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Health & Fitness

Nature in Its Natural State: People Are Animals Too

The Bike Ninjas fight an internal struggle between the desire to explore and the safety of wildlife by hiking in the West Woods in Geauga County and Liberty Park in Twinsburg.

I wouldn't say I am rebellious at all, but I am inquisitive. So when I come across a sign that reads, "Please Stay On The Trail", my natural instinct is to go and see what makes this area so special that it needs protecting in the first place.  It usually cites the safety of wildlife or the dangers of falling or that kind of stuff, but when approaching these signs in the parks, sometimes it just doesn't seem to add up to all that.  I understand that there are many reasons the park associations would limit access to parts of the parks, but sometimes I feel the justifications may be misplaced.

I have been frequenting the metroparks in Lake and Geauga County lately, and I gotta tell ya, the culture of these areas seems a bit more uptight about not straying too far from the pathways.  The trails are more manicured versus Summit County where I grew up and in Cuyahoga County where I reside now.  I am into the notion that we should be working to blend with nature and sometimes that means not stamping down sensitive mosses by walking on places that we could walk around, but when I see plastic material sticking up out of the gravel trail, I get a little suspicious of these signs keeping me out of places. 

If you are going to lay plastic down in the middle of the same forest floor that I am not allowed to walk on, and then cover it with gravel from the back of large trucks, then I am going to question whether your desire to keep me on a certain path is to protect nature or a financial investment by your park organization.

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After hiking one day in the West Woods, a Geauga County Metropark, I was talking to a Cuyahoga Valley Wildlife Watcher named Carrol York (Full disclosure: she's my mom, and she knows nature!), and she got a bit mad about my perpective on the matter.  I said that there was an area there that was protected, but I thought it was more for their liabilty than it was for protection of nature.  She said that maybe I wasn't aware of the type of damage I could cause, to which I responded that I assessed the scene for quite a while, and I just couldn't see how getting 20 steps closer on the rocks of a creek could hurt anything.

I just wanted a clear view into the cave that the trail was named after.  Ansel's Cave.  From the trail (more boardwalk than trail), I could not really see a cave.  Or a sweet waterfall that is back there.  How could walking back into an open air grotto hurt anything there? I didn't even want to go into the cave, just have a square look at it.

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Well, my mom told me that the bat population in the general area is dwindling so drastically that they have to close the caves around here to protect them.  We carry a fungus that the bats are extremely susceptible too.  Even just lingering around the cave mouth can spread it.  Who knew?  She told me to go out to Liberty Park in Twinsburg where more than 90% of the bats have been killed due to people passing the barrier and entering the cave.  She said it was people like me, people that were just inquisitive, people that just wanted to go a few feet in to get a photograph, that were causing the damage.

Dang mom, way to put it into perspective. I went to Liberty Park in Twinsburg that day, and I sat by that cave and I thought about our conversation.  I could see that she was right, although there could be a little bit more signage to help people understand not just the causes of the bats dying, but also the effects of not having bats around.  I concluded that even though the West Woods kept me on a strict path, that path did roll through some very rustic forests.  More rustic than in Summit or Cuyahoga County as a matter of fact.  So that's pretty cool.  Liberty Park has rocky ridges that roll as far as you can see, and even though you can't play on them like you can at Virginia Kendall or in the Gorge, you can see lichens and flowers that grow right out of the rocky terrain.  They are very rustic ledges in comparison as well.

So I say to those in charge of the different parks, let's make a deal.  I will advocate to people the need to remember to live along side the animals and respect the times when we should keep our distance, IF, you remember that people are animals too.  We wanna rove, and run, and explore, and enjoy our natural terrain too.  So if you put up a sign, make sure your intentions are pure and we will be content to enjoy the area to the best of what is safe for all.

And to the people who use the parks, let's make a deal.  If you have a problem with the placement of a sign or the reasoning behind them, go through the proper channels to voice your concerns. The people who maintain the parks ultimately get to decide how those parks are used.  Unless any of you want to make a run at becoming Director of Park Development, you are at the mercy of process.  Let's believe that "Stay On The Trail" really carries weight and just enjoy the area for what it offers.

Everyone on board with all that?

Cool.

Check out the included pictures of the rustic West Woods and Liberty Park areas.

If you want to see some really awesome shots of areas you can see by staying on the trail, go here!

Let me know what you think on the topic too, I want to get some dialogue going here.

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