Integrated Learning-Living Communities

With fall colors at their height in late October 2023, intrepid members of the BEES (Business Ethics and Environmental Sustainability integrated living learning community) negotiated the Clifton Trail, a rocky path above a ravine of the Little Miami Scenic River, but much closer to its headwaters (source) to the north of the first canoe trip.

It was here that early settlers built mills to exploit nature as a source (of fast-moving water). One of those mills provided the uniforms for the Union Army in the Civil War. John Bryan Park is also the scene of the legendary leap now credited to “Crazy Cornelius Darnell” (rather than Daniel Boone or Simon Kenton) — a brash young woodsman desperate to escape the Shawnee in hot pursuit. He was part of a contingent from Kentucky led by Boone that had come north ostensibly to refresh their salt supplies in Ohio. No desperate actions were taken by BEES, but some got up close. Hikers also saw the active honeybee hive maintained by the Ohio Division of Natural Resources and brought pumpkins and other Halloween paraphernalia at the nearby organic farm, Peifer Orchards.