We’d like to invite our readers to participate in the TrekOhio challenge. The challenge is to complete FIVE hikes during summer (June 21 – Sept 21) 2016 from the ANY of the parks and preserves listed below. The hikes are arranged by Ohio region for your convenience, but feel free to mix and match any five. We’ve provided links to TrekOhio articles to get more information about the hike. Once you’ve picked your five parks or preserves, you choose the trails and hike durations.
So what do you get from participating in the challenge? You’ll get the memories of some great hikes (and perhaps photos too, if you brought a camera).
You’ll also get fame, fortune, and glory!! OK, perhaps a little fame … kind of. We’ll publish a list of names of those who successfully completed the challenge. We’ll also randomly draw five names from the list and send them TrekOhio hats. Full rules are listed below.
Parks and Preserves for the TrekOhio Challenge
Central Ohio
- Blackhand Gorge (Licking County) – choose a hike from several available trails. (Easy / Moderate)
- Christmas Rocks Nature Preserve (Fairfield County) – hilly hike with a scenic overlook. (Moderate / Strenuous)
- Dawes Arboretum (Licking County) – choose a hike from eight miles of trails through woods and formal gardens. (Easy)
- High Banks Metro Park (Delaware County) – suggested hike: hike to Olentangy Overlook, watch for eagles. (Easy)
- Milford Prairie State Natural Area (Union County) – hike in late July / early August to see prairie flowers in bloom. (Easy)
Northwest Ohio
- Oak Openings Metro Park (Lucas County) – choose from 30 miles of trails. Explore sand dunes left by Lake Warren 11,000 years ago. (Easy)
- Old Woman Creek State Nature Preserve (Erie County) – we’ve visited but have yet to write this up. Five miles of trails through scenic woods and wetlands plus a nice visitor center. (Easy)
- Maumee Bay State Park (Lucas County) – suggested hike: boardwalk through the wetland. (Easy)
- Goll Woods State Nature Preserve (Fulton County) – we hiked this old growth forest in May, but haven’t written it up yet. (Easy)
- Augusta-Anne Olsen State Nature Preserve (Huron County) – miles of scenic trail along the Vermilion River. (Easy / Moderate)
Northeast Ohio
- Cuyahoga Valley National Park: Ledges Trail (Summit County) – a wonderful 2.2 mile scenic loop trail (Moderate)
- Mohican State Park (Richland County) – suggested hike: covered bridge past two waterfalls to Pleasant Hill Dam, return on other side of creek. (Moderate)
- Nelson Kennedy Ledges State Park (Portage County) – three miles of trails though a rocky maze plus a waterfall. (Moderate / Strenuous)
- Gorge Metro Park (Summit County) – a great hike witihin the city of Akron. (Moderate)
- Hell Hollow Wilderness Area (Lake County) – the 262 steps down are easier than the 262 steps back up. (Strenuous)
Southeast Ohio
- Hocking Hills State Park (Hocking County) – suggested hike: Old Man’s Cave – Cedar Falls 6 mile loop hike on some of Ohio’s most popular trails. (Strenuous)
- Shawnee State Park (Scioto County) – suggested hike: one of the three Shawnee Day Hike loops 4.2, 7.2, or 8.5 miles. (Strenuous)
- Burr Oak State Park (Morgan County) – choose from lower or upper loop hikes. (Moderate / Strenuous)
- Zaleski State Forest (Vinton County) – suggest: Zaleski State Forest Day Hike (Olds Hollow Trail). (Moderate)
- Wahkeena Nature Preserve (Fairfield County – on Hocking County border) – short easy hikes around lake and on boardwalk, The one mile Casa Burro loop trail is moderate. Very scenic and great nature center. (Easy / Moderate)
Southwest Ohio
- Edge of Appalachia: Buzzardroost Trail (Adams County) – 4.4 mile round trip hike featuring scenic vista. Now with some new trail. (Moderate)
- Clifton Gorge (Greene County) – popular scenic gorge hike. (Easy / Moderate)
- Fort Hill (Highland County) – choose from a variety of scenic trails. (Moderate / Strenuous)
- Charleston Falls (Miami County) – a fun and scenic park just north of Dayton. (Easy)
- Caesar Creek State Park (Warren County) – suggested hike: Horseshoe Falls and suspension bridge. (Moderate)
How to Enter
After you’ve completed each of your five hikes, simply enter a comment below. Be sure to include:
- Your name in the Name field of the comment
- Your e-mail address in the E-mail field of the comment
- In the comment please include the name of the park or preserve where you completed the hike. Feel free to discuss your experience
- The #TOC tag anywhere in your comment
Deb will use her database skills to count hikes by e-mail address containing the #TOC tag (hashtag TOC) to determine who’s successfully completed the challenge. So always use the same e-mail address for all entries. For non-entry comments discussing the contest, simply omit the #TOC tag from your comment.
TrekOhio Challenge Rules
- Be safe and have fun
- You must be an Ohio resident over 18 years old to participate in the TrekOhio challenge.
- Employees of TrekOhio (i.e. Bob & Deb) and their family are not eligible.
- All hikes must occur between June 21 – September 21, 2016 (inclusive)
- Entrants must post all their hikes here by September 22, 2016 11:59 PM EDT
- Hikes must occur at five different parks and preserves chosen from the list above.
- You must follow all park / preserve rules and regulations during the hikes (i.e. stay on the trails)
- Hike length and trail choice at the above parks / preserves are at your discretion.
