Mountain climbing the Previous Carriage Path in Cuyahoga Valley Nationwide Park presents a peaceable, forested escape that’s wealthy with each pure magnificence and cultural historical past. This vast, gently rolling path was as soon as a route for horse-drawn carriages and now serves hikers and path runners looking for a quieter different to busier paths. As you progress beneath a cover of towering timber, the panorama subtly reveals its previous—a number of Native American mounds lie alongside the path, silent reminders of the area’s earliest inhabitants. These historic earthworks add a way of reverence and thriller to the hike, connecting right this moment’s guests with centuries of historical past embedded within the land.
Don’d miss the Native American earthworks
Mountain climbing the Previous Carriage Path
Heather and I arrive on the Crimson Lock Trailhead round 5:30 AM on a foggy June morning, prepared to begin our Previous Carriage Path hike. We set off straight away, passing Lock 34 earlier than becoming a member of the Towpath and heading north.
About three-quarters of a mile in, we attain the Previous Carriage Trailhead, the place a small picket platform crosses the canal.
The Previous Carriage Path begins as a paved path beneath a leafy cover, progressively transitioning to filth because it climbs to a plateau. At this transition, a placard describes an fascinating archaeological website: a low earthen embankment (discovered between the 2 yellow traces under) with a shallow ditch, thought to have been constructed by Native People between 500 and 1100 AD, in the course of the Early Late Woodland interval. Its goal stays a thriller—maybe a sacred website, maybe a part of an historic fort—however its presence presents a captivating glimpse right into a world lengthy earlier than this land grew to become a nationwide park.
From this level, the path winds via dense woodlands of hardwoods and pines, skirting the sides of deep, shaded ravines. This space was as soon as a part of the sprawling Marshall Property, house to Wentworth Goodson Marshall (1864–1936), a Cleveland druggist and experimental botanist. Within the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, horse-drawn carriages from the Goodson Property traveled these grounds. A long time later, Cuyahoga Valley Nationwide Park acquired 518 acres of the previous property and established the Previous Carriage Path to honor Marshall and his philanthropic legacy.
Close to the midway level, we cross a newly constructed footbridge that spans a 60-foot ravine cloaked in hemlocks and hardwoods.
A short time later, we rock-hop throughout a small stream and comply with the vast, winding path onward.
After a second footbridge and the beginning of a descent, we attain a signed junction. A spur path to the appropriate guarantees an overlook, however once we comply with it, we discover solely a small loop with no view to talk of—an amusing little detour.
Again on the principle path, we proceed to descend and finally wrap up the Previous Carriage Path because it rejoins the Towpath. The ultimate 1.3 miles of our hike follows the canal, with the primary half-mile providing peaceable views and the rhythmic croaks of bullfrogs.
By mile six, we’re again at Crimson Lock and heading off to begin our days. Whereas the Previous Carriage Path isn’t the park’s most scenic route, it makes up for that with solitude, wealthy historical past, and an archaeological characteristic that sparks the creativeness. As a historical past nerd, I at all times get pleasure from strolling right here, picturing what this panorama may need seemed like centuries in the past.
