Another Mid-Winter Hocking Hills Hike

Every year Hocking Hills State Park sponsors a “Mid-Winter Hike” on the weekend near January 20. This year it was last Saturday. I’ll do the hike barefoot when I can, but it can be tricky getting the weather to cooperate with bare feet. Nonetheless, I’ve managed to do the hike in 2006, 2010, 2011, and 2013.

This year was particularly tricky.

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Barefoot Rappelling

Rappelling is one of those things that is just a whole lot more fun while barefoot. Don’t get me wrong — regular old rappelling is a lot of fun, too. But when you can feel the rock wall you are heading down, that adds just that extra touch . . .

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Criss-Crossing Crane Creek

Yesterday was a perfect day for a hike down in Hocking Hills. It was decently cool (50°) but not uncomfortable, with a lot of leaves down so that the Blackhand sandstone and terrain could be seen, and there were still enough leaves to provide some nice color.

It was a perfect barefoot hike.

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A Little Rock-Scramble Hike to Old Man’s Cave

The Buckeye Trail runs right through Hocking Hills State Park. Most folks are familiar with it as it runs through Old Man’s Cave to Cedar Falls, and then down to Ash Cave. But it also heads north from Old Man’s Cave to the Rappelling and Rock-climbing area of the State Forest.

I have hiked it only rarely, mainly because a lot of it was on a gravel road. But last week I hiked it again just for the heck of it and discovered that they’d rerouted it. And they’d done a nice job of it, too.

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Worship in the Parrish

One of the places I like to hike to in Hocking Hills is Parrish Rocks. It has the advantage of being about as spectacular as the nearby big three (Old Man’s Cave, Cedar Falls, and Ash Cave) but that nobody knows about it.

I visited again last Friday.

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A Deep Cut

I haven’t been doing much hiking lately—I’ve just had other things to do and I haven’t made it as much of a priority. But I made it to Hocking Hills last week to do about 8½ miles, and then yesterday I went to Great Seal State Park and did about 5 miles.

And at Great Seal I had something happen that hasn’t happened in along time: I sliced the sole of my foot.

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Disgustingly Dirty Feet . . . or Not

I played tennis yesterday morning as part of a Tuesday bunch of friends and acquaintances. One of them mentioned to me that he’d seen this thing on Facebook about This Dude Didn’t Wear Shoes For 8 Years!.

It was described as gross . . . and it was.

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What’s Wrong with Salt Creek?

I’ve been having fun lately looking a bit at the geology and topographic maps of southeastern Ohio. Earlier, in Great Sealer’s Ghost!, I showed a color-coded elevation map. Well, I have here another one showing more of the highlands east of the Scioto River between Circleville and Chillicothe.

[Yes, I know that calling them “highlands” is a bit presumptuous. But this is Ohio after all, and “high” in Ohio is a lot different than “high” in Colorado. In this case, the “mountains” in the Great Seal region “tower” over Chillicothe by a full 650 feet.]

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I’ll Need a Crane for That

I spent the winter hiking carrying my fanny^* pack. It has mainly water, a little medical kit, a spare windbreaker, and my camera tripod. The extra weight totals about 20 pounds.

Yesterday I took a shot at my full-on backpack.

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A Visit to Cantwell Cliffs

Last Friday was a rare warmer day sandwiched between continuing winter. I took advantage of it to head to Cantwell Cliffs for a bit of exploring.

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On the Rhodagain

It’s a 70° in central Ohio at the end of January. So, what are you going to do? Well, you’re going to take down your Christmas lights. But before you do that, you’re heading out for a hike.

For me, that meant that yesterday I checked out a new place for me: Rhododendron Cove.

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A Barefoot Mid-Winter Hike

The Hocking Hills Mid-Winter Hike was held on Saturday.

Of course I had to hike it barefoot.

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An Old Favorite

It’s always fun to hike at an old favorite. And this time of year, being barefoot can sometimes provoke a bit of comment.

I hadn’t been to Old Man’s Cave and Parrish Rocks for a while, so that’s where I went yesterday.

What a great hike.

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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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Natur-Alley

Here’s a bit of a composite of two barefoot hikes I took recently at Alley Park, just a bit south of Lancaster.

While it is on the edge of the Hocking Hills region, it still has some nice Blackhand Sandstone features.

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