b  l  a  c  k      h  a   n   d     g  o  r  g  e      t   o  d  a  y

a wonderful bike or canoe trip about 4 miles from us...

The map to the right is of Ohio's Canal system  before the Railroads made them obsolete.  Blackhand Gorge stretch of the Ohio and Erie Canal is between Newark and Dresden, off Route 16 just east of Newark, and off State Route 146, two miles south to Toboso on Toboso Road.

The Licking River was dammed to raise the water level high enough for the canal boats.  Here is a lock on the 'Canal Trail', across the river from the paved bike path and about 100 yards from the Toboso bridge, which probably is about where the northern side of the dam was on the river.

Here is the old interrurban tunnel.  We're looking out the western side, walking toward what is left of the Black Hand Rock. 

Here is a Jewett Train Works Interurban can making a civilized emergence from the Blackhand Tunnel.  What do you suspect someone was sipping some wine on the way through?  One of these restored cars can be seen and toured at The Works center of Industry Technology and Art in Downtown Newark

If you turn around upon exiting, you see the view on the right.  A swamp lies to the left, and flood plain to the right.  

And on the right, is what's left of Blackhand Rock, looking from the stone ledge upon which the stone towpath was built.

You can walk the towpath south, and rejoin the trail that takes you to the top of the rock.  Looking in the same direction, west, as we are in the picture on the right, you see the Licking flowing south...