Checking out a New Spot

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:02]Good afternoon everyone. This is T-Mac for T-Max American Experience. And look at this beautiful scenery here that I found. This is the Rock Creek in the village of Rock Creek, Ohio in Ashtabila County, southern Ashtabila County, right near the border of roaming shores.

[00:00:21]Uh this is uh one of the waterfalls on that. Rock Creek has a few of them. Uh very beautiful and very scenic uh and some absolutely epic and gorgeous uh wilderness with a lot of not just wildlife stories but of a lot of creepy stories that are around here.

[00:00:48]And I'm going to start exploring some of these areas here uh as much as I can get to. A lot of the area is private property, so I can't go on to that. But what I'm on here is this is this used to be a railroad line, now a walking trail as you see. And right there, right at that street is the border is in the Roman shores, the village of Roman shores.

[00:01:19]And some of the areas right off of this trail, you can't really go, but this trail is actually paved. Pretty nice, especially uh in uh April here of us uh trying to get a walk in without having to go through too much mud in a beautiful hike. But the woods on this area are very thick, and I want to investigate this here.

[00:01:49]for wildlife and signs of the wildlife and all that and then uh whatever else mysterious and creepy that we can find here. Uh so I'd like for you to come along with that adventure. We'll try to we'll try to explore this here at different times of the day or different time and or night and see if we can find any of the stuff that uh is on our list of looking for. Uh and whatever else just might be here could be creepy and could be just beautiful scenery.

[00:02:33]So, come along for this adventure.

[00:02:39]Hopefully, you'll enjoy that. You know, if I check an area out in the daytime, you always know I'm going to try to check that area out in the night time as much as I can, too. All righty.

[00:02:54]Let me know what you think.

[00:03:04]>> [music] [music] >> Okay. So, I was thinking of just putting kind of like my intro out as more of like a short and I started walking around here and thought, gosh, this is beautiful.

[00:03:30]This is epic. I can tell I'll give you.

[00:03:33]So, that's this is where I came from.

[00:03:36]The bridge is right back there. That's where I did the opener. You do got a house right at the corner of this that is Rock Creek Road right there.

[00:03:48]I looked and it is just this epic very thick wooded area that has this area has got a lot of history of some very creepy stuff.

[00:04:01]uh both uh kind of all three categories, animals, human activity, and mysterious unknown creature activity.

[00:04:17]So, uh I'll go over a little bit of some of this. This used to be a railroad line.

[00:04:26]Okay. now removed the railroad tracks.

[00:04:29]Got it paved over very similar to what I the area I was at in Andover Township near the Owen Hill Road, the gravel run area.

[00:04:42]So I started out I was on the bridge there. I was in the village of Rock Creek. I walked down there across the street. that goes into roaming shores.

[00:04:52]Another village, a pretty upscale area.

[00:04:56]Rock Creek has been noted and this whole area has been noted for a lot of, and this is odd because this is, like I said, it's a village, a lot of gang activity. And by gang activity, we're talking into like motorcycle gangs, uh, Aryan Brother, white supremacist type. And not saying the whole community is like that, but this has been here like throughout this area's history.

[00:05:24]I don't know how active things are recently, but there was a time period here uh 70s and 80s stuff where this community was heavily controlled and run by that. I don't know if that is still the situation.

[00:05:44]Uh but does look like they let horses on this trail too.

[00:05:51]Um road apples on the road here.

[00:06:00]So uh don't get me wrong saying I'm like kind of saying this whole community is bad. It's definitely not. Uh and this is I'm saying this is a history thing. some of the stuff that has happened here in the past. I don't know the current state of that.

[00:06:18]Uh, all this property off on the sides, beautiful wood, beautiful woods, beautiful area, all private property. The only area I can go, I can go right up to the edge here.

[00:06:35]I cannot go into the woods. And I know that sucks.

[00:06:39]definitely want to, but again that's private property that I respect.

[00:06:44]So, uh, but [panting] one of the things on this road that I seen was uh there is a very large uh big marsh almost like pond area that I'm looking at it from the aerial views and I'm suspecting that's like a gigantic beaver pond. on and I was going to see if I can possibly confirm that.

