Day Seven-Peninsula

16 miles- Two geological events set the stage for my blog today. About 350 million years ago a great river flowed out of what is now eastern Canada. The silt it carried settled into a massive underwater delta in a shallow sea that cover parts of what is now Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, & W. Virginia. This material consolidated over millions of years into a very hard, stable, fine grain rock known as Berea sandstone. A rock ideal for building city halls and canal locks.

Berea Sandstone at Deep Lock Quarry

Then about 100,000 years ago glaciers started moving down from the north dozing mountains of rock and changing the course of rivers. The Cuyahoga River flowed into the Ohio River and eventually into the Gulf of Mexico before the ice arrived. When it was all over and the ice was receding, about 12,000 years ago, the Cuyahoga flowed north into Lake Erie and eventually into the North Atlantic. The glaciers had left a “Continental Divide” east west across Ohio. The top of the divide was at about Akron and was 395 feet higher than Lake Erie.

Now if one is bent on building a flat water canal that goes from Lake Erie to the Ohio River one has to account for that 395 feet. The engineers for the O&E Canal did it with a series of locks. 146 to be exact (although I have seen other numbers). Forty-four were between the Lake and the portage summit in Akron. I walked by or near 28 of those today.

Graphic of locks from Lake Erie to Portage Summit-Akron

The average lift a lock could offer was about 8 feet, Any more than that required extra water flow to make it work. One lock, number 28, known as Deep Lock, had a 14 foot lift, but it was the only one.

Deep Lock

Berea sandstone was important, because it was the material used to build all of the locks on the O&E. It was quarried from the Deep Lock Quarry, located near, you guessed it, Deep Lock. Not far from where I am camped, at the edge of the town Peninsula, this quarry produced all the stone needed for all 146 locks, as well as numerous buildings around the country. It even produced mill stones for the milling company that became Quaker Oats.

Discarded Millstones at Deep Lock Quarry

My hike today from Akron to Peninsula was a pleasant walk along the towpath. Much of it was through the Cuyahoga Valley Nat’l Park. A park championed by one Rep. John F. Sieberling, grandson of Frank Seiberling of yesterday’s blog. I had reservations at the Heritage Farms CG in Peninsula for tonight and I was able to check in early. There are a couple of restaurants nearby so I won’t starve. I pick up my resupply box tomorrow at the post office.

Until tomorrow, Happy Trails!

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