Cleveland Metroparks

Edgewater Park Sewer Tour

Wearing safety gear after sewer tour. Note that I am wearing my Continental Divide Trail shirt

Thank you to The City Club and the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District (NEORSD) for the Tuesday, October 11, 2022, "... unique tour inside NEORSD’s sewer system at Edgewater Beach." The following is about the sewer tour, along with additional information about NEORSD and its water outfall near Cleveland Metroparks Edgewater Beach.

I am so glad that I saw @TheCityClub's September 27th morning tweet, so I could sign up to be one of the 20 participants for the Tuesday, October 11, 2022, tour.

I was glad to read that so many people were interested in the 50 Years of Clean Water Investment event that The City Club had to create a waiting list! For years, I have been interested in seeing what was beyond the Edgewater entrance gate of the sewer. I was grateful to be one of the few fortunate people who were allowed to go on the tour.

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2 of 3: Fun Father's Day Weekend: Saturday -- Service Project & The Longest Day of Play

2 of 3: Fun Father's Day Weekend: Saturday -- Service Project & The Longest Day of Play

I decided to create these three blog posts to remind me of the three days of fun I had over Father's Day Weekend. The text is the same at the beginning of all three, so I encourage you to read the tweets within the posts that tell the story of:

2 of 3: Fun Father's Day Weekend: Saturday -- Service Project & The Longest Day of Play

Read tweets below in this blog post to learn about:

  • Northeast Ohio Orienteering Club (NEOOC) service project at Richfield Heritage Preserve
    Be sure to click on the links in the tweets to learn about both of these great organizations!
  • Cleveland Metroparks  “The Longest Day of Play” at Euclid Beach
  • Cleveland United Way 2-1-1 service
  • Plastic Free Lake Erie
  • Step Forward - Ohio's designated anti-poverty agency for Cuyahoga County with early childhood education programs, adult skills training, and other services
  • Especially large waves on Lake Erie on this windy day. Be sure to view the videos of the waves.
  • Cleveland Metroparks Euclid Beach concessions serving Honey Hut Ice Cream
  • Drum circle and dancing
  • Ohio Sea Grant
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National Trails Day 2022: Buckeye Trail Association's Biggest Day Hike

National Trails Day 2022: Buckeye Trail Association's Biggest Day Hike

It feels appropriate that the first blog post I am writing since my Continental Divide Trail backpacking adventure in April 2022 is about a National Trails Day® event -- the Buckeye Trail Association's Biggest Day Hike, which took place on Saturday, June 4, 2022.

It is great that the Buckeye Trail Association (@HikeTheBT) invited everyone to participate in celebrating Ohio's long trail by pledging to travel a segment of this over 1,400-mile trail for National Trails Day® 2022. This is the third year for the Buckeye Trail Association's Biggest Day Hike, which had the goal of having hikers/biker/horseback riders collectively complete the ENTIRE Buckeye Trail in one day.

American Hiking Society's 30th Annual National Trails Day®

Thank you, American Hiking Society and their sponsors/partners, for National Trails Day®!! It is a great way to bring awareness of all the great trails we have in our country.

It was great to see so many US trail organizations participate in National Trails Day® 2022. In addition to being a member of the Buckeye Trail Association (@HikeTheBT), I am a member of several other trail organizations.

I hope you find the resources I shared in this blog post useful as you find our own trail adventures. Happy Trails to you!

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moCa Cleveland, Ingenuity at the Lake, Remembering Euclid Beach Park

moCa Cleveland, Ingenuity at the Lake, Remembering Euclid Beach Park

This blog post is about the creative and historical events I attended Friday, September 24, 2021, through Sunday, September 26, 2021:

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My Cleveland Week: Cleveland Foundation > MidTown Murals > USS Cod Party > Irishtown Bend Hike > One World Day

My Cleveland Week: Cleveland Foundation > MidTown Murals > USS Cod Party > Irishtown Bend Hike > One World Day

As I mention in my last blog posts, I have been "delayed" in my normal activities for much of the summer. Well, the week after I published those two blog posts, my activity level increased dramatically due to the large number of events happening in Cleveland the last week of August 2021.

As I wrote on Monday, August 23, 2021, "If you are in #Cleveland and have nothing to do this week, you are just not trying!"

This blog post is an attempt to capture some of the spirit of the events I attended. The one common element of all these events is that I learned about them from following interesting people/organization on Twitter.  I created this blog post to serve as a reminder for me of the fun I had at these events, and I hope it encourages you to go out yourself to learn about the organizations that sponsor these events.

