We love to hike. Green leaves fluttering and the gentle breeze that wafts down the trail puts my soul to rest. Enjoying the quiet; wind ruffling the leaves and long grasses, birds flitting from stalk to stalk alongside the trail with their warning trills. Maybe there will be a pond and you will hear the plop of frogs as they leap to the depths, or the bellow of the grandpa bullfrog who is too fat and lazy to jump unless he has to. Brrrrraauuuup Generally the only sounds you hear is the rustling of wildlife, feet hitting the ground and occasionally heavy breathing. For me it is a restful way to spend time and see some cool stuff. Course, I can watch an ant carrying a load 3 times bigger than itself for quite awhile without being bored.
We like to take our dogs with us when we can. The killer chihuahuas; Lizzy and Paco, enjoy the new scents that each location has. It can be a hassle with them sometimes as we are not the best dog trainers................... and they can go on full weasel attack mode in a Nano second if someone gets too close. You know I had never liked small dogs. All they seem to do is incessantly yapp and try to bite your ankle when you turn your back. Well, I was right. Seven pounds each they non-stop bark at everything that moves, which includes me. If they get loose just give it up. It is easier to catch a chicken after it has seen the hatchet than to catch the Taco twins. But, they have a personality (dogonality?) that I hadn't ever noticed in our larger dogs. Maybe it comes from them owning your lap anytime you aren't moving.
Anyways we love to hike and looked forward to hiking through the Cuyahoga Valley National Park The website displayed a shaded path through the rocks and hand hewn stairs to a set of waterfalls. This would be perfect, shade, trees, a babbling brook culminating in a beautiful waterfall. Squirrels to keep Lizzy and Paco entertained. Pack our lunch and off we go.
Well.....wasn't quite what we had envisioned. Maybe we were on the wrong trail? Nope, the map the ranger gave us shows the falls. Where is the peace and serenity? Not here.
The trail ended up being a hardpacked path that ran straight between tree rows mostly directly in the sun. There was a constant stream of 10 speeds and e-bikes running the center of the path in both directions. Instead of quiet - the constant "On your left" could be heard as the few of us walking were pushed off the path by the never ending stream of bikes. The dogs had to be kept on a very short leash. If you let them stray away from your right ankle more than an inch or two, the possibility of bikes crashing into a huge highway pileup and taking out the people who dared to be walking on the hiking trail was vey likely.
We never did find the falls, or the quiet trail alongside the river. We asked a couple who were familiar with the area and they didn't know of it. But they were on e-bikes, when you hit stairs you turn around and go back.
Nice!! We might just have to go and check it out!