Volunteering in Cuyahoga Valley National Park

Saturday, January 22, 2011

I’d been looking forward to this morning for a couple of weeks. I was going to attend my orientation meeting to become a volunteer Park Ambassador for the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. I’ve wanted to get involved with CVNP or the Cleveland Metroparks for some time, but never seemed to make the effort to get it done. When I’d received a notification from CVNP recently about volunteering, I took some action.

It looks like they could use help in areas of particular interest to me…working with kids and teaching Leave No Trace camping and hiking skills. I believe pretty strongly that if you can get someone into the back country, not only will they enjoy the experience, but they too will become an advocate for conservation of wilderness areas…something of which there can never be too many. I also thinks it’s the simplest and most pure form of exercise…hiking the woods. It gives you a workout and offers serenity all at the same time. You just want to go back and do it again.

CVNP offers numerous opportunities to get a taste of the outdoors and fitness. It stretches from Cleveland to Akron along the Cuyahoga River and encompasses over 33,000 acres. Many know the Park from exposure to the Tow Path as a hiker or biker, but there are so many fantastic hiking trails, as well. It takes a little more for me to get there and will never be as convenient as the North Chagrin Reservation, but it so much bigger and has such diversity. I’m really looking forward to working there.

I spent an hour on the bike after the orientation and then picked up Paul and headed to the All-Ohio Collegiate Indoor Track Championships in Kent. Kim was running the 3K as another tune-up for the 5K qualifiers to the National Meet over the coming weeks. She took the lead on the 4th of ten laps and was looking strong until the 9th lap. She struggled over the last 300 meters and was nosed out for the win by her teammate – so Akron managed a one, two finish. She PR’d by 3 seconds and was happy with the outcome…losing to her roommate was okay with her…this time.

As we headed back to the car, I queried Paul about the gloves, hat, and warm coat he was wearing…all things he didn’t have when we’d gone on the hike the day before. “It was track meet. I figured we’d be standing outside for a couple of hours.” He must have thought they would just plow the track and shovel the stands. Maybe they do in Alaska.

Bike duration: 60 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 130 biking.
Calories burned during workout: 900 biking.