Bike Trail Delights the Eye and Imagination

During the summer months I enjoy bicycle riding. In a way cycling has been part of my life partly because it was the only affordable mode of transportation when I was growing up in Peshawar in northwestern Pakistan. I rode the bike to run chores, to go to soccer games or just loaf around. While in college I used to pedal nine miles from the walled city of Peshawar to Islamia College. Even when I could afford more convenient and comfortable modes of transportation I continued to pedal through for the sheer joy of it.

In Toledo, Ohio, where I live, I usually bike on surface roads. But recently a bike path was opened in our area that has added so much more enjoyment to my biking experience. The trail is called Wabash Cannonball Bike Trail and it is beautiful. Even though you may not be familiar with the area I am talking about or with some of the names or events, you would understand my enthusiasm if you happen to be a biker.

A bike-ride on this relatively new trail in Monclova Township in Southwest Toledo is a ride through some of the most beautiful parts of northwest Ohio. It also is a ride through history. In a short distance of little over nine miles the trail provides a ‘ring-side’ seat to historic and geologic events that have long past.

The trail was built over the abandoned Wabash Railroad tracks that at the turn of the century connected Toledo with Montpelier, Ohio. This trail is part of countrywide Rails to Trails project that would eventually traverse the entire width of the country. Already part of the Toledo-Montpelier stretch and parts of a southwestern tract, circa 1855, between Toledo and Fort Wayne, Indiana have been completed.

The wide-open fields at the trailhead at Jerome Road look ordinary enough. But it was here in these very fields in 1794 that General ‘Mad’ Anthony Wayne fought a pitched battle with the Indians. The decisive victory in the battle of Fallen Timbers paved the way for westward expansion into the Northwest Territory. Occasionally at dusk and sometimes in early morning twilight the whole area becomes shrouded in thick blanket of fog rising from the nearby Maumee River. With a bit of imagination one could still hear the echoes of that famous battle through the ground glass curtain of fog. I am amused by the thought of a soldier, ala Twilight Zone, materializing out of the fog and staggering to the back porch of a nearby modern home asking a soccer mom for a drink of water. Much of the open fields beyond Jerome Road have now yielded to new housing developments. It is a rather abrupt transition from the battle of Fallen Timbers to the backyard barbecue grills, roller blades and sport utility vehicles.

Beyond Monclova-Waterville Road the landscape changes again to familiar rural Ohio with plenty of farmland, wooded areas and open spaces. On any summer weekend there is a delightful sight of little children, clad in colorful uniforms, playing soccer in the fields by Keener Road.

As one approaches State Route 295, the light blue water tower looms high over the trail from the right. At that point the trail enters Oak Openings Preserve Metropark, a marvel of nature spread over more than 3500 acres of mature black and white oaks and prairie grass. Its fertile sandy soil has proven very hospitable to a staggering number of 1000 different species of plants. Park’s sandy soil and its living sand dunes are remnant of a remote glacial past. A wide variety of birds - bluebirds, indigo buntings, lark sparrow and whip-poor-wills among them - nest here.

From the bike trail however one gets but a fleeting glimpse of what the park offers. To really enjoy its beauty and appreciate the diversity of its flora and fauna take the side trail into the park just beyond Wilkins Road. For hearty walkers and sturdy riders there is a 17-mile hiking trail and a 23-mile horseback trail through the park.

There is plenty of wildlife along the Wabash Cannonball Trail as well. There are butterflies of all kind, small furry insects, rabbits, raccoons, weasels, minks and skunks and an occasional fox. Sometimes a black snake, (non-poisonous and rather timid) slithers across the trail in search of a better feeding ground. And as if to complete the tapestry of nature a deer or two may also show up unexpectedly.

In a bygone era when trains thundered through this landscape down the Wabash Cannonball railroad tracks, the riders could not have appreciated the richness and beauty of this land. Today, thanks to the legacy of that era, walkers, roller-bladers and bikers can travel the same route but with a different perspective. They can now enjoy wild flowers, listen to the cacophony of bird songs, see an occasional deer, appreciate the sweet smell of hickory wafting from a farmhouse and listen to the muffled sounds of water rushing through a nearby creek.

It does not matter where you bike for there are always hidden splendors of nature to find and explore.

(Dr. Amjad Hussain is a columnist on the op-ed pages of the daily Blade of Toledo Ohio. E-Mail: aghaji@buckeye-express.com)