Ohio to Michigan

Lake Erie from East Harbor State Park

As it seems to happen frequently this spring, we are often packing up in the rain and leaving Louisville was no different.  All the way to Cincinnati we were in and out of rain showers.  As we traveled north past Dayton the rain turned to light sprinkles and by the time we reached Lake Loramie State Park, a good stopping place for the night, we were left with only clouds.

Lake Loramie is one of the original canal feeder lakes that used to supply water for the Miami-Erie Canal system.  The park is located southwest of Lima in western Ohio, not really on the way to anywhere.  But it wasn’t much out of our way as we headed for the shores of Lake Erie.  We had thought to maybe stay two nights and do a bit of hiking around the lake enjoying rural Ohio but there had been too much rain and the trails were more like lakes themselves so we just stayed one night and drove on to Lake Erie the next morning.

 

Marblehead Lighthouse

 

On Lake Erie, we stayed at East Harbor State Park for a few days and put another Great Lake 'notch in our belt.'  Until two years ago, Lake Michigan around Chicago was the only Great Lake we had seen.  When we were in New York two summers ago, we spent almost a week enjoying the beauty of Lake Ontario.  Two down, three to go… And we plan to complete seeing all the Great Lakes this summer.

 

A good year for goslings

 

East Harbor State Park is situated on a peninsula of land that stretches out into Lake Erie in almost a ‘T’ shape.  Lake Erie is the shallowest and warmest of the Great Lakes but it still felt pretty cold to us.  Besides some nice beaches along the harbor and Lake Erie, much of the park is wetlands.  This area was part of the Great Black Swamp which once covered a portion of northern Ohio 120 miles long and 30 – 40 miles wide.  After lumbering and then draining for agriculture in the late 1800's only ten percent of Ohio’s original wetlands remain.  

 

A remnant of the Great Black Swamp, East Harbor State Park

 

We did some hiking along Lake Erie, East Harbor and the wetlands.  The birding was amazing – ducks, geese, swans, gulls, terns, great blue herons, black-crowned night herons, egrets and a golden eagle were among the birds we saw.  Some of the wetland trails were very wet and we were glad of our waterproof hiking boots.  All in all the hiking was easy and enjoyable but the last trail we did was thick with mosquitoes making it not quite as much fun as previous walks.  Oh well, it’s a wetland and mosquitoes are to be expected.

After our hikes and some car touring, including Port Clinton, Catawba State Park, Marblehead Lighthouse State Park and Lakeside Chautauqua we drove on to Detroit to spend several days with David’s brother and his wife Harumi.  We’ve been getting in some good visits and were treated to some amazing home-smoked BBQ ribs yesterday.  Jim is a very good cook!  We may be staying longer than he knows…

 

 

David’s Stats:

Days Hiked:   3  
Total Miles Hiked:  8.51   
Ave. Miles per Day:   2.84  
Total Elevation Gain:     278
Ave. Elevation Gain per day:  93