The trail is in the Appalachian foothills, and it’s very different from your local Metro Park! There are four steep 300 ft. climbs. If this is your first experience with a fully loaded, 25 or 30-pound pack, you will find this challenging. If your physical condition is not ideal, consider the Battelle Darby Backpack Trail first.
The rocks on the trail can be dangerous, especially in the fall when you can’t see where to place your steps best. My ankles were extremely sore. Again, if this is your first time with a heavy pack, and you don’t have much experience on rocky and narrow trails, you might want to consider a more accessible course for your first time out.
There is no potable water, so you’ll either have to load up your already heavy pack with more water or use a water cache, which is what we did. We dropped ours off at 39.50522, -81.163343, and it worked perfectly. We grabbed it just 1000 yards from our campsite at 39.5059690, -81.1601580.
There are no officially designated campsites because this is a National Park. You are permitted to camp anywhere, but finding a suitable clear and flat spot takes work. The official map showed seven campsites, but we only saw just three that looked suitable. We stayed at 39.5059690, -81.1601580, and it was incredible as far as being beautiful and reasonably straightforward. Still, when we return (and we will go back because it is truly a beautiful hike), we will go clockwise instead of counterclockwise and stay at 39.522168, -81.159504 because this campsite alone will be worth going back for. It’s magnificent!
There are no bathroom facilities, so if nature calls and you need to go number two, it’ll require digging a “cat hole,” You might want to watch a YouTube video on this process before you leave.
Overall, this is a real gem—possibly the premier backpacking experience in Ohio. It offers solitude, impressive natural features, beautiful campsites, and a well-marked trail.
From Left, Me, Mark and Bill. Note the missing lens in Bill's glasses. This is intentional, he calls them his "Uno Specs", it's the only way he can see well after his cataract surgery.
Early morning day two, it was a cold morning, but the sun was shining and we were enjoying pleasant conversations and just enjoying the brisk, sunny, Sunday morning. We ran into two young hikers, one was wearing a hoodie from Bill's high school, turns out they were also from the Miami Valley.
It might look strange, but Mark is schooling Bill and me on how to properly compress a sleeping bag.
Fun shot of me at our campsite Sunday morning after breakfast.
Coffee and granola breakfast during sunrise on day two. For me, hiking and backpacking is always about where the sun is and how it highlights ordinary things and makes them interesting and beautiful.
Freeze-dried beef stroganoff dinner at the end of day one. Bill using his homemade coffee can alcohol camp stove.
Mushrooms growing on a moss-covered log, bathed in beautiful, warm sunlight. The woodsy smell of the earth and the filtered light calmed my thoughts and reminded me to be in the moment, it's really all I've got.
When I started hiking in early July, I weighed 179 pounds, the heaviest I've ever been. This is 161-pound me, carrying a fully loaded 30-pound pack for my very first backpacking adventure five months later.
You are here! In Wayne National Forest, 250,000 acres near the West Virginia border in Ohio's only National Forest.
The Archers Fork trailhead, located steps from the parking lot, is not hard to find at all.
An angel headstone overlooks the beginning of the trail.
Archers Trail is known for its rock outcroppings, they were everywhere along the trail, too many to photograph.
The climbing was pretty intense for Ohio. For comparison though, consider this: The total amount of climbing on this trail was 2,018 feet over two days, which is like climbing the LeVeque tower in downtown Columbus almost four times, but the total climbing on the John Muir Trail in the Sierra Nevada mountains in California is 45,000 feet over twenty or thirty days!
Fun Fact: Sierra means saw, like the word serrated we use for knives. And Nevada means snow-covered, (think about the song Feliz Navidad) So it's a snow-covered saw, or a snow-covered range of sawtooth mountains. How bout that?
What's the point of hiking the trail if you never slow down enough to actually see anything? There's no finish line. Why are we always so focused on arbitrary goals, instead of paying attention to where we are right now?
Me next to my new REI tent that I returned because it was too small for me. My head and feet were right against the front and rear tent walls all night.
Our delightful campsite was on tree tree-covered ridge on a crystal clear, cold night with zero light pollution, the stars and the moon were breathtaking.
The crack of dawn, far from civilization, not a comfort to be seen, four hundred feet up on a ridge, but wait, I brought Starbucks instant coffee!
Sometimes we need to rediscover ourselves. Recreation is needed for re-creation.
As awe-inspiring as our campsite was this one at 39.522168, -81.159504 was phenomenal. This pic does a poor job of capturing it, but it was sandwiched between the valley below at treetop level and the ridge this shot was taken from, and there was yet another ridge even further up, behind me from where this shot was taken. (see the previous pic). If you look closely near the center you will see an idyllic stone fire pit, with log seating around it. When we go back, we will plan our entire trip around scoring this campsite!
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