra prep (firming up the tire, packing extra rain gear, etc.) and locking up the bike upon arrival, it was almost a minute faster to ride than it would be to take the car.

Last October, my family and I got our 15-kilobytes of fame over at SectionHiker.com as a featured section hiker of the Buckeye Trail.

From the post:

Why do you keep coming back to the Buckeye Trail?

Now that we know what we're looking for, it's not uncommon to spot a blue blaze passing through a town or see a signpost on the edge of a forest showing where the BT is passing through. So much of our day-to-day life is spent within just a few miles of this trail that we thought we'd explore where it leads.

The BT seems to link up those areas in Ohio that are still wild and unspoiled (or growing back). It's possible to start a hike in the middle of town and very quickly enjoy un-peopled woods and fields. And, with the Cuyahoga Valley National Park so close to us (and the BT running down the middle of it), it's just something we need to do.