Oakleaf Trail

Oakleaf Trail

Day 1

            Beavers, snapping turtles, ducks, deer, woodpeckers and many other creatures around the OakLeaf Trail at Miami Whitewater Forest.

            Noki and I began walking this trail later in the evening, around 6 p.m. or so, on Sunday, and because of this small fact we were rewarded with seeing many of these.

            We took the small loop trail to the right passing next to the smaller of the two ponds. 

When we made it over the hill and down to the other pond, we decided to take a small break by the pond.

            It was in this short rest we saw something trailing two ducks in the murky water.  It had scales, but it was too far off to know for sure.  At one point it dived and to me it looked like an alligator.

            Noki waited patiently by my side.  This is odd because usually when she sees wildlife she fights me until it disappears and her focus goes elsewhere. This happened the next day with a beaver.

            After deciding what I saw was an alligator I ran for the ranger station.  A ranger, Sgt. Dan Hodapp, greeted me and came to look. 

We searched in the area, but after what felt like an hour, we gave up the search. 

There is a possibility it was only a snapping turtle.Which is possible, alligators are not native to Ohio.

Sgt. Hodapp said some people will keep them as pets.  He said occasionally people will find alligators because some owners will release an alligator they can no longer care for.

Although we did not see an alligator, we did see many other animals.  The most impressive was probably two beavers.

One beaver hopped into the water like he meant business and preceded to the other end of the pond. The other beaver swam lazily in circles.

Even if you do not see beavers evidence of their presence can be found along the shoreline.  One tree is so chewed from the beavers it is thinner at the base than higher in the tree.

Sgt. Hodapp said beavers on trees to file their teeth.  If beavers do not, their teeth will grow and curl back into their mouth causing many different issues.

If you want to see all the wildlife we saw, the best times to walk are very early in the morning or around 6-8 p.m.

The Other Days

The other days on this trail were not as exciting.

It rained on us one day.  Ironic really because the first day I did not bring my camera due to a possibility of rain, but it was sunny.  The day it was supposed to be sunny, it rained.

We did however see a deer, stood fifteen feet from a beaver, several turtles sunbathing and met an employee performing maintenance on the trail.
One thing he did was clear some drainpipes the beavers had clogged with weeds, weeds and branches.
One bad thing about the trail is after it rains there is a spot where it gets rather slippery, mud washes over the wooden planks.  However, if you watch your step you will be fine.
The bridge on the right side of the trail is pretty nifty though.  I have walked many trails, but never one with a bridge on the side of a hill verses over water or a dip in the ground.