Thoughts from the Dirty City

In case you didn’t know, today is St. Patty’s Day. That has never really meant much to me. I have always had to go to class or work so I have never really participated in the day long pub crawl for green beer. And I never cared enough to use vacation time to spend a day drinking myself sick. It sort of perplexed me why anyone would want to do that to themselves. It isn’t like they are really celebrating an Irish heritage…it is just about spending a day getting tanked. Honestly, I always thought it was just stupid. Just yesterday I was questioning the point of such a stupid holiday.

Today though, for some strange reason the celebration kinda makes sense to me. Now, I still don’t really have a clue what St. Patty’s day is about, nor do I care enough to google it. What I get is why people get so caught up in it. I think it is just a way to shake off the doldrums of winter and gear up for spring. This is a way to celebrate the end of a cold, gray, dank world without sky. February is historically one of the most depressing months of the year, maybe St. Patty’s day is a way to celebrate surviving the worst of it. Or maybe I have just had a really rough winter and am desperate to cling to anything with a shiny happy sentiment. In any case it makes me happy to know that the world is out there celebrating nothing at all.

So, to all those folks out there whooping it up today, have one for me!

I have always loved the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. I can’t remember a time when it wasn’t a part of my life in some way or another. It has always served as a respite for me away from the rest of the world. A place to get away from my troubles, or just find some quiet time. Things slow down for me when I am there. I have so many memories from this area and every year as soon as the weather gets nice I find myself traveling to the valley. If I am going to be totally honest, even in the winter whenever things are getting sticky I find myself going for a drive through the valley to help clear my head.

Up until last summer most of my adventures here took place in or around the Ledges and Kendal Lake area. For some reason last summer I started branching out from my comfort zone and started exploring the other offerings of the park. Considering how much I love it, and how many, many years I have been going there I can’t believe it took me as long as it did. In any case, the valley didn’t let me down. Each new place I explored had it’s own thing happening. Each trail a different vibe.

The weather has started to turn and it seems old man winter is finally giving in and heading out. As the sun eeks into the Ohio sky my inner pull to the valley grows along with my curiosity about the many places I have yet to discover in the valley. Today I decided to find one of my favorite spots from last summer, a place I couldn’t remember the exact location or name of. But I was determined when I set out that it was the perfect place to start with this years explorations. A reminder of the excitement in discovering something new. Looking back on this it seems a bit ridiculous. Celebrate exploring new places by visiting the old ones?! Thankfully fate took me by the hand and pushed me to keep on exploring. After much random driving and searching I did find the trail that I discovered last summer, and was elated! Until I got out of the car and started walking that is. The recent rain has turned the “Cross Country Trail” (in the area of Little Meadow) into a lake. So with wet feet I got back in my car in search of drier stomping grounds.

Just a bit further down the road I saw a small sign pointing to a road that said “Wetmore Trailhead” so put on the breaks and decided to check it out. It didn’t seem to swampy to I decided to start walking. The trail was beautiful, the sun was shining and I was feeling great. There were lots of twists and turns and little streams to hop over. The only down side seemed to be that it was a horse trail so there were lots of “piles” that needed to be avoided. I was humming along loving everything until it occurred to me that I had been walking for a while and wasn’t the slightest bit tired. The walk back to the car verified that the entire first half of the hike was downhill. That last hill totally kicked my ass and by the time I got back to my car I was a sweaty winded mess. Pretty typical for one of my first hikes out of the season…forgetting to pay attention to the first half of the hike to ensure I can finish the second!

I can’t wait to keep checking out new trails and taking lots of pictures! I have decided to track all my adventures on a  Google map. (also ensuring that I don’t loose track of a great trail like I nearly did with Little Meadow!) Check out photos of today’s hike on Flickr!