The last two weekends have been perfect weather for both me and Mer. I like things cool, and Mer likes things warm, but we have a ten-degree range where we both like the weather – the 70s (although I like the low 70s best). Two weeks ago, we took advantage of the beautiful weather to go walk on the towpath near Peninsula, Ohio, and last week we walked on the towpath closer to home. Both walks were very nice.

Peninsula is a very small town in the Valley, and is the closest to a New England town that I have seen in Ohio. It has the rolling hills (because it is in a valley), it has a cute main street, it has the towpath trail, it has a scenic railway, and it has the Cuyahoga River flowing through the town. We parked in the overflow lot for the trailhead (the main lot was full). We headed south on the towpath – I wanted to show Mer a pretty spot I had seen while running. The trail is almost entirely in shade – every now and then you can get to a spot without trees near a field or next to the river. We walked for about twenty minutes south and came to a lock on the old canal. I was thinking about turning around, but there was a side-trail that went to an old quarry. Mer asked if I wanted to go see it. Duh! It was an uphill climb! It had rocks! Of course I wanted to go see the quarry.

All the old quarries I had ever seen in Maine were holes in the ground, usually filled with water. This quarry was surprising to me – it was stone cut out of the side of the hill. We did get a good scramble up the side of the hill, and found a gentler way back down (the first picture above). The current quarry path used to be the railroad bed for the trains that would haul the stone. Neat.

After the quarry, we took our time going back to Peninsula. It was late enough that most of the towpath was free from bikes and runners, so we had it largely to ourselves. We did spend a little time at the trailhead looking at the water, and I enjoyed the pedestrian bridge (it is made out of metal and I think it is cool). It was a great way to end a Sunday.

Last Sunday we went a little closer to home. I wanted to take Meredith south on the trail that I had run on to show her a swampy area that I thought was pretty, plus had the advantage of having a cool wooden walkway to tromp around on. I assured her it was only about a ten-minute walk.

About ten minutes in, we had not come to the swampy area yet, but we did see a very confident cat chilling on a tree limb over the old canal. This cat had much confidence in his balance…

We did finally make it to the footbridge, after a mere 25 minutes or so (what can I say?). I was pleased that the goose that thought he owned the swamp was out in regal splendor. Twice before when I had run by, he had let me (and everyone else in the area) know that I was trespassing by announcing it loudly. He was just in his element.

We also saw Canadian geese on the water, and they took off from the water, which was fun to see. There were some ducks hanging around as well. The swampy area used to be a junk car lot, but beavers had dammed the area, so it flooded, which is much prettier than a junk car lot. We did not see any beavers, although they are still supposed to be around.

We wandered back to the car, again in a fairly leisurely fashion. That had made three weekends in a row of taking advantage of area parks, but it probably will end there for now – today it is in the 80s, and I’m hiding in my air conditioning.