TOLEDO MAGAZINE toledoBlade.com THE BLADE, TOLEDO, OHIO SUNDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2011 SECTION B, PAGE 6 THE OUTDOORS PAGE !7BB<BO<?I>?D= on the scenic Little Beaver Creek BLADE WATERCOLOR/JEFF BASTING PHOTOS BY MIKE MAINHART By STEVE POLLICK and JEFF BASTING t is time well-spent, flycasting bald eagle, an osprey, and, around for smallmouth bass on a re- the next bend, two deer, wading, Imote, wild, scenic stream on one of them a nice buck. This is a a sunny autumn day. place to lose track of time. The surprising thing is that here It is not easy wading over the cob- on Little Beaver Creek, it is so wild, ble for hours, but too soon the sun- so quiet, so remote that you wonder shot shadows are getting long and whether you actually are in Ohio. you realize that you are a steady, 45- Hard by the Pennsylvania line on minute hike from the Jeep, follow- the eastern border of Ohio, 36 miles ing an old mule towpath. Tracing it of the Little Beaver system comprise is a godsend when you are hungry a state and national wild and scenic and tired and want to “get back.” river. A 2,722-acre state park named The raised path was used in the for the creek is a good place for an 1830s and 1840s by muleskinners outing, the bridges at its upper and prodding teams that pulled tow- lower ends making nice bookends boats through the 90 locks of the 73- for a day astream. mile-long Sandy and Beaver Canal. You wade cowboy-style — jeans The canal paralleled the creek as a and watershoes, no hip boots. The spur of the Ohio-Erie Canal. stream temperatures are not yet Natural and cultural history unbearably cold. As you slosh slow- reign here. The valley is the only one Ohio’s Little Beaver Creek is graced by brilliant autumn foliage that Vienna, Ohio, angler Mike Main- ly downstream, you are dwarfed by in the country known to have evi- highlights its wild and scenic designation. hart with a surprise, a walleye. mighty hemlocks and monster syc- dence of all four major glaciations amores, their roots clinging to mas- (ice ages). The first humans were sive, sheer sandstone cliffs. The fall the Fluted Point Culture nearly colors are a palette of eye-pleasure. 10,000 years ago; their flint knives, Schools of little fish — darters, fluted arrowheads, and pottery are young shad, daces, stonerollers, found nearby. and other “minnows” — skitter at Much later the celebrated Min- your approach through the remain- go chief, Logan, was massacred ing pools and runs. Every so often a near here on the Ohio River at the cluster of crayfish crab about quick- mouth of Yellow Creek, spurring ly, jetting away on mud-streaks to Lord Dunmore’s War in 1774. The hidey-holes in nooks and crannies. first permanent white settler in the A few smallish smallmouth, 10 area, Trapper John Quinn, moved to 12 inches, and perhaps a leftover into the valley around 1790. 19-inch walleye, are fooled by your The Civil War capture of the in- flycast offerings, brown woolly famous Confederate general, John buggers and such, or a companion’s Hunt Morgan, one of the Confed- spincast feather-dressed chrome eracy’s most daring cavalrymen, spoons. In contrast, in the spring occurred nearby. Morgan and his spawning runs it is not unusual for 2,000 raiders crossed the entire a couple of persistent fishermen to width of Ohio from west to east be- Outdoors editor Pollick admires Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, angler Paul Liikala casts cross-stream in catch and release 80 bass in a day. fore his eventual capture. a feisty if smallish stream bass. search of Beaver Creek smallmouth. Now, most fish already have fled It all is a lot to fit into such a mar- to downstream depths. But this is velous little valley. about the nearly lost art of being rather than doing. Too, a day on the Contact Steve Pollick at: stream may bring the sightings of a [email protected] or 419-724-6068. A handful of bass flies on a colorful maple leaf. 80 Youngstown The scenic little valley is aflame with reds, oranges, yellows, and 76 bronzes in autumn. Ohio Scenic Rivers 1. Little Miami River Pa. Oh 14 224 2. Sandusky River Toledo 4 12 76 3. Olentangy River 170 7 9 6 11 2 4. Grand River 14 5. Little Beaver Creek 5 6. 13 Upper Cuyahoga 7 11 7. Maumee River 3 8. Lisbon Stillwater River Beaver Creek 8 9. State Park 15 10 Chagrin River 30 10. 1 Big &Little Darby Creeks 164 11. Kokosing River 12. Conneaut Creek River East Liverpool 13. Mohican River 14. Ashtabula River 15. Greenville Creek A scenic overlook of Little Beaver Creek valley shows its deep, nar- row character. Cyan Magenta Yellow Black 1103011_RP5_SUN__B6.PS03011_RP5_SUN__B6.PS 1 110/28/20110/28/2011 66:05:45:05:45 PPMM.