Started at Clinton trailhead and hiked to Barberton trailhead. Another great weather day! This hike was a day of bridges (at least a dozen) and canal locks (at least at the beginning)…not so much a turtle day like before, probably because most of the canal was not in open sunshine until the end of hike toward Barberton. Bikers were still abundant on this stretch of trail, and it even had a little elevation in the middle. When you pass by the old locks and read the info boards (sorry about the pics, couldn’t see phone screen), it really makes you wish you could have been here back in the day when the area was bustling with canal barges and commerce. It is also easy to overlook what an engineering marvel this entire canal route represents! All of us remarked how many of the daily bikers/hikers seem to be ‘plugged-in’ to their own little worlds and are oblivious to the surrounding nature and history. Few see anything in the canals- I guess its fair they should just try to avoid running over/into fellow trail mates…especially some of us who tend to wander side-to-side. First half of hike was scenic in parts, but last half at beginning of Barberton was semi-commercial and was a chore to finish. A large part of the hike was around/through a land reclamation project from a former PPG soda ash site that started back in the 70’s when the company couldn’t meet new EPA standards. At the end, we (again) rewarded our efforts with ice cream from Skoops- I like this habit we have started 🙂
