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OHIO can get a bad rap from time to time, sometimes it is due though. However we do have some interesting hikes and places to explore. I'll get the ball rolling with some areas of interest around me (Cincinnati and a few hours each direction). I work from home and am fortunate to live a few miles from East Fork State Park, it has a big lake that is mostly filled with green algae these days. However, we have miles of mountain bike, horse and hiking trails; the mountain bike trails being the best maintained thanks to a group called CORA. While not offering anything more than a moderate hike I still enjoy the trails along with the wildlife and, this year because of the rain, a lot of colorful moss and fungi. Here is a nice little park map indicating some trails: https://parks.ohiodnr.gov/Portals/parks/PDFs/parks/Maps/East_Fork/eastforktrailmap.pdf Facebook page providing trail conditions : https://www.facebook.com/East-Fork-State-Park-MTB-trails-131356216927353/ Just a few pictures taken from East Fork    Further East (and a little North) is the Hocking Hills area which has some beautiful hiking with a lot more rocky terrain, caves, water, etc. The main attractions for this area (most crowded) are Old Mans Cave, Ash Cave, Conkle's Hollow just to name a few. These places will be crowded on the weekends, it seems the Old Mans Cave trail system are the most visited. http://www.hockinghills.com/hiking.html Heading a little south to around West Union is the "Chaparral Prairie State Nature Preserve". My wife and I hiked a little bit of this on our way to Portsmouth, it has a lot of unique plant life only found in the nearby area. The terrain varies, some open "prairie" meandering into forrest and back out into open fields. http://naturepreserves.ohiodnr.gov/chaparralprairie For those of you who live in Ohio or have hiked Ohio trails and want to add to this please do. I would like to explore more hidden treasures this area has to offer.
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Aug 10, 2016 15:31
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nael posted:I've really enjoyed John Bryan State Park in Yellow Springs, and Tar Hollow a little further north. But if you're in southern Ohio, and don't mind a long drive, Red River Gorge in central Kentucky is beautiful. RRG is one of my favorite spots. So far Indian Staircase and the hike over to Cloud Splitter are amazing, still need to discover more down there. Any trails you'd recommend?
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Aug 11, 2016 13:55
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We have a trip planned for RRG in mid September, camping at Koomer Ridge so we will hit the Swift Camp Creek trail, looks awesome. On another note, one of the trails I hike almost daily has this awesome section of broad leaf trees, the whole area is filled with them (i'll get a shot tonight when I go back out). I always love the area because of the feel the leaves lend to the trail, turns out they are Pawpaw trees and will yield awesome fruit next month!
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Aug 16, 2016 19:05
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DeciusMagnus posted:I go to East Fork a lot; I think it's one best places around here. Today I visited the Twin Creek Metropark for the second time; it's probably the most beautiful parks I've been to. Devou should be a nice hike, the mountain bike trails there are well maintained and it has much more elevation gain than East Fork. I've not ridden there or hiked it, but from all I hear it is very nice. Let me know what you think of it if you go!
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Aug 22, 2016 19:44
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Communist Pie posted:http://i.imgur.com/RWje4Bw.jpg Really nice vantage point! Looking forward to heading back next month.
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Aug 29, 2016 02:22
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OSU_Matthew posted:Not in Ohio but within a few hours drive, Red River Gorge in Danielle Boone National Forest in Kentucky is spectacular, with natural arches and beautiful vistas overlooking miles of wooded canyons. Dolly Sods in West Virginia is one of the most beautiful places in the United States, with different biomes every few hundred feet and awesome alpine meadows like what you'd see out west. Heading to Dolly Sods the second weekend in October. It's agony waiting right now!
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Sep 1, 2016 16:50
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Solaron posted:I live just a few miles away from East Fork as well (Amelia). It's definitely beautiful area. Howdy fellow Amelia dweller!
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Sep 27, 2016 04:21
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I forgot to update this from time to time, and especially forgot to update it after I took my trip to Dolly Sods in WV. What an amazing place! The weather when we arrived was a bit chilly (35F with 25-30MPH constant winds at the parking spot) and had blowing snow. For my first backpacking trip I think it went really well. We planned a three day trip but ended up doing two days, there was a fire ban in place (it HAD been dry) but by the time we arrived everything was soaked to the bone and a fire was really out of the question. The second day of the trip the weather did a 180, roughly 55F and sunny. Here are just a few photos from the trip, I am planning my return there this spring. Approach. FR-75 is the road leading to the parking area at the Bear Rocks trailhead.  Every mile of this place is different. Open areas like this transition into densely wooded conifers then to open but extremely rocky bog and then downhill to dense broad leaf deciduous trees.  Surprisingly it was actually a busy weekend here, the person in front of my is my buddy who I went with, the rest are some folks from New Jersey who were just there to enjoy a trip as we did.  The area we decided to camp at was in the above mentioned broad leaf tree area. Water was plentiful here so filtering for cooking, etc was easy. However the area we picked was plagued with a couple of badly placed roots ... had we ventured 30 seconds on before setting up the tent we would have found a much better spot. Oh well, lesson learned! Still this area was awesome, plenty of water and protection from wind was a welcome change. I mentioned the second day was different...  For our next trip to Dolly Sods this is where we are staying. An awesome conifer "forest" next to this stream, it was the perfect spot. I cannot recommend this place enough to anyone within a days drive, it was awesome to get away from the rest of the busy world and just enjoy the simplicity this area affords you. mAlfunkti0n fucked around with this message at 19:37 on Jan 5, 2017 |
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Dec 29, 2016 21:59
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GORDON posted:We took the scout troop to Hocking Hills a couple years ago. Canoed for one long day, and did a couple ten mile hikes. Gorgeous area. Yeah Hocking is a really nice area, been there many times and never get tired of it. Also, updated the links to my photos .. whoops.
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Jan 5, 2017 19:38
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Anya posted:It's a day late, but the annual Hocking Hills winter hike is the third Saturday in January. Since there isn't any snow right now, it was probably more of a 6 mile stroll than hike. It covers from Old Man's Cave to Ash Cave, and it is a gorgeous view. Yeah bummed about the lack of snow this year, Ohio continues to receive less and less over time.
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Jan 30, 2017 15:54
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Solaron posted:At least Brown and Adams County cancel school at the first sign of ice or snow, so the kids there have had some snow days (I like taking days off work when my kids have snow days, what can I say?). West Clermont never seems to cancel. West Clermont is the nazi school district for winter closures. I went to Live Oaks and they were even worse because unless a vast majority of feeder schools canceled they were open, and if that happened we never had bus service to Live Oaks. I remember a day it snowed so hard and the buses were running off the road, etc, the school refused to close. Now I work from home and never get a snow day.
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Jan 30, 2017 16:26
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