[00:07:21]And uh as you know, if I'm checking this area out in the daytime, I'm scoping it out to see what this would be like in at night time. At night time, I'm definitely the camera's probably not going to be focused in this direction as much. I'm going to be looking around and these woods, man. Wow. It's thick and expansive.

[00:07:50]So, one of the things I see in this area already, habitat. We got a ton of water around here.

[00:07:58]This area, uh, Sashidel County, this area we're actually classed, uh, we had rain earlier today. We're actually classed as rainforest. Okay. You have the rock creek right nearby and then this massive uh marsh or pond swamp area and um so we have a ton of that a ton of water. That's one of the things you need to have your larger animals, your apex.

[00:08:32]Okay.

[00:08:34]and big expansive woods.

[00:08:41]Lot so a lot of concealment and cover.

[00:08:44]And now this trail comes through here. A lot of people do walking, biking, ebikes.

[00:08:52]Um winter time the snowmobiles are allowed on it. horses are coming down this a lot of activity that I think some of these creatures when we start getting into like I said the Ohio grass man and stuff like that I think we're seeing first of all we're dangerous to them I definitely think they do know that uh but they are they like to watch uh us. I think we're entertainment a lot of times. Look over on this side. There is a house back there. Looks like a very nice house. And again, this is the uh roaming shore side of this roaming shores is a very rich upscale area. I couldn't afford to live there if I wanted to.

[00:09:49]Uh so um actually does look like there's some people further down there on that path.

[00:10:02]Um so during the daytime there's there's people coming down here. At night time there isn't. Everything shuts up. These are small villages out here in the country in a remote when I say definitely more of what you would call a remote area of the county.

[00:10:29]Ash County is Ohio's largest county in terms of land.

[00:10:36]Uh in terms of population um we're considered medium medium size with we for many decades were for we're over 100,000 people. We at current are under a 100,000 people in this gigantic county. Most of the population is north of I90.

[00:11:03]Uh we are currently south of I90. pretty far south of I90. So, there's a lot of farmlands and a lot of forest out here, a lot of wilderness.

[00:11:15]And I'm wondering what comes around here at night, especially because everything gets used to a pattern, a daily activity.

[00:11:24]This is how I do some of my investigations, okay?

[00:11:30]Because look at this is a really nice game trail right here.

[00:11:36]And definitely I've seen all the no trespassing signs up on this property already. So, so everything gets used to a pattern, the animals, everything. Like that's why on areas where there's railroad tracks and loud trains going by, you'll have a lot of animals because uh they're used to that. That's the normal for there. They know those trains aren't jumping off the tracks and uh they're going to stay on that and there's not much, you know, so there's not much people that comes around because of the noise of those trains, too. A lot of people don't come around there. They get used to that.

[00:12:25]So, this one, these areas here, they're used to people traversing this on their various types of vehicles that are fairly quiet.

[00:12:38]Uh during daylight hours, they're not very used to anything being down here in hours of darkness.

[00:12:49]Everything kind of clears out.

[00:12:54]So, in hours of darkness, all of these things that are around here, they're used to this being empty and to where they can come out and not worry about human activity. As I said, a lot of these creatures like to sit and watch us. I've even had that with white tail deer that have they like to there's several spots where I have the deer that like they like to follow me along the hike.

[00:13:34]So, what I will usually do, again, I like to check some areas out in the daylight when I have full visibility to see what I'm dealing with.

[00:13:46]And then I hit this at the time where these things are were normal for here. They're not expecting this. That's a K Cabota coming down here. I did not know they were allowed to do motor vehicles.

[00:14:04]on this unless it's some sort of maintenance thing.

[00:14:08]So, but like I said, see there's and there's bikers uh bicycles back there.

[00:14:24]Yes, that is a v that is a maintenance vehicle.

[00:14:31]So, Okay.

[00:14:39]So, but that's the stuff that's here on a regular basis. And what I have to do is establish what normal is for an area to find out what is abnormal.

[00:14:56]How's >> it going? [laughter] I like your feathers.

[00:15:15]Okay. So, a lot of things what I'm betting on in this area, they're used to nothing being around here during the hours of darkness. Now, a big loud kabota going down here.

