Saturday, May 20, 2017

Ledges Trail (5/20/2017)

Saturday, May 20, 2017
The Ledges Trail, located in the Virginia Kendall Unit of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, took us around the Ritchie Ledges, which appears to be a large outcropping of rock that ascended straight out of the ground, and requires a 2-mile hike to walk around it. The ledges have been overgrown with trees and vegetation.
On the plateau of the ledges is the Ledges Shelter (c. 1930s),
built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) using stone from
Deep Lock Quarry and wood from blight-infested American chestnut trees
The Ledges Trail on top of the ledges
A stand of hemlocks
Gus, Kent, and Brynne have reached the edge of the ledges
Looking down into a crevice
A right-angle crevice
We made our way down to the bottom of the ledges
and started around them
A jumble of fallen rocks
Ice Box Cave has been closed to the public because of
White Nose Syndrome, a fungal infection fatal to the resident bats
Looking back through that right-angle crevice
Trees growing on rocks
Layered rock
Sharon conglomerate with quartz pebbles
Wooden bridge
Honeycombed rock
Balancing rock
Gus and Kent
Steps made by the CCC
A foundation?
Symplocarpus foetidus/Skunk Cabbage 
A curve in Haskell Run
Mater Dolorosa Cemetery (1869) of
the former Mother of Sorrows Church
CCC Worker statue, a replica of one found
throughout the USA at CCC work sites
Happy Days Lodge was a former CCC camp, named after President
F D Roosevelt's 1932 campaign song, “Happy Days Are Here Again”
The creek bed has cracked into
pretty even squares (sorry, hard to see)
The sandstone cliffs average 30-40 feet in height
A particularly large overhang
Fallen rocks stuck in a crevice
Another overhang
Another CCC-built shelter, the Octagon Shelter
Tree roots
Liriodendron tulipifera/Tulip Tree blossoms
were scattered on the ground
A patch of sand (eroded from the cliff?)
Forest on the rocks
The Overlook
Hmm, a tour bus in the parking lot?

No comments: