THE TOWPATH BIKE TRAIL--

In the Cuyahoga Valley National Park

A whitetail deer munching on the bank of the Cuyahoga River caused a burp in our ride through this Autumn-dappled park on one of Fall's recent streak of dazzling weather days.

Nancy and Mark Meinzer and Sue Brooks are on the towpath (above) flanked by the Cuyahoga River on the left and residual traces of the Ohio-Erie Canal on the right.

From this natural solitude it is hard to imagine the chaos of Cleveland just 15 miles or so downstream.

Later we stopped to watch four young muskrats enjoying the still waters of the historic canal while painted turtles celebrated the season's waning warmth on log perches in the still waters--everywhere.

That's Mark in the Breksville Station (small photo) pondering the cut-away view of a canal boat representing those that drove the state's commerce in the nearby waterways of the 1800s.

Cuyahoga means "crooked river" in the language of the Iroquois and defines this watercourse that flows 22 miles through 33,000 acres of national park between Akron and Cleveland.

A few restored locks--but most of the crumbling variety--dot the old canal course along with evidence of an aqueduct here an there that once transfused the system with navigable water.

That's a close-up peek of the Cuyahoga (right) where water trickles through rapids which dump at right angles into the main foreground channel.  A slow shutter speed smooths the roaring stream into visual satin.

My riding companions (below) rumble across several hundred yards of boardwalk spanning a marshy area north of Peninsula while Ohio Turnpike traffic sizzles silently across the towering bridge top right.

Brooding over the Blitzkrieg of super-highway traffic between us and home it was easy to dream of cycling this southbound course and meandering another 75 miles or so through Ohio's tranquil woodlands to the solitude of my tiny piece of rural, Richland County.