Does anyone know of any cool backpacking trails in southeastern ohio other than Zaleski State Forrest backpacking trails?
Ohioan
Ohio backpacking
system
#2
Er, define cool? Burr Oak, a 2-3 day loop is nice, good bird and animal watching. You can even get a pack patch. Wild Cat Hollow, still haven’t done that end. The part of the Buckeye that run thru Ohio Pyle I’ve biked thru but still not packed. Other than wondering around the Wayne forest not much there to do. Have you done all of Zaleski? The Moonville Tunnel, turkey preserve and the mines? You can make up nearly fifty mile loop if you head to the top end of the last loop, bare right and come out in Carbondale, right down the old rail grade following the river. Best in late fall or early spring since the poison ivy is killer. Have you seen the old cemetary down the hill from the water pipe at the third loop? Hard to find. A guy and his wife died there a hundred years ago. East Fork Loop but its shared with horses and is very muddy. That’s all I have.
Bushwhack
system
#3
Shawnee State park has a 60 mile loop (can be cut down to 30). It looks to be pretty good. I have only done about 10 miles of it. I would defn. recommend that.
Michael Sanwald
system
#4
I have done all of Zaleski, but different legs throughout the warm season. Shawnee sounds a little funner. I’ve heard different things about it. I think it is a mtn. bike trail also so it might be a little muddy this spring. 30 miles sounds good for a 2 day fastpack. I’ll get to try out my new murphy/pepsi stove. Thanks for the info! One more question, does shawnee have water or do you need to filter?
Ohioan
system
#5
Bushwhack and I went down to Shawnee a few years ago on a Friday night, hoping to hike into the 1st “designated” campsite. It was so overrun with partyers that we decided to hike the other direction and stealth camp. We couldn’t really find a good area that wasn’t prickers and poison ivy…plus it was dark. We ended up hiking about 6 miles in the dark, got to a road crossing and decided to give it up and hiked back down the road to our car and went home!
In addition to the 2 loops of the Shawnee backpack trails, there is a 14-mile loop called the silver arrow trail that we hiked in a day. Lots of briars, but not a bad trail otherwise. (It’s a boy scout trail) Can’t really remember the water situation. A good resource is Backpack Loops and Long Day Trail Hikes by RH Ruchhoft.
Bramble
system
#6
I don’t really know about the crowds. There is water from piped pumps. I went there in January, 15 months ago, and it was below zero and i was trying out all my thru-hike gear. needless to say, it wasn’t crowded then…the path seemed pretty cool too…but i haven’t been there in the summer or spring.
Michael Sanwald
system
#7
Places to hike in Ohio thats funny, Maybe places to take a long walk why do you think somany thru-hikers are from ohio(i live in dayton)
Bull