The Narrows

Located in Greene County, the Narrows Preserve is one of my most favorite spots anywhere. I didn't mean anywhere along the river, I meant anywhere. Here the glacier pushed the river out of it's bed and the river cut this valley in forming a new one.
The Narrows is a long skinny park and a wide level trail offers excellant access to the river. Just above the park the river twists and turns away from the road and offers some great fishing to anyone willing to bushwack. Downstream in the park there are some of the finest trees you will ever see with huge sycamores hundreds of years old lining the river. About a half mile downstream of the parking lot two huge trees, one on each side of the river, are strong candidates to be the biggest tree in the whole watershed.













The lower half of the park is a great place early and late in the day to spot wildlife such as deer, though on nice evenings the trail fills up with hikers. The big trees draw piliated woodpeckers and the park is a bird watchers delight. Early one spring I heard rustling leaves and stepped off the trail along this lower stretch to investigate and found a half dozen garter snakes just out from hibernation. One of the best looks I've ever had of a mink was also here in the Narrows. The mink foraged along the riverbank, coming within ten feet of me before realizing I was an awfully funny looking tree and bounding off.






There is quite a bit of beaver sign in the parks lower half. Walking the trail quietly right after daylight and watching the river is a good way to spot these giant rodents. I've also been startled by beaver slapping their tails in alarm when they spotted me first.






At about a mile and a quarter from the trail head the river turns creating a long riffle/run/riffle called Brenda's Riffle that offers some of the best fishing in the river's upper half. A lovely creek enters the river here too and a primitive campsite (permit only) located nearby is a great base to spend a long weekend exploring the river and surrounding woods.

There's a giant rodent in my river!!!

When I was a boy no one had ever heard of a beaver ever being in the little miami. According the ODNR the last beavers had been extirpated from Ohio in the 1830's. Even in the records I found of the first settlers in the late 1700's reported them as rare. This was because the Indians who lived along the Little Miami had already just about trapped them out to trade with the white man. Before the fur trade it seemed beaver had thrived all up and down the river.

Then in the late eighties I began to hear rumors of their return. I remember on a winter fishing trip to the Ohio River seeing a beaver swim by and feeling lucky just to have caught a glimpse of one. From what I understand a pair swam out of the Ohio and set up house just upstream of Magrish River Lands Preserve and the rest is as they say history. Now it's allmost impossible not to run accross beaver sign anywhere you happen to look anywhere along the river.

Beavers in the mainstream of the Little Miami dont have to build a dam for safety so they just dig a den in the bank. But up the tributaries are now scattered quite a few. The dam pictured here is just a few hundred yards away from the main river in a marsh at Spring Valley. The beaver photos them selves are from all up and down the river.

An adult beaver can reach four feet in length and weigh over 60 pounds. Beavers mate for life and usually have a litter of around four kits. These stay with their parents for up to two years before setting off to establish their own colony. One odd fact is that after the babies are born the male beaver will move out and live in his own den for about a month then move back in after that and take a very active role in raising the young. A beaver has several adaptations for its aquatic lifestyle. Besides it's large, flat scaled tail and webbed hind feet, a beaver has oversized lungs that enable it to stay underwater for ten minutes or more plus valves in it's ears and nose to keep water out and an extra set of clear eyelids to let the beaver see while underwater.A beaver has 20 teeth, four curved front teeth for gnawing, and sixteen back teeth for chewing. The four front teeth never quit growing as long as the beaver lives and the beaver keeps them worn down by his constant gnawing of wood for food and dam construction. Beavers are mostly nocturnal and are seen mostly right at dawn or dusk.



































Some trail camera photos at night.

The Beavers

I live in town but at the end of my street the railroad tracks head out of town and
go about seven miles to the next town. They follow the path of turtle creek for
most of the way crossing it or small streams running into it numerous times.Five
minutes of walking and I'm out of town in a mix of fields and thickets.

beavers have made a slow stretch of the stream their home. There is allready a
deep hole and some high banks and they haven't made a dam. Im assuming
their home is up under the roots of one of the big sycamores that overhang the
creek
When I was young there were allmost no beavers in the state and none within
driving distance much less walking distance from my house. Its a huge victory for
conservation. Twenty years ago a walk down these tracks would have had me
looking for a groundhog at most and probably just a rabbit or two.Now there is the chance of beavers,coyote,deer, turkey and even otter. When I
was young I didn't have a prayer of seeing any of those.
I left the tracks and was skirting a field edge a
little further along and spotted several halfgrown turkeys following their mother
along a path thru the high weeds,ironweed and goldenrod. ..







After shooting these hurried photos of the turkeys I walked on down to the
creek. I walked out onto a flat rock bar where the creek ran thru a shallow
stretch between holes. Standing there quietly for a few moments, the weeds
began to shake downstream and a large beaver appeared and swam towards
me. I was dressed in a flannel shirt and dark pants and the beaver seemed
oblivious to me passing by at about ten feet!..











all within a mile walk of my house . There are of course many grave reasons to
be concerned over the fate of things wild in our ever changing world, but amid
all the gloom and doom it's nice to see the results of some of the good news.