The year is winding down, but staff at the Portage Park District remain hard at work.
On tap are the opening of two new parks, a massive redesign of the entrance to Towner’s Woods and work on various trails.
Breakneck Creek Park
The PPD is set to open Breakneck Creek Park, a 66-acre park off Lakewood Road in Ravenna Township. Upgraded from a previously inaccessible PPD preserve, the park will feature a 10-car gravel parking lot, some picnic tables, an information kiosk, a short trail to Breakneck Creek and a 1,000-foot grass trail to a beaver and otter pond.
Once an old farmstead, the park is mostly wetlands and floodplain. Breakneck Creek meanders along its northern border, along with the historic P&O Canal and B&O Railroad remnants. The park’s conserved wetlands and woods help preserve the creek’s watershed, which provides drinking water for tens of thousands of people.
Volunteers and students have used the site for research and education, but now visitors may enjoy short walks, view wildlife and access Breakneck Creek for fishing excursions.
Since none of the park’s amenities will be built in the wetlands or floodplain, neither the development nor increased human presence will impact sensitive areas, park district Director Chris Craycroft said.
Park staff will lead two guided hikes on opening day, Nov. 23. Participation is free, but online registration here or here is required.
Towner’s Woods
The entrance and area around Towner’s Woods are in for massive changes.
The Ravenna Road bridge, slated to open in 2025, will feature a clearly marked 10-foot-wide lane for bicycles and pedestrians. Having secured a lease from Norfolk Southern Railway for a strip of land behind the Brady Interlocking Switch Tower, the PPD will also reroute the existing trail from the middle of the parking lot to behind the building.
Safety wins, and the loss of 12 parking spaces on the south side of the redesigned parking lot will be offset by a new 20-40 stall parking lot on the west side of Ravenna Road, southwest of the bridge.
The Portage Hike and Bike Trail will wrap around that parking lot and lead people to Ravenna Road just south of the bridge. Then, people may cross the bridge on the new walkway and continue on the newly rerouted trail behind the switch tower. A new restroom is planned just east of the original parking lot, as well.
Most construction will coincide with the county’s work on the new Ravenna Road bridge, Craycroft said.
Kame Esker Bog
The Portage Park District also plans to develop Kame Esker Bog, a new 215-acre park on Howe Road. The land spans the city of Kent and Brimfield Township and has been used in the last half-century for sand and gravel mining, oil and gas wells and agriculture.
The PPD focused on the acreage because it protects the balance of a bog that is contiguous with Cooperrider-Kent Bog State Nature Preserve to the north. Since the new park’s hiking trail skirts the bog, the sensitive area will remain intact, Craycroft said.
Development plans include a 75-stall parking lot; an entry plaza with flush restrooms and water fountain, information kiosk, a group meet-up space and barnstone seating; a half-mile paved trail through meadows and evergreen forest; a “nature play area” with a small open-air shelter; a large open-air picnic shelter people can rent for events; and an overlook rest area near Plum Creek.
Kame Esker Bog will not open until late 2025. It is named for geologic formations that derive from the glaciers that once covered Northeast Ohio, Craycroft said.
Portage Hike and Bike Trail
Finally, work on the Franklin Connector Trail of the Portage Hike and Bike Trail is expected to continue through the end of the year. The connector trail, located at Hudson and Judson roads in Franklin Township, connects with the Summit Metro Parks Bike and Hike Trail.
Crews have completed crack sealing and repaving the area, but Craycroft said the trail may be temporarily and intermittently closed while striping is added.
New signage and upgrades to the additional parking area north of the Hudson-Judson Road intersection is already in place.
Work is complete on the Portage Hike & Bike Trail between Oakwood Street in Ravenna and River Bend Boulevard in Kent. PPD crews in October repaired and repaved the trail, which was last paved in 2015. Craycroft said root damage and weather had caused sections of the asphalt trail to heave up or crack.
Wendy DiAlesandro is a former Record Publishing Co. reporter and contributing writer for The Portager.