Opportunities for fishing, hiking, canoeing, kayaking, and wildlife observation
await visitors to Medina County Park District’s newest park, Killbuck Lakes.
It’s the first phase of the 408-acre former Baker Sand and Gravel property --
acquired through a grant from the Clean Ohio Fund -- to be opened by the park district.
An October survey found an excellent range of fish in the lake, including catchable bass, bluegill, and crappie. Daily catch limits will be posted to help maintain the health of the population.
Smaller numbers of incidental species caught during the sampling include: bowfin, grass pickerel, white sucker, carp, mudminnow and pumpkinseed sunfish.
There is a lake-access area where visitors can pull up to the shore to unload small watercraft.
Only non-motorized boats and boats with electric motors are permitted.
The lake, left behind by mining operations, also provides important habitat for waterfowl to eat and rest during migration. American coots, grebe and bufflehead ducks, as well as trumpeter swans have been seen on the water. Even a bald eagle has been spotted circling in the skies above.
While water is the dominant feature of the landscape, Killbuck Lakes offers small but important areas of remnant forest and wetlands. Trees include beech, basswood, big-toothed aspen, and a variety of oaks -- shingle, swamp, red, white and burr. Among the shrubs and flowers found in the park are buttonbush, alder, skunk cabbage, and swamp rose. Animals who call the wetlands home include northern leopard frogs, chorus frogs, spring peepers, and the star-nosed mole -- a species of concern in Ohio.
The deep-water lakes at Killbuck Lakes are directly connected to a major underground aquifer that is a critical water source for homeowners and farmers in northern Wayne and southern Medina counties.
Preservation of the lakes and the land surrounding them enhances quality of life
and helps protect this vital aquifer from contamination.
Park hours are from 8:00 a.m. until dark. Absolutely NO night caching!
This geocache is placed with permission of the Medina County Parks. Permit # 101.
"Find it... in Medina County" is a series of 25 geocaches placed throughout the area
at various parks and other points of interest.
Those who locate at least 18 of the geocaches in the series and present their completed passport at one of our redemption sites will receive a fabulous trackable geocoin as a memento of the fun that they have had exploring the area. (Limited to the first 250-- one per caching name).
Update August 2016: We have reordered another 250 geocoins!
Caches will remain in place and coins are available to the first 500 geocachers to complete the series.
And as an added bonus, there will be an extra surprise for those that find
at least 22 geocaches in the series! (While supplies last.)
You may print your passport by clicking here: "Find it... in Medina County" passport
Redemption sites and their hours are listed on the passport.
A list of the geocaches in this series can be found here:: "Find it... in Medina County" geocaches