The Canalway
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Day 2: May 12, 2007 The Canalway |
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On leaving the motel, I immediately jumped on the expressway and headed
straight for the heart of what the Ohio & Erie Canalway Visitors
Guide calls "The Industrial City". Just what every roadie dreams of -
NOT! But at least I-77 isn't as straight and boring as some.
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In Cleveland, I picked up US-6 and followed that to the byway's start at
what I believe is the northern endpoint of US-42. The intersection is also
where Detroit Avenue meets 25th Street. For reasons unknown to me, there
are three branches of the Canalway in Cleveland. Since they don't show up
very well in the locator map, I've included a tighter view
here. I opted to do the west branch
first and followed the well marked route without incident. Along the way I
found yet another kind of heaven and kind of wish I had stopped to look
inside. Note the blue circle of a Canalway sign next to it. Next I headed
north on the east branch from the point where the branches converge and I
also reached the end of that route without incident. Then the fun began.
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On the leftmost pole in the first picture there is a Central Byway sign
with arrows pointing in both directions. I had planned on following the
center branch north to its beginning then retracing the route and
continuing to its southern end. But that middle pole is holding a "Bridge
Closed" sign. There had been earlier warnings of this so I wasn't
surprised. I made a note of the location and took another path back to
Detroit & 25th. In the second picture a couple of cyclists are heading
out on the bridge after going through an opening in the cement barrier. I
only thought of following for a millisecond - or two. Once back at the
start point, a battle soon started between the signs and my GPS. I had
entered the route obtained from the web into the GPS unit and it wanted me
to turn left where the signs clearly pointed straight ahead. I eventually
figured out that the GPS knew the bridge was closed but the signs didn't.
It looks like it's been closed for awhile and that some rework of the
byway's signs and online directions is due. The shot of downtown Cleveland
was taken from a spot just before the GPS vs. sign battle broke out.
Once I understood the problem I just took an alternate route to the other end of the bridge expecting things to get smoother there. Not so. When another closed bridge blocked my path I immediately headed to that known "safe" spot where East meets Central. And I did that, it seems, without getting a single picture of broken bridge number three. That last picture was taken heading south on the Central branch. I was silently telling myself jokes about Cleveland's idea of a scenic byway until I thought about the canal part of the mix. Canals didn't start out as picturesque bits of water with nice hiking trails beside them. They were the cargo haulers of the early nineteenth century and I realize that it's fitting that a thing called Canalway goes through this cluster of steel plants. |
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Things became more scenic, in the conventional sense, at the Settler's
Bluff Picnic Area in the Ohio & Erie Canal Reservation. A little
further into the Reservation the visitors center has a small museum and
paved walkways that lead to the Towpath Trail and a segment of the canal.
While talking with another visitor I was asked if I had seen the eagle's
nest. When I said no, he gave me some general directions but I had the
impression it required walking a long stretch of the towpath and I didn't
plan on doing that. I thanked him but figured I would not see the eagles
this trip.
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The first half of this lock-side house was built in the 1820s and the
second half in 1853. It's now a museum and visitors center but has been a
general store, a tavern, and a residence. At some point it earned the name
"Hell's Half Acre" from canal travelers. I'm guessing it was during that
stint as a tavern. The real lock is being repaired so cannot be used for
demonstrations but a model inside can. Or at least it could. During a
demonstration while I was there, the model started leaking so visitors
will have to use their imaginations a bit more for awhile. Near the model,
a TV played a short loop of movie footage from the canal's working days;
Something I don't recall ever seeing. Both the Ohio & Erie and the
Miami & Erie operated until the flood of 1913 so movie equipment would
have been readily available.
Here I got my second question about the eagle's nest. Seeing my camera, the ranger asked if I had been taking pictures of the nest. That lead to some pretty good directions and the understanding that a multi-mile walk was not required. |
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I stopped at the lot where I thought the trail to the nest started and got
some input from another ranger. Yes, she told me, this is the right place
but you can't stop at the nest. Two eggs had hatched and they were worried
about too much attention affecting the family. I headed across the old
bridge and up the trail but soon realized that I had almost no idea of
what I was looking for. I've only seen one Bald Eagle's nest and that was
on a solitary pole beside a road in Florida and was easy to spot. Having
the guide on the bus point it out also helped. I had picked up the
idea that it was on the opposite side of the river but I wasn't 100% sure
of even that. I walked along looking for some clue that would keep this
from being a wasted walk. That clue came in the form of a women in a
bright yellow jacket pointing binoculars into the trees. Her position gave
me a good idea of where the nest was but she was pretty vague in directing
me to it. Most of our brief conversation was about how wonderful the adult
eagles looked when they flew overhead. Apparently she had spent a good
deal of time not paying much attention to the "please travel quickly"
requests. There are quite a few heron nests in the trees and I don't know
that I ever saw the actual eagle's nest but I did spot one of the adults
perched on a branch.
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I was once told that there are three working canal boats in Ohio. I've
ridden two of them and, had I been here an hour or so earlier, I could
have ridden the third. Today was the first day of the operating season for
the Canal Fulton's "Helena III" but I was just too late. I missed the
museum, too. Lock 4 Park, just outside of town, was open.
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In Massillon another closed bridge blocked the Canalway. It was easy to
work around but that makes four closed bridges on a 110 mile byway. We
must be vigilant and hope this is not some sort of plot.
I saw a few of these O & E trail signs but I'm not sure of their meaning. This particular sign tracked with the Canalway but not all did. Perhaps they are pointing toward the towpath trail. At last I saw some nice two lane (or 1 1/2 lane) road but I'm in the last dozen miles of Canalway. |
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The end of the Canalway faces west and into the setting sun. Rascal's
Saloon is only a few blocks away and I drove by thinking I might have
dinner there. Although I'm fairly certain the place was open it didn't
exactly look it. Only one pickup truck kept the parking lot from being
totally empty and there were no immediately obvious signs of life in the
building. I drove on and headed toward Cadiz.
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