Winter 2011 - Trail to Jait

A Series of Remarkable Experiences and Hiking Life Lessons by Blue Blaze Bugsie

Edited version appears in the Buckeye Trail newsletter, "Trailblazer"

Jump forward to mid-September 2009.  I made plans to return to the place where it all began: Brecksville Reservation.  I was aware of special BT maps, but I thought I could wing it with internet maps.  Even though they lacked detailed BT information one set would get me to the park and the other would get me around in it.  Lesson #1: There is a correct tool for every job.  Order the BT section maps!  Not only will it give trail details down to the foot, it provides wonderful historical blurbs about the areas where you will be walking.

Buckeye Trail maps available at Buckeyetrail.org

Armed with almost nothing I set out entering the reservation off Rt. 82 stopping at the first “you are here” sign and grabbed a Brecksville Reservation map.  It did not talk about the Buckeye Trail, so I decided to just continue on down the road until I hopefully recognized something.  I finally ended up at the National Park Headquarters at Vaughn and Riverview Roads (known by the collection of yellow buildings).  I helped myself to a Cuyahoga Valley map there and compared it to the Brecksville map.  Even though both were of the same general area, they read different not only from each other but from the ones I’d printed for myself, at which time I realized were still at home.  Luckily I am, what I consider to be, blessed with the gift of accepting that everything happens exactly the way it is supposed to.  It helps me through a lot of unexpected and potentially frustrating moments, so forgetting the maps just became a part of the adventure.  The maps I did have agreed on one thing, though, a BT trail called Jaite started just up Vaughn Road and thus began my 65 mile Series of Remarkable Experiences and Other Hiking Life Lessons.

Along with the things 10 most important items a hiker should have in their backpack, which I lug around for a few hours of hiking and some emergencies, I carry a camera (definitely a need!)  Lesson #2:  Be prepared!  What I've told the Boy Scouts everytime we hike is that the things that you carry in your pack are not always items you will use on this particular hike, but are also items you might want to have with you in case of an emergency.  Be Prepared!  As for the camera, with the advent of my walking, which I started doing to lose weight and get healthy a few years ago, I decided if I was going to walk outside that I would stop and “smell the roses”...and then capture them all on film!  Crossing Vaughn Road I started my hike.  The blaze led me right into a thicket of tall grass.  I was impressed by the temperature change from the dry dusty road to this humid grassy area as well as its sweet smell.  Immediately I spied a large praying mantis which I picked up and put on my map.  By the time I decided I should take its picture, agitated by my motions to retrieve my camera, it clicked away.  Thankfully a collection of large gorgeous purple daisy-looking flowers appeared. 

The trail crossed over some railroad tracks and then I popped out onto Riverview Road.  I searched everywhere for a blaze, but none were to be found.  I could clearly see everything on the map, but the road I was on and the trail on the map just didn’t seem to jive.  In my ignorance I figured the trail would run down the road a spell, a blaze would appear and I would pop back into the woods.  Lesson #3:  Never proceed further without proper directions!  Go back to the last blaze you saw and try again!  I ended up walking all the way down to Boston Mills Road, before I finally found the next blaze and a BT sign marked, “Jaite, 5 1/2”. Appearing to be a circuit trail that would take me back to the car and being that I was already a little tired, today a circuit trail looked mighty fine to me!

Now I have been corrected, there is no actual Buckeye Trail called Jaite, is the "Buckeye Trail to Jaite".  Jaite is a trail in the Akron section that is heavily wooded, very hilly and proved to be difficult from the onset with a steep upward climb.  The cool sunless trail at first wound itself back and forth further from my car along a ridge with sheer drops.  The climbs up and down were sometimes near vertical, one being steep enough to be accompanied by a dizzying 89 step staircase which, luckily for me, I got to walk down. 

Trail starts off Boston Mills, straight up the side of a small mountain

89 stepped staircase built by county engineers - going down

...from the bottom

see the stairs in the distance?

The trail passed near one of the many highways that traverse the area (maybe I-271) to which I got to see the progress of a lane being added.  The massive excavator perched on the side of the small mountain was dwarfed by the tremendous size of the construction area. 

