Cedar Point – the second ascent

On Sunday, August 12th, I convinced my wife Amy (aka widget) to join me in what would be her first, and my second Summit Cheeseburger – North Olmsted’s Cedar Point. Armed with a copy of Cleveland On Foot, my balky GPS, and a pair of home-grilled burgers – hers with some sharp Wisconsin Cheddar, and mine with Emmentaler, we drove out to the southern section of the Rocky River Resevation.

Now, the trail the book gives for this area of the park seemed like it would get to Cedar Point, but that turned out to be quite erroneous – it turns out it just gets you to a place where you can see Cedar Point – across the valley below. Thus our trek started with what became an hourlong sojourn around Fort Hill, which was nice, but not on the USGS list of peaks.

After viewing our target from afar, we went down to the Nature Center to find out how to get to the right trail. The first person I asked hadn’t actually heard of the trail, and wasn’t 100% sure, so she referred us to a Ranger, who gave us a hand-drawn map leading to the right place.

We zipped up to the trailhead, which, unfortunately for our on-foot nature, was shared most of the way with a bridle trail. We carefully (y’know, horses have been walking around there) made our way to where it seemed to split, though without any signage except a single bridle trail sign.

From the split, we proceeded to what looked like it might be the summit – through a little bit of clearing, I could indeed see fence of the observation area of Fort Hill where we first saw the mighty 761 foot peak upon which we now stood. Knowing we had made it, we had our Cheeseburgers.

Once we got back home, we found out we weren’t the first to conquer Cedar Point, but only by a few days! Next time you’re in Cleveland, sirloinofbeef, we shall have to organize a guided tour of Little Mountain – hopefully the tour guide will understand our mission!

Sam – glacial23

Amy – widget