#31 The Buckeye Trail AEP Land near Caldwell

The Buckeye Trail is a 1,444-mile hiking trail and long-distance trail that loops around the state of Ohio. Part of it is on roads and part is on wooded trails. The long-term goal is to have all of the trails relocated to all woodland trails.

Most hikers navigate their way around the Buckeye Trail by using an App called FarOut. The App is free, but access to the Buckeye Trail maps is a one-time $30 fee. Using the App is very helpful because it shows you exactly where you are in real-time, and shows you where you can camp, and where you can obtain supplies and water. Unfortunately, I had to buy the $30 map just for the tiny section we hiked because the All Trails App didn't have it.

It can be a little tricky to find where to access the trail. In a lot of cases, it's just a small gravel parking lot. We entered the trail near Dyes Fork.

Because the trail is a big loop around the entire state, it's not really satisfying to just do an out and back in a small section. For example, we could have entered the trail, hiked 4 miles out, turned around, and hiked four miles back. The better option is to take two cars, drop one off at the finishing point, and drive back to the beginning point with the other car. This way you get 8 miles of the trail hiked with no backtracking.

The Trailhead for the section of the trail near Caldwell Ohio

Take a machete and maybe a chainsaw because this trail is close to straight-up bushwhacking in a lot of places, too many to make it an enjoyable hike. The thorns were so thick we felt like we'd been in a knife fight. We got in about four miles turned around and hiked back out. It just wasn't worth it.

I wanted to like this trail. The idea of being able to do multi-day section hikes all over the state, like our own version of the Appalachian Trail, backpacking through little towns, and finding off-the-beaten-path places to camp, all sounded great. The reality is that the scenery is just not nice enough to put in the effort on the poorly maintained trails, and to go through the hassle of two cars or getting dropped off and picked up. Bill and I agreed that our time would be much better spent doing all the backpacking loops available in the State Parks and National Forests.

gnarled - adjective. Knobby, rough, and twisted, especially with age.

The obligatory fungus on a log shot in the sunlight.

This view was the best scenery the trail had to offer.

No exaggeration, hundreds of fallen trees on this trail. One section alone had twenty-five or more blocking the trail. There appears to be little to no trail maintenance done, which I understand because it is a 1,444-mile course maintained by all volunteers. This was probably one of the better-maintained sections, but it was still pretty rough. You could make the argument that it's worth it if there were a lot of scenic areas to take in, but there really wasn't. This trail at best is a C-.

The trail was hard to stay on. Sections of wide cleared areas would dead end into dense forest, and then we'd have to open the App to figure out where we went off trail and backtrack. 

It was a beautiful, cool clear day. A perfect day to be in the woods, just not these woods!

There was about of mile section that was packed full of Brambles so dense that they made about thirty minutes of the hike pure hell. I got a thorn stuck in my lip that drew blood that I had to actually pull out of my lip, and Bill got a few stuck in his head that drew blood. We had to have each been pricked a hundred or more times in a thirty-minute section.  Backpacking is not for pantywaists, I get it, and I know I sound like a baby, I understand that hiking is about "embracing the suck" adapting, and overcoming. Taking obstacles and challenges head-on, and coming up with a plan b for whatever the trail throws at you, but this trail wasn't challenging as much as it was just annoying, with little to no scenery payoff for your trouble. If this trail was this bad in the late fall, I can only imagine the level of pure suck in summer. 

I found a big chunk of fresh moss on the ground that looked like a toupee, so...

There were a lot of fallen trees blocking the trail.

The best part of our hike was unexpectedly running into a couple of experienced Buckeye Trail hikers on the trail, one had done 600 miles on the BT.

It's very uncommon to see anyone else on a trail like this, much less two women hikers. Maybe these women know something about the Buckeye Trail that I missed, but I'd rather put the time, effort, and money into the more enjoyable trails that Ohio has to offer.

We found what looked like a big clump of concrete in the dried-up creek bed. Upon closer inspection, it was actually a big deposit of natural clay. I thought it would be fun to form it into a big phallus for other hikers to discover, but it would have taken too much time and used up all of our water.

A dried-up creek bed. There really wasn't much in the way of scenery on this trail, my clay phallus could have been the most notable thing on this entire trail for someone.

The trail went right through a muddy swamp. If we had attempted this in the spring, or after a heavy rain, this section of the trail would have been impossible

A Pileated Woodpecker's work.

I'm happy this one is done and I can go back to Nature Preserves and State Parks!