[00:15:34]That's going to make a lot of the animals, a lot of the whatever it is here probably stay back a ways.

[00:15:43]They're going to stay back and but at night time they're used to this being empty. And this is a great highway. This traverses this is I believe and I'll have to do my checking on this.

[00:16:02]I believe this is like 59 miles long in Ashtabila County. This is long.

[00:16:07]goes from up to Ashbul in the north which is this direction all the way down continues into Trumbull County but for Ashtiel County's part ends at the county line.

[00:16:22]This may be some of this big well it definitely is some of this big marsh that I'm checking out. It's 47° out.

[00:16:32]Uh not very windy, thank God. But uh it's a little chilly today and going to be tonight is going to get down to about 40 degrees. I think out here in the country we're going to uh away from Lake Erie where the temperatures will swing a little bit further. is probably going to probably going to I hear some ducks or something like that.

[00:17:09]Yeah.

[00:17:10]So, um this is a great highway for them. I see they're flying.

[00:17:19]So, this is I'm passing that. It's mile marker 10 right now. And this is part of the marsh. I see up here is where we get into the big section of this pond. And I did check the property records.

[00:17:35]Private property. I cannot go on there to check that out.

[00:17:47]>> [snorts] >> But this pond thing up here looks like this will be like wildlife heaven over here. Uh just the perfect uh environment for a lot of the wildlife that I like to try to document. Looks like this will be just epic for And uh so I didn't see anything on this side that would uh indicate a beaver dam, but uh that does not mean it isn't.

[00:18:33]So that's one of the things I want to try to check out over here. We do got another side over here just to show you.

[00:18:40]Very heavily forested.

[00:18:43]Now the tree bows all the way around there. And I know what kind of snowfall we get around here. A lot of these trees get their bends in this area. I can't speak for other areas, but this area we will get snowfall, lake effect snow on there so heavy it will just bow the trees over and a lot of them stay that way.

[00:19:06]Uh I've been able to document that.

[00:19:10]Oh yes. So look at and this comes like right up to the road now and like this is expansive like I would probably like my thermal camera would not probably be able to catch any um any real good details of heat signatures on the opposite side of this But you talk about, like I said, the right type of habitat to have a large apex predator, it's this area, man. And that's one of the things I like to document and look at because like those are the areas I want to be uh go around. Here's kind of we got some Look at this. We are getting uh the leaves on the trees and it feels like a cold fall day.

[00:20:28]Uh but it is a spring day is it's it's April 30th.

[00:20:36]Uh, so last day of April, but this is where I was looking at of of trying to take a hike. I can extend this going down here further. But I was almost wondering uh looking at this on the map where like at the end of this expansive pond is is uh probably where my turn may probably where I would do my turnaround point. But I could also continue on a little further if need be.

[00:21:16]Okay. So, here's another area where there's a good opening.

[00:21:22]And one of the things that starts to make me think this is like created by a beaver is it has no name on it anywhere.

[00:21:34]Uh, so I got, you know, it's like usually if there's a lake or a man-made reservoir, they name it. This doesn't have a name uh that I could find. Anyway, it may somebody somewhere may have named it, but it isn't labeled on the maps.

[00:22:02]You can see on this side elevation drops just a bit.

[00:22:12]And this is this area just south of here. I actually think we may be walking on the line of it. Here is Rome Township. As you know, Rome Township is famous for the It's called the Seas of Rome Town of Rome, Ohio.

[00:22:34]Uh crazy crazy story in the early 1980s of a family having encounters with that involved everything from UFOs to Bigfoots to everything else. And there was shootouts involving these things. Law enforcement called, reporters ended up coming in, uh, all that kind of stuff.

[00:23:05]And I don't know the exact area of that. I know shortly after in the years following that uh a lot of areas a lot of the big wooded areas in uh around here got made into nature preserves.

[00:23:32]You got to wonder like, oh, why? And as one of my friends who was a park ranger said, these areas that they make nature preserves or into metro parks or something like that or national parks, it's done for a reason.

[00:23:48]Uh, and it isn't just cuz there's beautiful nature. That's the lower end of it.

