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I truly love listening to music of many genres. I also absolutely love the privilege of working out on the Little Miami Scenic Trail. What I don’t love is combining the two. Today’s high tech, lightweight and custom fit headphones coupled with smartphones provide for high quality listening on the go. And yet, when I use the trail, whether walking, running, bicycling or roller skiing, I want to hear nothing but a combination of nature, silence and my own breathing. For safety purposes, I want to give my full attention and to listen to what’s happening around me, especially to see and hear vehicles at intersections and other trail users engaged in various activities as they approach me from the front or rear.

Rules established by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources forbid the wearing of headphones or earphones while bicycling on the trail and understandably so. Even relatively slow cyclists move fast enough that distractions or failure to hear can result in serious consequences. While trail users other than cyclists are permitted to wear headphones, doing so can be just as risky. For example, lack of attention or hearing may lead you to step into the path of a fast-approaching cyclist or vehicle.

One major draw of the Little Miami Scenic Trial is its beautiful sights and sounds, sounds emanating from the murmuring river, calling birds and rustling squirrels. Listen carefully to this advice; when using the trail, leave your headphones at home and enjoy the relaxing sounds of nature.

by Erick Wikum
March 2020
image: AfterShokz – Titanium Wireless Bone Conduction Open-Ear Headphones, BestBuy.com

As we ride north from Cincinnati in our rail car, we’ve been enjoying glimpses of the scenic Little Miami River through the trees. The Guide describes our next stop:

“Loveland, 23 miles from Cincinnati, is an important station. Here is the intersection of the Hillsborough Railroad with the Little Miami Railroad. Hillsborough is 37 miles by rail, from this point. It is the county seat of Highland county, and a pleasant village.”

The Guide goes on to describe what is now Hillsboro, due east of Loveland, and the surrounding countryside that makes it “very healthy--and in summer a cool and agreeable retreat.” Founded in 1807, Hillsborough manufactured flour, carriages, and lumber. It also was the home of Eliza Thompson, who led groups of women into saloons to close them down in the temperance movement of the 1870s. The 1854 Guide informs us Hillsborough “contains about 2,000 inhabitants, with several churches. The society is cultivated and agreeable.”

But what of Loveland, where we are now stopped? Our Guide is brief, telling us that just three or four years ago, when the railroad first came through, “there was but a single house here; but now, there is quite a village grown up.” The Guide provides us an etching (above) of the location where the two rail lines intersect.

Loveland was named for James Loveland, who operated a general store and post office in the downtown area. The settlement grew because of the river and the railroad, and in 1872 a bridge was built across the Little Miami joining East Loveland and West Loveland. By this time the Hillsborough Railroad that connected here had become part of the Marietta & Cincinnati Railroad, carrying frieght and passengers east across Ohio.

In 1876 Loveland was incorporated as a village with fewer than 800 residents, but the population spiked in the 1950s, and Loveland became a chartered city spanning three counties (Hamilton, Warren, and Clermont) in 1961. After damage from devastating flooding in 1913 and 1959 (read here about the 1913 flood), a levee and channel were constructed in 1962 to reduce the possibility of another major deluge.

Today, the tracks of the Little Miami Railroad have been replaced by our scenic trail, passing right through downtown Loveland. The Marietta & Cincinnati tracks are still here, but the railroad was abandoned years ago. Loveland's growth in recent years has come in part because of what began as the "Loveland Bike Trail" and is now part of the Little Miami State Park's multi-purpose trail. Today Loveland has over 12,000 residents--almost twice as many as Hillsboro, the town more fully described in our 1854 Guide. It attracts the largest number of trail users each year, and many businesses cater to the travelers who come today by bicycle rather than on the trains of the past.

Below: The intersection of the two rail lines today [Google Earth]. The tracks were the old Hillsborough line; the trail is the Little Miami RR line.

