Lake to Lakes Trail (4/16/2016)

Saturday, April 16, 2016

No April showers today!

We hiked a portion of the Lake to Lakes Trail (not to be confused with the Lake to Lake Trail that connects Lake Isaac and Lake Abram in Middleburg Heights!) Our trail links Lake Erie to the Shaker Lakes, starting (or ending) at Horseshoe Lake, which we have circumnavigated several times.

Today we started at the Nature Center at Shaker Lakes, and circumnavigated Lower Shaker Lake.

Nature Center at Shaker Lakes sign

View north towards the Lower Shaker Lake Dam

Bridge over Lower Shaker Lake Dam

Cardamine concatenata/Cut-leaved Toothwort

Ranunculus ficaria/Lesser Celandine

The lesser celandine is highly invasive and it is reported
that from having been planted in (just) two yards,
it spread over 300 acres of parkland along the Rocky River

Mystery stone block at the Brook Road and N Park Boulevard,
which could have come from a 5-story grist mill (1843)
built by the North Union Shaker Mill Family

Fancy bridge approach

Bridge over the Lower Shaker Lake Dam,
with Brynne, Gus (dog), Kent, and Bob W

Dam dropoff on the north side of the bridge

The North Union Shaker community was established in 1822 (the Center Family, a family of unrelated members), and in 1826 (rebuilt 1837) they dammed Doan Brook to power first a saw mill, and later a grist mill. A second Shaker family unit, the Mill Family, was organized to operate the mills. As the community grew, a third unit, the Gathering Family, was added. However, at the end of the 18th century there were with problems recruiting new members, and with the practice of celibacy, the Shaker community began to die out. They disbanded in 1889.

Trachemys scripta elegans/Red-eared Sliders

A Shaker boating ramp? (Not!) 

Lower Shaker Lake seen from the N Woodland Road bridge

The Nature Center at Shaker Lakes

The All People's Trail (handicapped accessible)
at the Nature Center