Summer 2011 - How it all got started!

My BT experiences didn't start with me, they started first with my dad, then with my son and his Boy Scout Troop and then with a Cub Scout Pack and then it finally led itself back to me.  Here is a story with some of that entwined:

A Circle Come Full

I have been a part of Boy Scout Troop 435 since October of 2007.  The first big hike my son Daniel and I went on with the troop started out as a regular hike in the Brecksville section of the Metroparks and I was just chaperoning. 

Assembling at the parking lot of the CMP Stables, Brecksville Reservation

As we were walking down the road that lead to (what I would later learn was) the Ottawa Point Picnic Area I immediately noticed the familiar powder blue blazes painted on the trees and poles lining the wide graveled road.  My heart warmed up and I smiled outwardly.  I turned to the leader in charge of the hike, pointed the blazes out and said, “Maybe you should be explaining those to the Scouts and chaperones.”  To my surprise they meant nothing to the leader and told me to “have at it”.  I turned to the Scouts and proceeded to share with them something I hadn’t seen or walked on in over two decades:  The Ohio Buckeye Trail (OBT).  

Footpath just leaving the Ottowa Picnic Area

The opportunity to share The OBT with my new Scout troop was huge for me.  Seeing those blazes again was a walk down memory lane.  It took me back to these long hikes that I used to walk with my father, who was the one who taught me all about The OBT in the first place.  Back in the 1980’s he found himself starting a piece of the trail near Canal Fulton in the Akron section of The OBT and then before he knew it he walked all the way Mentor-On-The-Lake in a few month’s time.  I thought he was crazy at the time.  He'd go in all sorts of weather, any time of day or night, inviting anyone who would go to come along with him, bribing us with Buckeye Trail patches!

The first thing I did when I got back home from that Boy Scout outing was call my dad to tell him all about what I had just taught the Scouts.  It was the dawning of some very important realizations for me.  I was able to see that my dad and I had done some really neat things in the last few decades together as parent and child - father and daughter.  I also realized that it was now my turn to teach what I had learned.  It was a circle come full.  We both wept for the journeys we’d made thus far, for the place in which we stood at that moment in time and for the unknown roads we’d yet to explore together.  After I hung up with him I reflected on all that had transpired that day.  A part of me reached out that evening and wished for everyone moments like I’d had that day:  An opportunity to share experiences with their parents and then, in turn, be able to share those same moments with their own children in their future! 

It was an awesome moment and at the heart of it all, The Ohio Buckeye Trail and Boy Scouting!

At the completion of the hike - abandoned lock

Post script:  The 2nd OBT hike that I took with the Troop (another section in the Brecksville area), was a very small section, but just as meaningful!  At the suggestion of the same leader that was in charge at Ottawa Point, my son and I brought my father.  My father has a great deal more difficulty navigating a trail these days as he has become 90% visually impaired, but with his arm tucked in closely to my side and my son not far behind me, my father and I walked a portion of the Ohio Buckeye Trail together again for the first time in over 20 years! 

Spring 2011 - Blue Blaze Bugsie

It's really just plain "Bugsie", my nickname given to me by my mom way back when.  There have been other nicknames, but Bugsie stuck.

"Blue Blaze" refers to the Ohio Buckeye Trail or BT.  That used to have other names, too.  You might know them better as animal migration trails, or the first trails used by the early peoples of this land or nowadays just your local street or route names.  Currently the BT refers to 1,444 miles of trails that have been looped together in a continuous circle, in most instances, around the outer perimeter of the state of Ohio.  You should go to http://www.buckeyetrail.org/ for more detailed information.

Blue Blaze Bugsie is the name I will be using for this blog of my journey on the BT. 

There is another blog by Captain Blue.  One of my hiking buddies found it and suggested I make one myself and so here I am.

My BT experiences are being published in a series format with the BT's newsletter, "Trailblazer" in an edited for length style.  I will be expanding on those stories here.  I have journaled and photographed each step of my journey as it has had such a huge impact on my life.  I hope you will enjoy it!