Towpath Trail XIV (7/17/2016)

Sunday, July 17, 2016
Hiking the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail from Ira to W Bath Road.

We are suffering a drought, and the canal bed is dry

Ondatra zibethicus/Muskrat

The tips of tree branches are drying out and dying

Lock 25 or Mudcatcher Lock, only one wall remains due
to widening of Riverview Road in the 1930s;
most of the canal along this portion of the
Towpath Trail has been filled in

Lock 24 also has only one wall remaining;
The Ohio & Erie Canal had a monopoly on the
transportation of goods in the 1840s and 1850s, but the railroad
arrived in the 1860s and business declined until a
damaging flood in 1913 forced the closure of the canal

Remains of the waste way that carried water around Lock 24

Pile o' railroad spikes

Campsis radicans/Trumpet Vine (weed)

Conrad Botzum Farmstead (established c. 1876) sign,
now a venue for weddings and other events

Butorides virescens/Green Heron

(We hiked the "first" section of the Towpath Trail that follows the old Ohio & Erie Canal on July 6, 2014 from Harvard Road to the Marcy Trestle. We started at the Canalway Center near the trestle and walked to the overpass of I-77 on November 9, 2014. On December 26, 2014, we walked between the I-77 overpass and Quaker Steak on Canal Road in Valley View. On September 27, 2015, we hiked between Quaker Steak on Canal Road and Lock 38. On October 4, 2015, we went between Lock 38 and Alexander's Mill. On November 8, 2015, we hiked from Alexander's Mill halfway to Station Road Bridge. On November 29, 2015, we went from Station Road Bridge halfway back to Alexander's Mill. On December 6, 2015, we went from Station Road Bridge to Red Lock. December 13, 2015 was between Red Lock and Boston Store. On February 28, 2016, we hiked from Lock 29 back to Boston Store. The hike on March 27, 2016 was from Lock 29 to Deep Lock Quarry. On April 24, 2016, we went from Deep Lock Quarry to Lock 27. Lock 27 to Ira was on June 12, 2016.)