[00:23:54]Now I'm trying to look and see [snorts] if we have like I see these this here is like cut off.

[00:24:06]So all right I'm going to have to get back to you here because I'm having a some little bit of a technical difficulty on a couple things here.

[00:24:21]Uh I'll be right back.

[00:24:24]Okay, I had to fix and adjust a couple things here uh on my equipment.

[00:24:32]That's Canadian geese over there. But look at I mean expansive wetlands. And I'm looking at this, man. This looks pretty deep.

[00:24:42]But also like right here, I was looking at them like those are cut. I don't know how they were cut, but they look human cut. I'm not sure why, but this looks like what you would call like a beaver shoot.

[00:24:58]All right. All right. I heard you guys.

[00:25:02]The Canadians will not be denied. They want their time on the video.

[00:25:14]So again, this is still ongoing. This is huge.

[00:25:20]I mean, it's It looked like a big area on the map, [snorts] but coming down here in purpose or in person, it looks even bigger than what it does on the map.

[00:25:33]Here's another very good. This is probably about the best open shot there that's available right now.

[00:25:44]A lot of different types of birds.

[00:25:48]excluding the Canadians.

[00:25:59]But I said, I I I'm betting this looks like such great habitat for beavers, and it's so expansive, you can't even really tell if there's any beaver dens. I could not tell on aerial maps. Check Google Earth, Ash County of the Ashel County property records.

[00:26:25]You see even here on this side, really swampy over here too.

[00:26:33]So, see, we got more Canadians over there.

[00:26:43]And again, let's say this pond's still going. And it looks like on this other side that's just almost as swampy.

[00:26:55]So a really cool area here.

[00:27:15]All these sticks piled up here.

[00:27:19]That could be maintenance or it could be a beaver that did this.

[00:27:26]Not sure why if it was maintenance. They tried to keep this very clear and natural.

[00:27:32]Couple more Canadians out there.

[00:27:35]>> Um So, I'm tending to think this is probably more of beaver because really wouldn't make sense maintenance-wise to do this.

[00:28:06]I'm trying to scan around and see if it looks like I have beavers coming up to chew on some of these the saplings and some of these other little trees that are on the shoreline, but I'm not seeing it looks like that's a chute right there. Something's definitely traversing in and out of the water in that spot.

[00:28:26]And I've seen a couple other spots like that, too.

[00:28:30]There be large numbers of beaver over here.

[00:28:36]This side dried out a little bit, but we have some hemlock over here, which has been associated with a lot of creepy activity. So, this is a spot I would actually mark.

[00:28:54]See, this area right over here would be an area I'd want to keep my eyes on.

[00:29:04]uh coming in here in hours of darkness.

[00:29:12]Man, it actually is like dark back on there underneath those evergreen.

[00:29:22]Oh, look at still going. This is huge.

[00:29:27]And like I said, I think The more and more I'm looking at this, even though I can't really find the actual dam.

[00:29:40]Oh gosh. On this side, you can see this is people have been traversing this.

[00:29:45]They have the no property signs up.

[00:29:47]Looks like somebody tore down their signs.

[00:29:51]Understand that just because somebody tore down your the sign does not mean it's not trespassing.

[00:29:58]>> [laughter] >> So, this is Wow.

[00:30:15]I'm thinking this uh when you get into the summertime, you would see a lot of turtles and some of the, you know, your reptiles in here. This habitat is just epic. again. Right now it's a little cold for some of them.

[00:30:36]And this this I cannot believe how big this area is.

[00:30:40]This looks way bigger than on the maps.

[00:30:42]Like I got to go back over them and do a measurement and see if that like holds up to what I'm like pacing out here.

[00:31:43]I actually think uh I mean on this uh there's some of this to where you get into it's this thick and the leaves are not fully developed but they're up already and you cannot see more than 10 15 yards into the woods.

[00:32:04]Uh so wow.

[00:32:12]Uh pretty interesting.

[00:32:20]And we're still going. I want to get all the way to the end of this.

[00:32:25]See just what we're looking at.

[00:32:33]Got some more of the evergreen, the hemlock over here.

