The Shin Bone’s Connected to the . . .

It’s now been 18 weeks since I had the surgery to try to put my Achilles tendon back together again. And yesterday I had my last physical therapy session (because that’s all insurance will pay for—to hell with what the patient needs).

But I am still improving, albeit slowly.

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A Previously Unknown Hopewell Hilltop Enclosure?

About two years ago I had the opportunity to visit Glenford Fort, a Hopewell hilltop enclosure in Perry County, the next county over from my county, Fairfield County. (Other Hopewell hilltop enclosures include Spruce Hill, Carlisle Fort, and Fort Hill.) As part of that visit to Glenford Fort, I used my LiDAR-processing software to look at the area.

But about a year later, in a totally unrelated context, I was using the same software to look at a different place. And what I saw AMAZED me! (Clickbait!)

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Memory Rock

On Memorial Day I went on another of the organized hikes at Clear Creek Metro Park. As with the hike described in Winnowing Rock and Sowing Seeds, I was accompanied by fellow-barefoot Lee Parker, from Upstate New York.

We were hoping for a few more barefooters, but it just didn’t happen.

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Fat Feet

I have acquired fat feet. And they feel pretty good.

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Under the Old Oak Tree

We finally got a break in the weather around here and I had a chance to go on an organized hike at Clear Creek Metro Park. I kind of waited until the last minute to decide, because southern Ohio had gotten up to 2 feet of snow a few days before, and the area of the hike had certainly gotten a fair bit of snow itself. But then we’d also had a few warm days, and a day of rain.

It turned out that it was perfect for barefoot hiking.

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Winnowing Rock and Sowing Seeds

On Labor Day there was an organized hike at the Clear Creek MetroPark. The Ohio Barefoot Hikers sent a contingent.

We did need a little support from New York, though.

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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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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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