Clear Creek: Spring Continues

On May Day I headed back to Clear Creek Metro Park just to work out a few kinks in my system, and to experiment with my pack a bit. This time I was carrying about 38 pounds.

Spring was continuing to pop.

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O’Meara O’Vencha Hike: Spring

I’m still catching up from the weekend. On Saturday I went on another of the monthly Adventure Hikes with John O’Meara, the Executive Director of Columbus Metro Parks. Spring is finally arriving (or at least pretending to arrive) in central Ohio.

And that meant there really aren’t any more issues about whether it’s too cold to do the hike barefoot.

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O’Meara O’Vencha Hike: Reconditioning

Saturday was another of the Adventure Hikes led by Metroparks Executive Director John O’Meara. These have been a series of monthly hikes down at Clear Creek in the Hocking Hills area. We usually cover around 12 miles in 5 hours or so (including a stop for lunch).

As usual, John managed to pick a day with gorgeous weather, and he did so months in advance . . .

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O’Meara O’Vencha Hike: Half-Shod

Last Saturday was another of the monthly Adventure Hikes led by Columbus MetroParks Executive Director John O’Meara. The starting temperature was around 25°, and the forecast high was only about 34°.

Did I do the hike barefoot? Do I look like an idiot? (Don’t answer that question.) But I did do it half-shod (one foot bare and one foot shod ).

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The Clear Creek Ice Cave

Yesterday was the Clear Creek Metro Park Metro Five-0 hike to the ice cave. It is a really popular hike: 51 people tried to sign up for 30 slots.

The only thing missing was the ice (mostly).

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O’Meara O’Vencha Hike: Thorn Patrol

Saturday was another of the Adventure Hikes at Clear Creek Metro Park. These are longer-than-the-average-organized-hikes led by the Director of Columbus Metroparks, John O’Meara.

The one on Saturday was 11.6 miles, and just happened to pick a 65° rainless January day.

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More on Clear Creek Indian Trails

Last week I wrote a bit on the Indian Trails that used to pass through Clear Creek Metro Park. Today I’m reproducing a column from Charles Goslin that didn’t appear in Crossroads and Fence Posts.

In the column he describes walking from the intersection of the two Clear Creek Indian Trails to Lancaster.

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A Visit to Whitehead Gorge

Yesterday was a scheduled Metro-5-0 hike at Clear Creek Metro Park. The Metro-5-0 hikes are aimed at the over-50 crowd (though they don’t check IDs).

This one was up to “The Gorge”, but I’m trying to convince them to start calling it “The Whitehead Gorge”.

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Clear Creek Indian Trails

This entry is a bit of a follow-up on yesterday’s A Snortin’ Good O’Meara O’Vencha Hike.

It turns out that the place we started our hike was at the intersection of two major Indian Trails.

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A Snortin’ Good O’Meara O’Vencha Hike

Saturday was another of the Columbus MetroParks Adventure Hikes with Parks Director John O’Meara.

With all the rain, I of course went with my completely waterproof feet.

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O’Meara’s O’Venta Hike

Saturday was another of the “Adventure Hikes” at Clear Creek Metro Park, led by their Executive Director, John O’Meara. He started them last year when he was training to climb Mt. Everest, and they were so popular that he has continued them this year.

They are fairly strenuous, with this one covering 12.3 miles in just under 5 hours (and that includes the stop at a scenic location and for lunch).

They also tend to make barefoot hiking a bit more of a challenge.

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Return to Beck’s Rocks

Last week I wrote about one of the organized hikes to Beck’s Rocks. On Saturday, Clear Creek Metro Park conducted another one. I debated with myself whether to go or not, thinking it might just be a boring repeat.

But there is always something new to see, and to photograph.

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Beck’s Rocks

Yesterday I participated (barefoot, of course), in a hike to Beck’s Rocks in Clear Creek Metro Park. It was part of their Metro 5-0 series, which allows older folks such as myself to visit some of the backcountry parts of the park at a (possibly) slower pace.

As others have noted, Beck’s Rocks is probably the prettiest and best remote location in the park.

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The Ball-Bearing Hike

Last year there were a bunch of hikes at Clear Creek Metro Park as their executive director, John O’Meara, trained for his attempt to scale Mt. Everest. They were so popular that he’s doing them again, even without the training incentive.

The first one of this season was on Saturday.

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Metro Parks Special with Barefoot Hiking

Folks may recall that I did a bunch of training hikes over the winter. These were training hikes by John O’Meara, the Executive Director of the Columbus Metro Parks.

He was training to climb Mt. Everest.

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