[00:33:12]All right. Uh, something interesting up here a little bit. There is an open field as you can kind of see through.

[00:33:20]Got a little barrier of trees and then a big open field because we're starting to run into where some other people's properties are, but their houses aren't real close on here.

[00:33:33]There is a big game trail. That's a pretty looks like recent and active. Uh I did not bring the mucks, but again, I step off there. I checked every property the property records for every inch of this It's all private property, so I don't want to even though I definitely see a trail there.

[00:33:57]Really can't go following it. Looks like we've come to the end of the swamp. And look at We got some epic woods over here. So, I probably would not want to end the hike right there. But this field over here too uh would be a great place for capturing a lot of the white tail deer would uh I think definitely come over into that field.

[00:34:29]Now they're uh in terms of wildlife, white tea whitetail deer are the largest prey animal and they're in a high abund abundance. There's some old bottles there, but this is another very It looks like a very wellused game trail. And that's deer coming through there. Just what I said, deer traversing through here over into that field or vice versa from the field into the woods. So, does kind of confirm what I think. I do see a well over there, natural gas well.

[00:35:08]A little bit of a breeze up here. is clinking trees together.

[00:35:14]So, winds are supposed to calm down here later tonight.

[00:35:21]So, I think from that I think I got enough of this to where uh definitely got a good idea what I'm getting into at night.

[00:35:39]uh which could be a pretty epic adventure what I'm thinking. Uh got to tell me what you guys think of that because uh I'll be staying on a paved trail.

[00:35:59]Um, one thing with that is I can look more around like this without worrying about where my next my next step and and falling.

[00:36:15]And same thing, I can also start going backwards real easy.

[00:36:21]Uh, not worrying about what I'm going to fall on behind me.

[00:36:30]Uh, and the habitat around here looks perfect for all of the things that we enjoy to look and looking for uh on the videos, which you guys enjoy seeing on these videos.

[00:36:55]This looks like prime habitat.

[00:36:58]for that.

[00:37:08]So, when I do this hike, we'll do down and back.

[00:37:14]Uh, and this is enough area that I don't know if I may end up being two videos.

[00:37:20]Uh kind of like one of the other areas I covered or a couple of the other areas I've covered where it's like I go so far down. It's a separate video to come back which is cool because when I get a two for one with my videos.

[00:37:40]Oh yes. This is my gosh. This is just an absolute great environment.

[00:37:53]So, little swampy over there. So, lots of wetlands.

[00:38:02]And uh I don't really think there's a need for me to go down any farther. And I'm not going to make you take the whole uh return trip with me because it's getting a little breezy.

[00:38:17]So, I think we'll cut it from here and we'll check weather pending. Maybe tonight, maybe another night.

[00:38:26]We'll take a take a stroll down through here at night time. See what we can get.

[00:38:36]uh don't know if I'll be able to uh get uh a whole lot of help from locals.

[00:38:51]Uh I've come down here in the past. I've come down into this area to check out a couple there's a couple other areas a little bit just slightly west of here but right in the same area that I've checked out in the past before uh even a section different section of this trail um a couple years ago uh and there was an area of the of a preserve that I've requested access to document wildlife filled out all their forms and everything and gave them everything, my identification, you know, my status as a retired Air Force tech sergeant, all that kind of stuff. And that this is what I I do the wildlife documentation now. Uh, and my c my request was denied. They said I'm not a researcher. I'm like, well, I don't know who gives these titles officially. They all kind of sound made up to me to begin with. Uh, but they said, uh, I'm not a I'm not a real researcher if uh, and I'm not well known enough in the community.

[00:40:14]So um so my request was denied and because I'm not attached to some scientific organization and they said uh no soup for me request denied.

[00:40:37]So, um, what I had gathered from a lot of the people in here, Rock Creek in particular, they have, uh, VFW right in town, uh, some big like military displays, and there's a lot of stuff that you see open, but they're very, very military and veteran friendly.