- Entrants completing five or more hikes and satisfying all rules will be entered for the hat drawing
- A total of five TrekOhio hats will be awarded
- TrekOhio Hat winners will be notified by e-mail and will have 14 days to respond and claim their prize. Failure to respond in time will result in loss of the prize, we will then choose a back-up winner(s)
- Spam comments will not be tolerated and will be DELETED
- One e-mail address per entrant
- Void where prohibited by law
- No purchase necessary
- The odds of winning depend upon the number of entrants received
SAMPLE ENTRY
- COMMENT
- #TOC Just finished my hike at Hell Hollow Wilderness Area. Saw a red-tailed hawk on the way down. Wow that’s a lot of steps!
- NAME
- Bob Platt
- myemailaddr@myisp.com
#TOC – Today was my final hike in this program and I went to High Banks Metro Park and hiked to the Olentangy Overlook and back. I saw a lot of squirrels and chipmunks but no eagles. Now I will complete Medina, Summit, and Portage County Hiking Programs and the Goodyear Towpath.
Congratulations! Which hike was your favorite?
#TO Took my boy scout son on hike through Dawes Arboretum. We loved the variety of trails and bluebird nesting boxes. Which we would have found this challenge sooner!
Sally Gummere
sallyjgum@gmail.com
#TOC – hiked at the Old Woman Creek State Nature Preserve. I liked the Upland Woods Boardwalk but also hiked the Early Successional Access, Lower Estuary Loop, and the Estuary Overlook Trail.
Did a Moonville Tunnel hike in Zaleski State Forest this past spring (too early for challenge). Yesterday, a friend saw a new bridge being constructed across Raccoon Creek to make getting to the tunnel easier in the future.
Interesting news! I did a search and found that the bridge is supposed to be open on Oct. 2, 2016. I’ll add some notes about this to the Moonville web pages in our site. Thanks!
#TOC – hiked the Ledges Train in CVNP. A lot of people were out enjoying the park.
# TOC visited Mohican state park this past Sat the 3rd of Sept 2016.We hiked the trail from the covered bridge to pleasant dam, then went to the lower and upper Lyon falls and back to the covered bridge. Beautiful hike, even though there were no recent rains so the falls hardly had any water.
Feels good to have completed the trek Ohio summer chalenge! I had a lot of fun planning and looking forward to each hike.
Congratulations! We’ve hiked Mohican in many different seasons, but have always enjoyed it.
#TOC – stayed a little closer to home this time and hiked at Gorge Metro Park in Summit County. Another beautiful day for hiking and there were a lot of people at the park.
#TOC Beautiful day for a hike. Hiked at the Blackhand Gorge Trail and hiked the Crystal Rim Trail and a portion of the bike and hike trail.
#TOC Ended hiking challenge at Christmas Rocks. Searched for wildflowers along the road and discovered beauty of buttonbush. Thanks TrekOhio for motivating me to walk more this summer.
Congratulations! You are the first to complete the TrekOhio challenge. I hope you enjoyed the hikes. If you continue hiking on the #TOC trails, we’d love to hear about your experiences.
#TOC Visited Dawe’s Arboretum with family and friends this past Sunday (7/24) and did the Lake Trail. Beautiful place, well maintained.
#TOC Did Gorge Overlook Trail at Hocking Hills State Park. Found out SUPing (standup paddleboarding) done on Rose Lake. Nothing beats a walk among hemlocks.
#TOC hiked at Highbanks Metro park on Saturday the 16th with some friends. We started on the dripping rock trail off the nature center parking lot and combined the overlook trail with it.It was nice to see many other hikers and runners enjoying the park as well.
Not eligible for TOC, but we did the Marie Hickey Trail at Blackhand Gorge today cause its one of our favorites.
#TOC Finished a hike at Milford Center Prairie. Spied several wildflowers mentioned in the TrekOhio post of this preserve. Royal catchfly in bloom made my day.
#TOC hiked at the Augusta-Ann Olsen state Nature Preserve yesterday with my husband. It was a short hike, but very calm and pleasant.saw a black snake at the side of the road, not sure what type it was.
#TOC Completed a hike at Dawes Arboretum. Saw a flock of young, wild turkeys run in and out of the tall grass on the Bur Oak Trail. Enchanted with the maze-like feel of the path inside the prairie.
I’m so happy I found this before September! I can’t wait until my next day off so I can start my 5! I have been to Christmas Rock a few times but I am extremely excited to journey along the other trails. Awesome post thanks!
#TOC Spent all of July 4th and 5th hiking the trails at Hocking Hills State Park. The best hiking yet! It rained almost nonstop and we didn’t mind one bit. It was still a great family outing. Stayed in one of Ravenwood Castle’s cabins the night of the 4th… Beautiful, peaceful setting. The trail to Old Man’s Cave from the Cedar Falls trailhead (starting at red trail FF) was the whole family’s favorite hiking trail of the summer so far.
#TOC Hiked Clifton Gorge (and Glen Helen Nature Preseve too!) on June 26th. Beautiful scenery in both. And a stop at Young’s Dairy on the way home for lunch and ice cream completed the whole day perfectly for the kids. 🙂
#TOC Hiked with my dog, Bear, a portion of the bike trail at Blackhand Gorge today. Enjoyed the shade and bird songs. Just a note: Quarry Rim Trail closed due to recent storm damage.
#TOC We hiked at Christmas Rock on the evening of June 24th. Due to the setting sun, we only had time to do the Jacob’s Ladder trail. Great view from the top! We saw some towering Tulip Trees and some ripe black raspberries along the way. This was our first time here. Thanks for the suggestion, and we look forward to going back.
#TOC Hiked at Christmas Rocks state nature preserve yesterday with my husband. Did the Jacab’s ladder loop and the ginger valley loop trail. Awesome experience! Beautiful hike, we went early so we were the only ones there!
Thanks Deb and Bob for providing this great website to get quick and valuable information on the various parks in Ohio
#TOC Just finished a 3.5-mile hike with my family at Charleston Falls Preserve in Miami County.