After what seemed like hours of endless climbing, I was good and tired when I popped up out of the woods behind the Summit County Engineers building.  Clueless as to what road I was about to cross or even if I was headed in the right direction I followed the blaze across the street and decided that I would stop the very next car that came up the road to ask for directions, which turned out to be a mail truck.  For certain they would know where we were!

Summit County Engineers parking lot, Boston Mills Road on right

From the other side of the road I could see the driver of the mail truck was a woman so in a non-threatening way I indicated that I would like to approach the vehicle calling out that I was lost as I neared.  As I rounded the front of the vehicle to get to her window and because the truck was perched on the very edge of the road to reach the mailboxes I never noticed the steep rain gutter down into which I began to stumble.  To avoid falling I ended up running down this slope of weird soft material and it wasn’t until I started climbing back up this mess that I finally saw her face.  “Barb!” we both yell at the same time.  The driver and I were once both Girl Scout leaders from the same unit.  We were completely taken aback and spent the next few moments chatting excitedly.  She of course knew exactly where we were, I was about to cross Boston Mills Road, A-gain.  Lesson # 4: You will cross paths again.  I have been amazed how many times I have crossed the same road, route or river - not to mention people and places from my past on the BT.  Sometimes the road starts out as one name then changes down the way, sometimes it is down the road quite a spell before I cross it again and other times it is just up the hill with an old friend waiting at the top!  No matter how many times you cross paths, take it all in!  Barb and I exchanged numbers in case I needed assistance again and as we parted ways, still beaming from ear to ear at the unexpected meeting and circumstances, I couldn’t help but think, “God is wonderful.”

Confidence renewed, a few steps down the road brought me back to the BT and then shortly thereafter another sign, Jaite 4 miles. 

However grateful I felt knowing I was on track, realizing I still had 4 miles left to go did not make me feel less tired.  It felt like I had already been hiking for hours. Lesson #5:  If you want to know how long you have been doing something, look at your watch for heavens sake!  While hiking in unfamiliar areas on difficult terrain I have experienced the phenomena I call “hiking time and distance” versus “real time and distance” (in reality to this point I’d only hiked 3 miles in about an hour).  Thankfully this next section gave me plenty of distractions to silence my mental whining stopping to photograph bubbling creeks and the rock towers people left behind in them; man made run-off’s trickling down moss covered rocks; dense woods that opened up here and there allowing the sun to penetrate the darkness; birds lounging on branches and then there were the mushrooms.  Never before had I noticed so many different types of fungi! 

An opening for light to penetrate to the forest floor.

Hiking

Fungai:  Sulphur Shelf

What does it mean?

As I ran into the next sign, Jaite 2 1/3 miles I went to take a sip of water and was met instead with the resistance of an empty camel bag.  Lesson #6:  Never underestimate your needs!   I knew I had only half a bag when I left home, but I also had never finished one on a walk before.  Now I had none.  It is amazing how thirsty you get when you have no water! 

After a while up ahead through the dense growth I could make out a lot of sunlight.  As I passed this last line of trees I found myself in a utility line cut that swept right on down the mountain into the valley.  As someone must have been drawn to do before me, I deserted the dirt trail and followed the bent grass path up to one of the cement platforms on which the towers were mounted.  Tired and thirsty forgotten I climbed up and turned off my MP3 player.  With one arm wrapped around the leg of the tower I leaned out over the edge of the platform as far as I could and soaked up the sights of this tremendous view, the feeling and the sounds of the wind rushing over me and through the valley and the birds and the insects around me.  How does one capture this to take back and share?  Suddenly the valley dimmed dramatically.  I turned to look at the sky as this huge puffy cloud slowly crawled across the face of the sun completely eclipsing it in moments leaving only the most brilliant beams of light shooting out from behind.  Looking back at the valley I watched mesmerized as one cloud after another passed in front of the sun causing graceful blazes of light and then swaths of shadows to dance one after another across the valley.  I was in awe and let myself be entranced for a long while before I forced myself on knowing I still had trail left to cover, no water to drink and I was running out of time.

