April and I went out on our own again trying to finish the ‘Little Loop’ before winter truly sets in. Giving up on biking these last few sections because gearing up trailer hitch/bike rack is more problematic than originally envisioned. Since we have to retrace our steps back to the car we can only accomplish smaller hikes- this one was a 6.6 mi round trip through Akron city proper along the towpath trail. Cloudy and blustery, but still feels good to get out of the house for a few hours! Started out at Summit Lake park and walked northeast along towpath to Akron Zips baseball stadium. There was a surprisingly nice city park snaking its way between multiple apartment complexes along the way- we only passed less than a handful of people and saw little activity among houses either- very STRANGELY silent! Passed the BF Goodrich headquarters which sat alongside old broken down buildings associated with it. Lots of pipes along canal! You kind of wondered if they spewed toxic waste into the canal in the past…hopefully no more. We walked down main street when we doubled back and again, strangely silent- like you were in some dystopian movie set with no people- eerie. On a positive note, everyone who was out was wearing a mask, people seem to be taking COVID seriously as it reaches new daily highs in case counts in Ohio and the US. People, must be hunkering down. When we walked from Summit Lake south a bit to Wilbeth Rd trailhead, it began with a nice long boardwalk but ended with another walk through industrial tracks of land surrounding the canal with occasional steam releases from nearby pipes that startled you! Again, had many doubts about the health of the canal here, but to be fair we saw two blue herons, fish in the water and an abundance of ducks, so must be livable. This stretch of hike just above trailhead was still among the worst parts of the BT we have ever walked, second only to the salt mines up by Headlands beach in Mentor. Despite this bad ending, it was nice to be out in open air. Two more small sections to finish!
