Day 4: Cuyahoga National Forest, Ohio

Today was our last full day. Steve's morning started off badly with a spilled bowl of cereal in the hotel room and finding that all the locations he'd saved on our GPS program had mysteriously deleted themselves.

Then he left for early morning photography at Stumpy Basin. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, it's quite a hike but it's a spectacular view of the Cuyahoga River Valley. It's also a little-known spot. Our guide yesterday, Tom Jones (here's his website), discovered it and said he's only shown it to perhaps 2-3 people besides us. He graciously offered to show us after Steve emailed him before our trip to see how to get to the vantage point.

Imagine Steve's dismay when he arrived to park and there were over 25 cars parked along the road, with people holding cameras milling around. However, it seems that they did not know the way to the spot that Tom showed us and instead they were headed to another point that didn't have the amazing view Tom's secret spot did. But after making the strenuous trek up, Steve realized his tripod bracket wasn't on his tripod! No photos without that! So he had to pack it back down to the car, where he then remembered it had been in his camera backpack all along. Back up he went.

He was late getting back to the hotel, where Rosie and I were anxiously awaiting his return so we could go out for brunch. We found a nice place in the town of Hudson called 'Yours Truly', and I think it was the best meal we had so far.

After eating, we briefly drove through Hudson, a picturesque town with over 300 properties on the National Historic Register.

Our first stop was the path and viewing area for the via duct and Great Falls on Tinker's Creek, a nice park with lots of information about the construction of the viaduct and the mill that used to be there.

Then, we went to the Bedford Reservation and took a short hike to Bridal Veil Falls, a very picturesque spot. Rosie and I relaxed while Steve got some nice photos of the creek and falls. There's a bridle path there and 3 riders came through while we were there.

From Bridal Veil Falls we headed to Tinker's Creek Cemetery. Steve had read about this remote place, reputed to be haunted. It's a hike up an abandoned road and across a field and the cemetery is set right at the edge of a forest. It was a pretty spot for a graveyard but sadly, as is often the case with old cemeteries, it had suffered some vandalization. The graves were very old, with dates going back to 1838 and earlier. And no, I doubt it's haunted. As I told Rosie, people make up silly stories about such things; it's sad that the people buried there have no one living who still remembers them or cares for the graves.

After going back down to our car, we made a brief stop at Frazee House. Then, beginning to get thirsty and hungry, we went to Brecksville, which appears to be a rather affluent community. We had lunch at a Panera Bread restaurant and I went to the local grocery, Heinan's, which was very impressive. It was an upscale grocery and I found some things I cannot get in New Albany–like pear flavored Yoplait and whole wheat crumpets!

After a brief rest at the hotel, we decided to end the day with a hike around the loop trail at Ritchey Ledges. It was a really nice, approximately 2 mile hike through the forest and took us past the Icebox Caves, a natural rock formation more impressive than those we saw in Hocking Hills.

Then, back to the hotel. Rosie had been asking Steve to go swimming in the pool since we got here, but he had misgivings based on the overall experience we've had so far at this hotel. He explained to her that if the pool was not maintained well, and he suspected it might not be, they would not be swimming in it. Sure enough, when they got to the pool area, the filter was not running and there was dark debris in the bottom. I got on TripAdvisor when they came back and found several unsavory reviews of this Baymont, and I plan to add mine. I'll never understand why any business sacrifices its reputation just to save a few bucks.

We were all pretty tired after our long day and hikes, so we turned in about 10 pm. Tomorrow we return home, and Harvest Homecoming will be all over! I love vacations, but I love getting home, too, and have missed my dogs and cats. We have seen so many dogs here, walking on the trails with their owners. We saw a nice retriever last night on the Ledges trail with saddlebag-type backpacks on. If only Buddy wasn't so timid and Sam wasn't so old, I'd be enlisting them to haul my backpack for me!