Shipping up to Boston (Ohio)

Ruh-roh-RAGGY

With hot tea steeped and my day pack ready, my sister and I set off on a two-hour drive north to meet a good friend of hers in Cuyahoga Valley National Park; Ohio’s only national park.

Designated a national park at the turn of the 21st century, Cuyahoga was a national recreation area for 26 years prior. It is a bit different than many other national parks I have been to. With no entrance fee, this park fells much less enclosed than many others. Another difference is that there isn’t a huge typical sign at the entrance, and there are even little towns and neighborhoods right in the middle. This leads to a very unique experience.

We arrived at our trailhead just as the sun was coming up around 7am. Throughout our day hike, we covered about 10 miles and connected the Slate Run Trail, Lake Trail, and the Cross Country Trail, none of which being necessarily hard.

The flowers in this area had just started to bloom and it was without a doubt the highlight of the morning walk. Mayapples, Virginia Spring Beauty, Trilliums Bloodroots, and Lilacs abounded. It was also fortunate that our friend is an avid birdwatcher and was able to point out a variety of types. The bluebirds are always my favorite.

After finishing up our hike, we decided to head to the nearby town of Hudson and grab some breakfast and coffee. Finding local coffee shops is a big passion of mine and it is 10X better when you find one to relax at after an early morning. Heartwood Coffee hit the spot. After our nice coffee break it was time to find the infamous “Helltown.” So, with the top down on the car and the warm breeze blowing, off we headed!

“Helltown” is actually known as Boston Township. The legend behind it started in the 70s when the area was bought by the Government. With the small town in decline and the valley becoming a recreation area - the local homes and businesses were bought and boarded up, with some just left the way they were. If Scooby Doo taught us anything it’s that there are always “ghosts” in abandoned towns. As the town continued to sit vacant legends grew that a cult had taken over, serial killers roam the area, and a chemical spill created toxic monsters that attack those who roam there in the dark.

Our first stop was in the town of Peninsula, which to our surprise, was PACKED. When you hear “ghost town” this is not what you expect. There was a bar with outdoor seating that had people waiting down the sidewalk for a seat and others walking along the canal, tow path.

In this town was a church that I heard about that I wanted to see for myself. Mother of Sorrows Catholic Church is a small building in the center of town that, legend has it, is used by a cult for nighttime services. Now I am not writing to disprove any legends, but it looked to me like a normal church with just a slightly odd design. While looking at the church, the man who owned the house across from it began speaking to us and was happy to tell us about some of the stories of the town and where we could find some other neat areas to see. He was a super friendly gentleman, a retired firefighter, who I would have loved to learn more from if we weren’t already 3/4ths through our day.

While driving in Peninsula we found a gravel lot at the end of a road called Bishop Lane. I parked my car and we got out to find a few train tracks that lead through an old abandoned train yard. Spook stuff, I know. The best part was that some of the old train cars from the 1950s were still there! And open for anyone to go in and explore. No one else was in the area so we had the entire place to explore ourselves and were able to walk through everything from the box cars to the passenger cars. I may be a train nerd, but I think most would find this pretty cool. Walking down the tracks to the bridge the goes over Cuyahoga River, there was also a small waterfall that was a nice touch.

The next stop was sadly the scariest part of the trip. We were continuing our way through the town and stopped at the old high school that is now the town museum.

It is a really cool building that looks like it is straight out of Scooby Doo.

Well, while standing in the empty parking lot, a full grown adult in a batman costume began to ride towards us from the back of the building. (Again, the whole parking lot was empty and there was nothing behind the building.) I normally would think nothing of this and would just think maybe he is dressing up to make people happy around town. This guy however, kept riding closer and closer.

At this point, I smiled and did the “guy nod” and got nothing in return. Thinking this was kind of odd but hoping he just isn’t a friendly person, I just made sure to keep an eye on him as he got closer but pretended nothing was up. It wasn’t until he was about 20 feet away that he got off his bike. He paused, looked us up and down, and got back on his bike to ride off. I still have no clue what that was all about. But at least it gave me a fun story I can tell about how I thought I was going to be robbed by Batman.

Our last stop of the day was to see…”The End of the World.” A side road near the Visitor Center of Cuyahoga, Stanford Road, leads to a permanently closed road that requires walking to get to the end. The gentleman we talked to in town told us that they shut down the road decades ago as the residents of the homes in the area left and the road was no longer worth its upkeep.

The walk isn’t long but it is all up hill. The start of the road is flooded to about mid-calf deep so visitors have to divert to the field next to it unless they feel like swimming in some algae covered water. On the way up this 2 or 3 mile walk we saw a few snakes and some hawks flying above the entire time. It was so hot at this point, that the old tar on the road was melting onto my Chacos. After about 30 minutes, we finally came to a section so steep that you couldn’t see where it ends. This is why is has been called the “End of the World.” This area past the road closed sign is also where a lot of the legends of “Helltown” are supposed to take place, so a walk here at night would be something super neat (the park is open 24 hours so you’re good to go.) 

Cuyahoga Valley National Park is definitely a must see if you live in Ohio or the surrounding states. I know it doesn’t have the views that you see out west or down south. But, what it is missing, it makes up for with its charm, people, and ~spooky~ legends.