Light playing across the valley

The cause of the light show

Freeing myself from the awesome scene I jumped down off the platform and waded through the long grass back to the trail, though I didn’t get far before I saw that from boot toes to thighs I was covered in these flat burrs.  A few quick swipes with my driver’s license flick them back to the ground, seed for next year’s plants and I am off and nearly trampling this very unusual plant.  The central stalk and shorter stems were a beautiful scarlet color and there were white berries with little black dots perched on the tips of the shorter stems.  Oooh, pretty!  Lesson#7:  Don’t touch it!  The Boy Scouts get a good laugh at my “If it’s green, it’s poisonous!” rule which makes it really rough on a hiker, but I’ve gotten into enough poisonous you name it to come up with the rule to begin with.  Luckily I took my own advice and only took photos of what I later learned was Baneberry, aka Doll’s Eye or Black Cohosh – a poisonous plant!

Dolls Eye aka Black Cohosh or Baneberry BEWARE

Dolls Eye leaves BEWARE

Pining for water yet again, as I was about to come out of the woods to cross a street I saw a sparkle of light at the trail side.  There lay this unopened bottle of water!  I had to look around to see if someone was playing with me.  Licking my lips I examined the bottle more closely.  The contents and the seal appeared ok; it was expired, but closely dated; and the seal cracked as I slowly twisted it open.  I took a tiny sip to test it and it seemed fine so against all my “This is really gross” instincts, not that I advocate to anyone drinking from abandoned water bottles, I drank gratefully anyway.  Aaaah!  Thirst slaked I walked out onto the road and glanced at the BT sign which no longer mentioned Jaite, but Boston, Brecksville and Red Lock.  I searched all around even looking through the camera up to the next intersection, hoping to be able to pick up the trail, but there was nothing. I did see yellow buildings like those from the NPS Headquarters, but they didn’t look the same.  The map indicated that if I went toward Brecksville the path would eventually take me to my car.  Happy enough that I had water, I decided to go for it. 

Now which way? (Snowville almost at Riverview)

Where I found the water - thank you to whomever left it
BEWARE - I am not advocating drinking abandoned water!

The trail went off road almost immediately onto a path that went through a meadow and then into a thick pine forest which was only darkening with the day. Spying a bounding deer I readied my camera where I thought would appear again, but it never did.  I took a few more photos until I realized I was totally stalling feeling it would be a mistake to go on.  I reviewed the photos I’d taken of the signs from the road and decided that being on it was the only way I was going to find my car.  Lesson #8: Follow your instincts!  And luckily I did, as this trail would turn out to be part of yet another very long adventure.  I took another swig of heaven-sent water, turned around and walked out of the darkness and back to the street.  I breathed a sigh of relief when I realized the intersection was Riverview at Snowville and now I could clearly make out the headquarter buildings which I knew were near the car. 

Distracted at how giddy I felt at nearly completing this first little section I only peripherally saw this huge light colored object drop down to the ground.  “You’re almost done! Keep walking!” I tell myself, but I couldn’t stand not knowing what that was and after a few more agonizing steps the curious part of me won out.  Walking back toward the tree I examined the ground looking for something white.  Then I see this huge brown lump digging furiously at something.  It was a very large bird!  I immediately started wrestling with the camera.  As I took one step closer it suddenly whips around and the first thing I see is this hooked beak, agape, and then one huge eyeball gawking at me.  I think it was as startled as I was.  Just then the cover pops off the now fully extended lens and I start snapping away as this magnificent Red Tailed Hawk beat its wings and flew up into the next tree.  I took a few more photos of it glaring at me before it flew off out of view. 

Red Tailed Hawk flying away

(enlarged....flight)

Red Tailed Hawk glaring at me from a distance.

(see, it really IS glaring at me!)

By the time I got back to Jaite I had hike a total of 3 hours and 19 minutes and I have tried to figure out the miles countless times and came up with about 7 miles.


Safely in my car I called a few people to share my experiences from today’s adventure.  It was then that I decided that I would start journaling my hikes.  As I drove up Riverview Road, I couldn’t help but smile at all my good fortunes, ever grateful for each special moment and for the gift of curiosity.