Last Sunday we headed north to the Towpath Trail at the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. We've bicycled here often in the past without spending much time at any one spot, but Sunday we traveled on foot at a more leisurely pace.
South of Peninsula, beavers have created "Beaver Marsh" from an old auto salvage yard and the remnants of the Ohio & Erie Canal, opened here in 1827 and abandoned by 1913.
It was a bright sunny day and although we were there mid-afternoon when most animals are not very active, there were plenty of things to see.
Duckweed-covered Eastern Painted Turtles sunned on logs....
And hid under lily pads.
Wood ducks were plentiful. Young ones bathed in the canal....
And a male in eclipse plumage eyed us balefully.
A Great Blue Heron hunted among the lilypads.....
And a Canada Goose interrupted its nap to wonder about our intentions. A naturalist told us that earlier in the day another lucky goose had narrowly escaped a snapping turtle with its foot intact and only a couple of skinned toes to show for it.
A carp lurked in the shallows.....
And a bold chipmunk on the trail posed for a portrait as we were leaving.
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