Where the Heck Am I?

On Friday I decided to do a bit of exploring at a completely new place for me, the Vinton Furnace Experimental Forest. I’ve known about it for a while, but it is a longer trip from where I live, and I just never got around to going there.

And as sometimes happens in new locations, I spent a fair bit of time wondering just where the heck I was.

I had done my usual advanced preparation, going online and finding all the maps I could and then putting them together to show me where possible trails would be. You can see part of what I put together here.

Vinton Furnace Topo Map

The road comes in from the left. (Click for larger, readable version.)

The funny thing is, I prepared this probably 2 years ago (I said I hadn’t gotten around to hiking it), so I have no idea where I even got some of that information any more.

Anyways, I drove in, and was really looking for the Vinton Furnace. It was on the other side of Raccoon Creek from the road, but I figured that would be fairly easy to spot, and be a good kick-off location for hiking.

So I drove and drove, and never did see anything suggested by the map. Then the road hit a gate while turning left, and there was a trail heading straight ahead, so I parked and started hiking.

I figured that trail led to the Furnace (in other words, I figured I was at Point B).

But then I hiked a while, and hiked a while, and it was clear that if I had been at Point B, I should have crossed the creek by then. So, I hadn’t started at Point B. Maybe Point A, and I just had to hike a bit further?

But then I hiked way too far. I really didn’t know where I was. I was lost.

I’ve mentioned this before. To me, I am “lost” if I cannot immediately point to my location on a map. So I was lost. But I wasn’t lost-lost. I knew I was along Raccoon Creek somewhere. I could see the hills to my north, and the hills to my south, so I had to be somewhere along there. I just wasn’t sure exactly where (and I still wasn’t sure just where I had started). The landmarks just weren’t adding up.

Finally, the trail got really close to Raccoon Creek, and a good 50 feet above it.

Raccoon Creek Overlook

The creek is down the slope to the right.

And here’s a shot looking down at the creek.

Raccoon Creek Below

And another look back after I passed through.

Looking Back

One more piece of relevant information. I’d been watching the sun, and while I’d been heading mostly westerly before, I was now heading more south to southeast.

That made it pretty clear to me that I was now at Point E on the map. That is exactly the topography that one expects for that location.

OK, so I knew where I was. But why had I been lost? At this point I remembered that I also had with me their “official” map (with nearly zero information and nothing topographical). So I pulled it out.

The Official Brochure Map

Duh! I should have done that originally. It made it quite clear that I had started at Point D. So now everything fell into place. I really, really did know where I was, and where I’d hiked.

From here I explored a bit more, and bushwhacked out to Point F. Watch Rock was supposed to be somewhere on the other side of the Creek, but I decided I’d spent enough time that day being “lost”. I’d save that for another time. I turned around and headed back.

Oh, and I should mention that this is still the “Hanging Rock” region of Ohio, with recess caves. This far southeast, though, they are pretty small.

Small Recess Cave

The trail itself was typical of this part of Ohio—sun-baked clay.

Rutty Road

There is a reason that Ohio was a big pottery center in the early days of the country. All that clay. Ohio was also big on glass, from the sandstone.

By the way, the whole trail was like walking on concrete, which points out how silly it is for so many podiatrists that our feet didn’t evolve to walk/run on modern surfaces. There are plenty of natural surfaces that are quite similar.

Anyways, the trail was in pretty bad condition, as you can see from those ruts. When the clay is not sun-baked, it is just a mess. The Vinton Furnace Experimental Forest is an old logging area, so these are old logging roads that have been well worked over.

Anyways, back to my car; my hike is over.

Except . . .

As I’m driving out, I see this. (Yes, I was looking extra carefully.)

A Hint

Aha. A bridge over Raccoon Creek. It must lead to Vinton Furnace. (The bridge is pretty much impossible to see driving the other direction, which is why I missed it.) I was now as Point C.

A Really Big Hint

A really dilapidated bridge.

It’s a Holy Bridge

Really, really dilapidated.

So I parked and hiked in. Had to see the Furnace, after all.

I also found the other bridge.

The Western Bridge

As you can see, that one was so dilapidated that they had closed it.

I also found the trails that were on my map. Next time! And the remains of the furnace. In fact, it looks like one of the trails heads right over the top of some of its structure.

Part of Vinton Furnace

Finally, these trails are not on the official Vinton Furnace brochure. Here’s where they sit.

Trail Locations, Not on Official Map

But they were officially marked trails, with little tin blazes and everything. They are just not on any map I can find (and I have no idea what I found them on before).

All in all, I wasn’t that thrilled with Vinton Furnace Experimental Forest. It doesn’t have the greater relief of either Hocking Hills or Zaleski. It is also logged much more extensively.

Driving Around, Much of the Forest Looks Like This

I guess the “experimental” part is to see how a forest regenerates itself after being raped.

But there are some nice features, and I’ll want to see if I can go find Watch Rock in the future.