Cherry Lane Trail and Great Blue Herons

By Linda G. on May 7, 2023

We vacationed for a week in Ohio. We visited F.A. Seiberling Nature Realm the morning of Friday, April 21st.

F.A. Seiberling Nature Realm is located approximately 12 miles southwest from our Hudson OH rental Airbnb, near Akron OH. Land owned by F.A. Seiberling was purchased by Summit Metro Parks in 1964 to become the Nature Realm. F.A. Seiberling Nature Realm is one of 16 parks managed by Summit Metro Parks.

There are three hiking trails available at F.A. Seiberling Nature Realm: Cherry Lane Trail, Fernwood Loop and Seneca Trail.

A trail map is located at the welcome kiosk.

We chose to hike the Cherry Lane Trail, an easy to navigate 0.6 mile loop trail. Along the trail are placards that identify trees and shrubs. We saw several wildflowers along the trail, as well as two ponds.

We crossed a bridge over Seneca Pond. The F.A. Seiberling Nature Realm Visitor Center
is located on the left, on the hillside.

We saw a turtle and a duck on Seneca Pond.

The highlight of Cherry Lane Trail is a 110-foot-long suspension bridge.

Bob took this picture of me on the suspension bridge.

The suspension bridge crosses over a 45-foot deep ravine.

Soon we came to Echo Pond.

After our hike, we stopped at the Visitor Center.

We are at the Visitor Center.
Aren’t the flowering trees beautiful!

The 10,000-square-foot visitors center includes seasonal exhibits, kids’s areas, live native animals, a naturalist-on-duty to help answer any nature or wildlife questions, and a gift shop. An art exhibit caught my eye, shortly after entering the visitor center.

This community artpiece contains over 300 “treehouses” made from recycled materials.

On our drive back to Hudson, we stopped at the Great Blue Heron Rookery in Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

Great Blue Heron Rookery at Cuyahoga Valley National Park

We ate lunch at Johnny’s Diner in Hudson. I like the diner’s 50s ambiance; the service and food was good as well. Bob ordered a chili dog with chips. I ordered a BLT with coleslaw. We shared a chocolate shake. Lunch was good.

After lunch we returned to our rental Airbnb where we stayed, for the most part, for rest of the day.

We ate leftovers for dinner, accompanied by broccoli and applesauce.

I acquired a few bug bites on my forehead and back of neck, while hiking in the morning. We drove to a nearby CVS and purchased Chiggerex. According to information about this product, Chiggerex was originally created for chiggers; however, it is an excellent remedy for all types of insect bites. The Chiggerex ointment worked quickly and well, better than any other remedy for insect bites that I have tried!

It started raining around 7:00 pm.

At 6:45 am the next morning (Saturday, April 22nd) it was still raining. There was quite a difference in temperature, too, from earlier in the week. The temperature reached 85 degrees on Thursday, and fell to 46 degrees on Saturday. We spent most of the day at our Airbnb rental, as it was a rainy and chilly day. One of our favorite restaurants in Hudson is The Brew Kettle. We ate dinner at The Brew Kettle that evening. Bob ordered Cajun Chicken Pasta. I ordered Chicken Parma-Que. Have you ever eaten barbecued spaghetti? Barbecued spaghetti is the “Que” part of Chicken Parma-Que. The spaghetti sauce is very reminiscent of BBQ sauce. Surprisingly, delicious! We had leftovers and brought them back to our Airbnb.