The in-person events included:

In addition to these in-person events that I attended, this was also the week of online events for the 2021 Cleveland Foundation Annual Meeting Week Presented by KeyBank: It Starts With Community.

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Beyond the Cleveland Metroparks Trail Challenge 2020: Part Three (Additional Thirteen Trails)

Beyond the Cleveland Metroparks Trail Challenge 2020: Part Three (Additional Thirteen Trails)

2020 has been different, with many of the venues we would normally visit closed due to the coronavirus crisis.

We were very pleased when the Cleveland Metroparks announced in May 2020 that they would be offering their fourth annual Trail Challenge, which included 25 trails. In August 2020, we learned that the park updated the list to include 35 trails!

The increase in the number of trails did not change the requirements for receiving the 2020 Challenge prizes . . .

. . . but we enjoy a challenge (and enjoy hiking/biking trails), and decided to do more than the minimum. This blog post shares our journey on all but one of the remaining land-based trails. See Stuart's 2020 Trail Challenge tracker sheet with notes on the 33 trails.

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2 of 5: Exploring the Bedford Section of the Buckeye Trail "Little Loop"

Bedford Section - Buckeye Trail "Little Loop"

My plan was to slowly complete, by hiking and biking, all the sections of the Buckeye Trail "Little Loop" over several years. With the onset of the March 2020 COVID-19 crisis, my plans radically changed, and I decided to complete the "Little Loop" this year. Below is the blog post about the Bedford Section, which is the second of five Buckeye Trail "Little Loop" blog posts.

This blog post covers my experiences on the Buckeye Trail Bedford Section from Sunday, November 4, 2018, through Tuesday, April 21, 2020.

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1 of 5: Buckeye Trail "Little Loop" - Exploring Over 250 Miles of Northeast Ohio

Buckeye Trail "Little Loop"

The Buckeye Trail "Little Loop" is the over-250-mile part of the Buckeye Trail in Northeast Ohio that goes through the following counties: Lake, Cuyahoga, Summit, Stark, Portage, and Geauga. On Tuesday, November 10, 2020, at the northern terminus of the Buckeye Trail at Headlands Dunes State Nature Preserve, I completed the loop which I had begun on Sunday, November 4, 2018.

I want to start this blog post by thanking the Buckeye Trail Association, and in particular, the volunteers of their Crooked River Chapter, for making the "Little Loop" section of the trail a reality for me to enjoy!

This Buckeye Trail "Little Loop" blog post actually consists of five separate blog posts. First, this post includes information and resources about the Buckeye Trail that were shared at events I attended about the trail.

The other four posts are about each of the four sections of the "Little Loop." Here are links to the blog posts, along with a list of the counties and some of the parks that are part of each section.

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Cleveland Metroparks Trail Challenge 2020: Part Two (Second Ten)

Stuart & Julie kayaking on the Rocky River on August 18, 2020. Photo by Josh “Gadget” Scott.

When we wrote about completing the first level of the Cleveland Metroparks 2020 Trail Challenge presented by Cigna to earn our 2020 Trail Challenge stickers, we were already working on the next ten trails for the final challenge. We are creating our Trail Challenge blog posts for these three reasons:

With COVID-19 closing venues we normally frequent, and having to cancel the backpacking trips that Stuart had planned on the Continental Divide Trail and Appalachian Trail, we have been exploring many parks in Northeast Ohio and along the route of the Buckeye Trail. We are happy to share with you our experiences on the second level of the trail challenge to earn our 2020 Trail Challenge mug.

2020 Trail Challenge Prizes - Sticker for 10 trails and mug for 20 trails, plus Cigna swag packet.

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Cleveland Metroparks Trail Challenge 2020: Part One (First Ten)

 Cleveland Metroparks Trail Challenge presented by Cigna

Take the challenge!

In 2017, we wrote our blog post: Cleveland Metroparks Inaugural Trail Challenge!

. . . so when we saw the Cleveland Metroparks tweet to "Take the challenge!" in 2020, with 25 trails to choose from, we decided to accept.

With COVID-19 closing venues we normally frequent, and having to cancel the backpacking trips that Stuart had planned on the Continental Divide Trail and Appalachian Trail, we have been exploring many parks in Northeast Ohio and along the route of the Buckeye Trail. We have written about many of our park visits in the Social Distancing Blog Posts that we have been writing during the pandemic.

There were originally 25 trails to choose from for the challenge. During the time we were writing this blog post, we learned that the park updated the list to now include 35 trails!

What follows is information about the first ten challenge trails we have completed.

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