One thing that COVID taught me is how healthy I feel when I’m outside. It doesn’t matter if the sky is gray or the low-sun blue of fall. It doesn’t matter if it’s warm or cold. It doesn’t matter if I’m in my backyard or walking in the neighborhood. But it does matter if it’s in the forest. In this time of mindful living, forest bathing is healing.
My husband and I heard there are eagles’ nests in the trees at Sandy Ridge Reservation in North Ridgeville, so off we went on a summer day to see what we could see. The park is a 526-acre wetland and wildlife preserve with easy walking near the Visitor’s Center where my mom and I watched waterfowl and listened for the plop of frogs when she was still alive, an easy outing. But I’d never taken the long trail that opens to large open water surrounded by trees.
Before we spotted nests, we saw the eagles soar and dip and disappear into the trees, having found home. Great egrets and blue herons stood on fallen branches surrounded by water lilies. Canada geese floated on shallow reflective waters and passed by tree trunks taken over by marsh and families of quacking ducks. Red-winged blackbirds crossed our path to find their way to native shrubs, and when we looked down from the viewing mound, we saw a big fat turtle leaving a line in the water.
The path went back into the comfort of the forest. The stillness surrounded us, and we felt calm and connected. We wanted more.
I went to high school in Lorain, but I recognize only a few of the parks on the Lorain County Metroparks map. Back then, I knew Mill Hollow where we skipped school, Lakeview Park where the waves froze into otherworldly sculptures behind the dilapidated beach house during winter, and hilly Cascade Park with its waterfalls and 4th of July fireworks. The park system today has grown to 9,000 acres of protected land with 28 diverse parks, a big change from the late 1970s. Now I can paint these natural places instead of the barns, warehouses, vacant storefronts, country churches and crumbling lighthouse that I captured on canvas during my youth.
Now, in addition to Sandy Ridge, we enjoy hiking the hilly terrain of French Creek Reservation (which has an informative nature center), the trails that follow the paths of wetlands and ponds in Columbia Reservation, and the paths through woods and gardens at Miller Nature Reserve. The footpaths through the botanical gardens at Schoepfle Gardens brighten with daffodils in the spring, with heavy rhododendrons in the summer, and with showy roses that bloom way past what seems typical in the fall.
I plan weekend visits to Vermilion River’s Mill Hollow for old times’ sake, Black River out of curiosity, Cascade Park for its diversity, Carlisle for the Halloween Fair and extensive trails, and Indian Hollow for the eclectic activities. I have a feeling the awesome silence of winter will keep me going to the parks in the Lorain County Metroparks until next spring. Maybe we’ll walk out on the beach behind the newish bathhouse at Lakeview Park to find iced-in-place waves and see the renovated lighthouse in the distance.
Claudia Taller is a northeast Ohio-based writer with a special interest in travel, food and wine and yoga. Check out her work at claudiajtaller.com.