Below: 1860 mapshowing the Little Miami RR and the Marietta & Cincinnati RR intersecting at Loveland. The railroads ran parallel along opposite sides of the river for several miles after the M&C RR crossed the Loveland bridge and before diverging to take separate routes to Cincinnati.

Below: Vintage postcard of the Loveland depot after the Little Miami RR joined the Penn. RR

by Rick Forrester

As part of the maintenance of the park, we remove Amur Honeysuckle (Lonicera Maackii), a very aggressive, invasive species. Originally from western China, it was grown in Chinese gardens before being cultivated at the St. Petersburg Botanical Gardens in Russia (1883). It then moved to Europe and was highly valued as an ornamental. Next, it was cultivated at the Dominion Arboretum in Ottawa Canada in 1896 from seeds obtained from Germany, and then in the New York Arboretum in 1898. Plants were widely sold and promoted by the USDA for soil stabilization, reclamation, and wildlife habitat improvement programs through the 1980s.

Naturalized, wild-growing honeysuckle was found outside the Chicago’s Morton Arboretum in the 1920s and began rapidly spreading across the mid-west and eastern states. Wild Amur Honeysuckle was endemic in Ohio by 1993.

With plants growing upwards of 30 feet tall with arching branches of opposite, simple, ovate leaves 2 to 3 inches long, green above, paler and slightly fuzzy below, they have been rampant in the Little Miami State Park.

As for why blue is my favorite color, our teams use blue color in our spray mix for treating the stump after the team has cut/chain sawed the plant. Treatment must be done with 10 minutes of cutting as the plant cells will quickly close off the wound and the mix will not be absorbed. The mix we use is composed of 12-15% glyphosate herbicide, 0.5% Pentabark surfactant that helps move the mix into the stump, a small amount (1-2 tbl/gal) of ammonium sulfate fertilizer (also helps move the herbicide into the plant), and a small amount (<0.5%) of farm-grade blue colorant. The blue lets us target the spray to the absolutely smallest area needed to kill the honeysuckle above and below ground without doing damage to the surrounding native plants. Go Blue!

November 2019

One of the endearing qualities of the Little Miami Scenic Trail is that it is a multipurpose trail, able to be enjoyed by so many people in diverse ways. This diversity of use can also create challenges which require give-and-take among various trail users. One activity, dog walking, which combines human use with that of a tail-wagging sidekick, comes with its own unique set of such challenges. Both dog walkers and other trail users bear responsibilities to ensure that everyone, humans and animal friends inclusive, can use the trail safely.

For their part, dog walkers should follow appropriate etiquette including the following:

1. Obey the trail rule, instituted by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR), which requires that pets must be on a leash no longer than 6 feet. Now, six feet seems to be awfully restrictive and it is, but there’s a good reason for this rule. The trail itself is narrow, and requiring a short leash ensures that a dog does not stray into the path of other trail users. If your dog needs greater freedom of movement, find another venue.

2. Control your dog and train your dog not to bark, lunge at or sniff other trail users. Not everyone is comfortable around dogs.

3. If need be, move your dog to the side of the trail and command it to sit while other users are passing. Doing so signals to other trail users that it is safe to pass and prevents your dog from getting overly excited or scared.

4. Clean up after your dog as a common courtesy and dispose of doggy waste responsibly.

For their part, trail users who approach dog walkers should exercise caution and adhere to the following etiquette:

1. Announce your presence in advance, giving the dog walker time to take appropriate actions with their dog before you pass.

2. When passing, be defensive. Slow down and be ready to react in case the dog veers in front of you. (Unfortunately, many trail users fail to obey rule #1 above, either walking their dog on a long leash or, even worse, unleashed.) Only execute the pass when you are completely sure you can do so safely.

3. Do not approach a dog (no matter how adorable) without first asking the owner’s permission.

The allure of the Little Miami Scenic Trail lies not only in its natural beauty, but also in its diverse users and uses. By following a few basic principles of mutual respect, trail users, including dog walkers and others they encounter, can enjoy the trail together and safely.

by Erick Wikum
Jan. 2020