We got up this morning to some pretty ominous, foggy weather.  Bill assured me that it was going to be sunny and warm by mid-morning so we headed for Cuyahoga Valley National Park to go bike riding.

By the time we got to the park the fog was gone and it was another beautiful day.  We rented a couple of bikes and took off on the Ohio & Erie Canal Tow Path Trail.  We’ve done this a couple of times before and it’s one of our favorite places to ride bikes.

There’s lots of beautiful scenery along the trail and as each day goes by the fall colors are really starting to pop.

The trail follows a canal that was built between Akron and Cleveland in the early 1800’s.  It was used to get local farmers goods to market using barges towed by mules on a path beside the canal, thus the name tow path trail.  Now it’s just a beautiful walking and biking trail.  When the canal was in use there were a bunch of locks along it’s length to control the water flow.  Now they’re just scenery.

Our first nature sighting along the trail was this turtle.  It didn’t seem to be going anywhere but when we came back it was gone so it must have decided to move on at some point.

We also saw some more herons, here’s a picture of one that’s fishing near a small falls.

Other sightings included three deer and some rodent type things but we weren’t quick enough to get pictures.

Bill was intrigued with this pond scum and thought it picture worthy.

We rode a total of 27 miles with a few breaks including a lunch break at the halfway point.  I wasn’t sure I was going to make it the last half mile.

After the bike ride we decided that rather than staying in the Cleveland area for the night we would head back to Columbus and Tom and Mary Beth’s house.  There were some new additions when we arrived.

We enjoyed another great dinner from Tom’s grill and then we had birthday cake, candles and singing – for me!  It was great and so was the cake.

Now it’s way past time for bed, so that’s where I’m heading.