#30 Mohican State Park - Lyons Falls, Hemlock Gorge, and Pleasant Hill Trail

11 miles, 5 hours on the trail, and the trail ends with having to climb the hundred or so dam steps to get back to the parking lot!

(Above) View from inside the shelter pictured below.

Mohican has these interesting, very overbuilt, bench shelters that face the scenic river. You can just rest in them and watch the river flow by for hours.  I assume these were built in the 30's by the Civilian Conservation Corps. We wouldn't dream of building something this well-built today, just to house a three-person bench.

I have a character flaw where I see human anatomy in nature, I'll leave it at that.

My favorite part of the hike was the north side of the trail that followed the river upstream for 4 or 5 miles. The smell of the river and the pine in the early morning was remarkable.

There are a couple of climbs, but nothing too hard. The trail can get narrow in places, but nothing as difficult as you will encounter in a Forest Service-managed State or Federal Forest.

The trail follows the river on the south shore for a mile or two, but on the way back it follows it for a good 4 or 5 miles, and it's spectacular!

Most of the places I've hiked in Ohio don't seem to have many conifer trees, but Mohican is packed with them. This section of the trail was pleasantly fragrant with a sharp, sweet, and refreshing smell of pine.

There are a couple places where the trail gets steep, full of roots, and narrow. A hiking stick or trekking poles are a good idea.

See the comment above about anatomy in nature.

There is a suspension bridge that is anchored by steel cables on both sides and swings freely as you cross it.

I took a full backpack for practice even though it was just a day hike. I used my stove to make a cup of coffee along the river on this convenient platform.  I'm a pretty fit person, I swim around 30 miles per month, and I walk and hike around 150 to 200 miles, lugging around a twenty-five to thirty-pound pack changes everything, it's a lot harder than I expected even at my fitness level.

Mohican is known for having the best canoeing in the state. It would be fun to go back in the summer with the family and spend the day on the river.

These rental cabins along the river have nice screened-in porches that face the river, they look cozy and nicely maintained.

This pic doesn't do a good job of showing the steepness of the decline, but there are a couple of areas with leaves, loose debris, and acorns, (that act like little natural roller bearings) that are long and difficult to navigate without slipping and falling on your butt.

Overlook view on a cloudy, overcast, day. I'm sure when the conditions are right this view will be beautiful.

The four main attractions at Mohican are Lyon's Falls, (which was barely a trickle because of the season) Clear Fork Gorge, the Scenic River Trail, and the Fire Tower. The only way to see all of these in one long hike is to spend about an hour walking the roads. The official hike in the Book "50 Hikes in Ohio" was only 5 miles, but it covered only Lyon's Falls and part of the Scenic River Trail, so I opted to go with this expanded 11-mile route that I found in All Trails that was advertised as a way to see everything Mohican has to offer in one long day hike.

View from the top of the Fire Tower

Fire Tower view.

The fire tower is open for climbing at your own risk.

The part of the trail that goes through the forest isn't very long, the trail I followed is almost all gorge area, along both sides of the river, and roadway.

Yours truly along a creek that feeds into the main river on the Hog Hollow Trail.

The Hog Hollow Creek Trail

An interesting twist. Nature always finds a way.

The south bank trail runs right along the river.

The Big Lyon's Falls is one of the main attractions at Mohican, but this late in the season it was just a sad trickle.

Standing under Big Lyon's Falls

Big Lyon's Falls was just a trickle and a wet patch of ground.

The Gorge Trail

The Gorge Trail

If you look very close you can see the trickle of water that is Lyons Falls at this time of the season.

Stairway down the gorge to the falls.

The amount of mature conifer trees was an unexpected surprise.

This was my first experience walking along a Hemlock trail. I've done 18 out of the 50 hikes in the book and not a single Hemlock trail anything like this one, it was an unexpected pleasure.

The Native American Creation Story

When the animals and plants were first made–we do not know by whom–they were told to watch and keep awake for seven nights, just as young men now fast and keep awake when they pray to their medicine. They tried to do this, and nearly all were awake through the first night, but the next night several dropped off to sleep, and the third night others were asleep, and then others, until, on the seventh night, of all the animals only the owl, the panther, and one or two more were still awake. To these were given the power to see and to go about in the dark, and to make prey of the birds and animals which must sleep at night. Of the trees only the cedar, the pine, the spruce, the holly, and the laurel were awake to the end, and to them it was given to be always green and to be greatest for medicine, but to the others it was said: “Because you have not endured to the end you shall lose your, hair every winter.”