Harbinger of Winter: Fact or Fiction?

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by Rick Forrester

You may have noticed the recent appearance of woolly worms crossing the trail. These bristly black/ brown/black caterpillars are often associated with the length and severity of the upcoming winter.

Of the 13 segments in its body, it is said the length of the black band at the head (which end is the head?) indicates the length and severity of the beginning of winter; the middle brown band indicates the length/mildness of the middle of winter, and the tail end the length/severity of the end of winter. If the woolly worm is seen traveling in a southward direction, it means it is trying to escape a severely harsh coming winter.

There are actually eight species of woolly worms (or woolly bears) in the United States, with the two most common in Ohio being the Banded Woolly Bear (Pyrrharctia Isabella) and the Yellow Woolly Bear (Spilosoma virginica). The more commonly seen banded caterpillar becomes the Isabella Tiger Moth and the yellow woolly bear becomes the Virginia Tiger Moth. Woollies can be found as far north as the Arctic Circle and as far south as Mexico. There are actually two generations of banded woollies each year (May and August), although the August-born caterpillars are more noticeable due to their rapid movement as they hurry to find food and shelter. The caterpillar emerges from an egg and then spends a few weeks feeding on a wide variety of leaves. It then seeks out refuge under leaves, tree bark, or other protective covers where it will over-winter. In spring, the caterpillar will emerge and feed briefly before forming a cocoon around itself. It actually uses its own bristles in the structure of the cocoon. The tiger moth that emerges will have a wing span of about two inches and will only live between a few short days and two weeks – just enough time to mate and lay eggs.

One of the amazing facts about the over-wintering process is that the woolly’s heart stops beating, then its gut freezes, then its blood, then the rest of its body. It can stay frozen for several years and still revive. This amazing feat is accomplished through the use of chemical cryoprotectant anti-freeze to keep its cells from rupturing during its frozen state. The protectants, which can comprise 20 percent of the total body mass, can preserve the tissues down past 40 degrees below zero!

WoolyBear defensiveThe first woolly I saw this season, curled up in a defensive position, was 100% pure black. So are we in for a brutal winter? Actually, their black and brown band lengths are a result of their food source, food amount, and other environmental factors during their growth phase. Woollies from the same clutch of eggs often have different patterns. 

Vermilion, Ohio (near Cleveland) even has a woolly worm festival every year if you are interested. However, the festival is hibernating in 2020 due to Covid.

Woollies aren’t poisonous, but watch those spines—they can poke you and irritate your skin. When you see one of these guys scurrying across the trail, pause for a second to wonder at how marvelous he is and then move him off the trail into the woods so he can continue safely on his way!

 

October 2020

Missing Link Still Missing

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by Phillip Obermiller

The Beechmont Connector, the last link in the series of trails between Cincinnati and Cleveland, is in the design stage. The $5.4 million project will make it easier for hikers and bikers to travel from the Ohio River to Lake Erie via the Little Miami Trail, a key segment of the Ohio to Erie Trail.

When completed, the connector will include a tunnel under the westbound ramp from Beechmont Avenue to State Route 32, and a 14-foot-wide lane over the Little Miami River on the downstream side of the Beechmont bridge. Approved by the OKI Regional Council of Governments in 2017, the remaining federal, state, county, city, and township jurisdictions involved have signed off on the plan and the necessary funds have been encumbered.

map of beechmont connector

Specifications for the project should be completed in the fall of this year with construction beginning in the spring of 2021. The project’s target completion date of 2021 has been postponed until the summer of 2022.
Until then, the Beechmont Connector will remain the missing link. 

Below: Artist's renderings of bridge with bike lane; tunnel under SR 32 ramp to Beechmont Avenue

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Phillip Obermiller, a member of the FLMSP, biked the Ohio to Erie Trail in 2017.

October 2020

Murder & Myth on a Miamiville Monument

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by Phillip Obermiller

During my rides on the trail I’ll sometimes meander off the beaten path, curious about what stories might be found down a crossroad. Here’s a recent discovery.

In 1876 James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok was playing poker in a saloon in the Dakota Territory after returning from his honeymoon in Cincinnati. According to legend he had just been dealt two black aces and two black eights (with a jack down) when Jack McCall, who Hickok had recently outplayed at the same table, walked in and shot Hickok dead. Since then, black aces and eights have been known as the Dead Man’s Hand.

TCharlieRichMarkerhe dealer in that game was a young man from Loveland, Charlie Henry Rich. It is not clear whether Hickok and Rich were trying to make their fortunes at the poker table or in the surrounding Black Hills gold rush, but Rich eventually returned to Ohio where he married and raised a family.

Charlie Rich is buried in Miamiville’s Evergreen Cemetery just a few hundred yards from where Center Street crosses the trail near mile marker 47. There, his family has celebrated the aces and eights legend with a historical marker along with an elaborate tombstone over Rich’s grave, inscribed on the back with the fanciful scene of the shooting shown above.

Historian Marshall Trimble frames the story differently: “During the chaos after the shooting, the cards were scattered. The aces and eights story did not surface until Frank J. Wilstach published it in his 1926 book, Wild Bill Hickok: The Prince of Pistoleers. I don’t think we will ever know what hand Hickok was holding.”

But it could have been black aces and eights.


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Phillip Obermiller is a trail sentinel for the Friends of the Little Miami State Park.

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