It’s been a week of working from home for me, thanks to the pandemic. One of the benefits of that arrangement is that I have a lot more time in the afternoons to get in a hike: I don’t have to spend time commuting and with daylight savings time (plus the continuing orbit of Earth), there’s more sunlight. Also, just to make sure everyone knows, Ohio is under a stay-at-home order (essentially “shelter-in-place” by a different name), starting Monday night, March 23, 2020. Thankfully, we are still allowed to be outside for exercise, so the trails should remain opened. Just make sure to keep your distance from others and not crowd up – we’d hate to have to lose this option too! As always, please keep an eye on the news or the parks’ websites to make sure there haven’t been any changes.
But today’s post is going to be on the Plateau Trail in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. It’s a nice trail filled with several ponds and marshes, tree-lined paths, and a waterfall. Even when you can’t see the river, you can almost always hear it as you walk along. Located in Peninsula, Ohio, the Plateau Trail is just under 5 miles long. It shares a trailhead with Oak Hill Trail, which is 1.8 miles and a great option if you’re looking for a shorter hike. The two trails occasionally overlap and there’s a connector trail between them at one point, so if you find yourself needing to switch, it’s an option. For instance, on this hike, I ended up skipping the last half-mile of the Plateau Trail and took the shorter Oak Hill trail back to the parking lot as it had started raining hard on me. I don’t necessarily mind hiking in the rain, but even though I had protective gear for my camera, I was paranoid about it getting soaked.
The trail starts at the same place as Oak Hill and you’ll cross over a little stream on a wooden bridge.
Pretty soon you’ll come to a split and you’ll want to follow the signs for Chestnut Pond/Plateau Trail.
Chestnut Pond is fairly small and I was there on a very gray day, but as spring continues, it’ll become a much more lively place!
As you walk past the pond, you’ll come upon what’s perhaps the most photographed spot on the trail (judging by what I see when Google searching!) – the tree-lined avenue. I love this spot, even if I can’t quite articulate how it makes me feel. There’s something almost haunting about it.
There were also little signs of spring everywhere I looked. One of the things I’m most excited about is seeing my gallery fill up with more colors – during winter, it’s pretty heavy into the brown palette, with pine trees and the rare snowfall interspersing there. But now the buds are starting to make their way out. I have a hard time picking a favorite season, since each one (even winter!) offers so much. But I think spring gets the edge for me. The feeling of rebirth and renewal and hope that comes with watching that green gauze spread out among the dead and hibernating things is a powerful one for me.
Ages ago, when I was in fifth grade, my teacher read to our class every day after lunch/recess. I loved every book she chose, bought many of them for myself, and they stuck with me. One was The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles, written by Julie Edwards – or as most of us know her, actress Julie Andrews. The book follows the adventures of 3 children who meet an eccentric professor who teaches them how to use imagination and concentration to travel to a magical land where they have to save the Whangdoodle from extinction. It’s a great book and I highly recommend it, but I bring it up here because early in the book, the professor asks the children to describe what they see as they sit in his backyard. The oldest two give a sort of perfunctory answer along the lines of trees, grass, clouds, etc. The youngest, Lilly, describes the many bits of color she notices in the birds, logs, leaves, and flowers. Then the professor has them look even closer at the hedges until they notice berries hanging there. The children are surprised that they didn’t seem them before and the professor explains that it’s because no one spends time noticing things anymore. He says, “There aren’t many people in this world who really know how to look. Usually one glance is enough to register that grass is green and the sky is blue and so on. They can tell you if the sun is shining or if it looks like rain, but that’s about all. It’s a pity, for there is texture to everything we see, and everything we do and hear.” That little segment of a book about magical creatures and a boat that gives you any kind of ice cream you can imagine and trees made out of real bubblegum is one that stuck with me. I was determined, from that point on, to be the kind of person who looks at the world.
So that’s what I did here. Because it had rained so much over the past couple days, there were a lot of streams coursing next to and through the trail, just like this. Not overly impressive, either in how it looks or how it affected the trail, and something easily stepped over.
But, after making sure no one was coming up behind me, I decided to kneel down and see what was in there. And in there were – worms! Lots of them, sliding down on the current like it was a waterslide. I noticed this one in particular (the one on the right), because unlike its companions, it seemed to be holding on to more solid ground. I wasn’t sure if it was digging into the dirt, but it didn’t get washed away like the others. While I’m generally not much of a worm person, it was fascinating to watch this drama play out. I’m also pleased with how the texture of the water came through in the photograph. Just a little reminder that there’s beauty in both the majestic vistas and the tiny little stream of water cutting through your path.
Soon after, there’s another fork in the trail. If you need to cut down your hiking time or if you want to check out Sylvan Pond, turn right and that’ll join up with the Oak Hill trail. Otherwise, keep going straight to continue on the Plateau trail. My goal originally had been to do the full Plateau trail and then loop back to see Sylvan Pond. Unfortunately the weather didn’t cooperate with that plan, so I’ll have to go back later to see the pond. Not a loss for me though! I’m always happy to have an excuse to return!
Continuing on, we get to the strenuous part of the trail. As you can see from the sign, you enter a steep downhill curve that goes on for a while. I had a mountain biker go past me before I got to this part and I’m sure this was fun for him. As a hiker, I sometimes find going downhill to be a bit tricky, although this wasn’t bad.
At the end of the hill, there’s another crossroads. You can go straight to get to a picnic area, but I turned right to continue on the trail.
While gravity teaches us that what goes up must come down, hiking and biking reminds us that what goes down must come back up. So now we make up for our downhill fun, although the grade isn’t horrific. It just goes on for a while. There are a lot of roots across the path here as you start, but it eventually clears up a bit. And then you just keep going up and up and up.
Soon you get to the waterfalls though. It’s a little tricky sometimes to get a really good view. The path doesn’t allow you to get up close and the amount of rainfall really makes a difference here. This time, there was a lot of water running through. When I was here over the summer, we were going through a long dry spell and there was barely a trickle. So even though the paths will be muddy, I recommend coming after it’s been raining!
Not long after the waterfall, you’ll come to another sign that points to Hemlock Ravine. I started going down this path – it’ll take you to the other side of where you see the waterfall. I didn’t go all the way down it because of the weather, but if you want to see the ravine from another angle, it’s worth exploring! I just turned around and headed back and followed the sign to Oak Hill Trail.
By now, the rain was falling harder, but soon I came out to Meadowedge Pond. This is another place I’m looking forward to returning to as spring and summer continue. There’s usually quite a bit of wildlife here and it’s filled with the sound of birds, frogs, and insects. While I was there, it was pretty much just me and a redwing blackbird, but I did get this zoomed in picture of rain falling on the water.
At this point, I stuck with the Oak Hill Trail and made it back to my car. All in all, it was a beautiful hike and some good exercise without seeing too many people. At some point, I’ll be back to check out Sylvan Pond, but if you’ve been, let me know your impressions! Until then, stay safe and keep hiking as you can.
Those are some beautiful picture. And as always, your are a wonderful writer. Mom