[00:41:01]uh which I can see as possibly my inn maybe in the future of the reputation of this this is the county again that I've lived my entire life in reputation of this area is that it is not very friendly and again there's some of that maybe carryover from 70s and 80s when there was the heavy gang activity Uh, but what I had learned about this growing up, and it may not be true. I'm just going to tell you what I learned from this from adults that were in my life, not just family, but other adults in my life, was he said, "If you have to go through Rock Creek, the best thing to do is to keep going."

[00:41:58]So, uh, I said if you need if there's something you need to stop for, don't stop there.

[00:42:05]They're not very friendly. Uh, so that was the what I was always told as a child growing up. Don't go around that area.

[00:42:18]I don't know if that reputation was accurate, whether it is still that way or whether the people are much friendlier than realize. I they do uh have a history of being very military friendly and uh veteran so veteran friendly.

[00:42:37]So, we'll give them that type of I'll give them that credit.

[00:42:43]And I don't know uh if anybody's watching this and they know some of the people around here, especially some of the people with these bigger uh land areas.

[00:42:58]Sorry, I got cut off there.

[00:43:02]Say I'm videoing on my iPhone 17 and a stupid spam call came in.

[00:43:10]Uh so again whether their reputation is founded or not it's not usually how I carry myself.

[00:43:21]Uh uh we'll uh hopefully uh if anybody's watching this and you see or know any of the people around here or you are one of these large property owners and you have some strange activity or wildlife on there to get a hold of me. uh say I'm very respectful to private property owners. As you guys have seen watching this channel, there's multiple private private properties in this county.

[00:44:01]They have uh given me permission to walk on their land.

[00:44:06]And again, you've seen if you've seen some of the videos, I'm very respectful of the land and of the property owners.

[00:44:15]and I will reveal or not reveal whatever the property owners request. They don't want the area completely known.

[00:44:26]That's what I'll do.

[00:44:28]I will be vague on details and other than I'm on private property.

[00:44:35]So, but that's what I would like to do is hopefully be able to build some rapport with some of the people in this area.

[00:44:48]Again, as a lifelong resident of Asheville County and a 20-year Air Force veteran, uh I would think maybe I'd be the type of person who might fit in well here and get along well with the people of this community. So, uh I'm going to see if there's any way I can open any doors there, make some contacts or connections. Again, that's where I ask you guys if you're anyone you know anyone from this area or you are from this area, get a hold of me.

[00:45:22]Also, the Facebook Facebook channel for this for T-Max American Experience on Facebook. Great way not only to get some other information on here, but that is the best way to contact me, okay? You can you use Facebook Messenger through that.

[00:45:40]Uh and you see our bike cursor coming over here. Motor or not motorcycles bicycles.

[00:45:51]So hopefully someone will see this and we can get some some uh permission to get on to some of these properties in in the southern part of the county here. I already have Andover Township. I have permission there and I have several areas in Conant Monroe Township where I have permission. All right, so this is T-Mac for Team American Experience saying thank you for watching and God bless you.

[00:46:21]Got one more bonus thing here. I was looking around a little bit and what I suspected is right this is this was created by Beaver. This is part of the dam right here.

[00:46:34]>> [snorts] >> So, try to get you over to see some of this. You can see this massive beaver dam coming spreading all along over here and in like a horseshoe shape. [snorts] Sorry, my allergies are starting to kick the crap out of me. So, I missed this on the way in.

[00:46:56]Caught it on the way out. Yes, this is a beaver dam. And that's why because they have a little bit of water draining out here. That's why it goes uh from there it goes underneath this and that's why the water is draining all over here cuz this beaver has the beaver has this up here and this is a massive dam they created. Those beavers are absolutely amazing creatures.

[00:47:21][snorts] So yes, I was correct. This is a gigantic beaver pond.

[00:47:29]And wow.

[00:47:31]And hey, saved the best part of the video for last, huh? All righty. Thank you for watching all the way to the end.

[00:47:37]And I ended it kind of abruptly there. I had some more cyclists coming in front of me and I'm starting to get some of my allergies. Tree pollen is very heavy right now. Are starting to kick the crap out of me. So, yes, I have confirmed it.

[00:47:53]Beaver Dam. This is a large beaver pond.

[00:47:58]All right. Thank you for watching.

[00:48:01]Let me know if you want to see this area at night coming up in the future. All right, God bless you.