We participated in the 51st Annual Hocking Hills Winter Hike on Saturday. This was our seventh time participating in this winter hike that runs from Old Man's Cave to Rose Lake, Cedar Falls, and ends at Ash Cave for a total distance of 6.5 miles. A bus returns participants to the starting point.
The weather for the hike, like most of this winter, was warmer than usual. There were some small patches of snow here and there, and small icicles. But the temperature was above freezing and Read more ➜ 51st Annual Hocking Hills Winter Hike, January 2016
We participated in the 51st Annual Hocking Hills Winter Hike on Saturday. This was our seventh time participating in this winter hike that runs from Old Man's Cave to Rose Lake, Cedar Falls, and ends at Ash Cave for a total distance of 6.5 miles. A bus returns participants to the starting point.
The weather for the hike, like most of this winter, was warmer than usual. There were some small patches of snow here and there, and small icicles. But the temperature was above freezing and Read more ➜ 
Over a hundred years ago, the American chestnut tree (Castanea dentata) was virtually wiped out. Now the Ohio Department of Natural Resources is working on returning this grand tree to Ohio forests.
A long time ago (over 100 years) not far away, giants ruled the Ohio forest. The American chestnut tree grew to heights of 100 to 150 feet. The tree dominated eastern forests from Maine to Georgia. Then one day in 1904, its nemesis arrived from Asia - a fungus by the name of endothia parasitica 
Many of the places we hike are in forests, or rural parts of Ohio. Gorge Metro Park is right in the city of Akron and it's spectacular. The park is 155 acres and is located on either side of the Cuyahoga River. There is a dam on the river near the park's center. The dam was built at the former site of a cascade waterfall in 1911 to provide electric power. The power plant is gone, but there is a path to a series of observation decks to view the water cascading over the dam. Upstream of the dam is 
It's time once again for our annual highlights article, so without further ado, the highlights of TrekOhio 2015:
Favorite Photo
Deb: I took the photo below while hiking in the Hocking Hills at Winter’s End.
Bob: My favorite photo for the year was a picture of Deb in front of Horseshoe Falls at Caesar Creek State Park.
Best Hike of the Year
Deb: My favorite hike was Canby's Mountain Lover Trail and Keyhole Arch at Fort Hill. Passing through the keyhole was a great way 
The Shawnee Day Hike Trail has changed since our 7.2 mile hike a year and a half ago. The suggested blue-blazed day hike trail is now a 4.2 mile hike. However by combining the white-blazed connector trail and a new segment of the blue-blazed day hike trail, we were able to do an 8.4 mile-loop hike. As an unexpected treat, the new segment of the blue-blazed day hike trail took us by a lovely overlook with a bench where we could take in what remained of fall color. Since we were hiking there this past 
While staying at a cabin in Lake Hope State Park, we visited Lookout Rock and hiked on the nearby Moonville Rail Trail. It was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and the weather was sunny and cool.
Lookout Rock is located on Hope-Moonville road, a narrow, gravel road that winds through Zaleski State Forest. At one point, the road goes along a saddleback ridge with steep drop-offs to either side. On one side of the road, we saw a tall sandstone cliff. This was our destination. 
Fort Hill is one of our favorite places to visit. It has great hiking as well as many interesting geological, archaeological, and botanical features. It's a bit of a drive from central Ohio, or we'd visit much more often. We visited Fort Hill twice this fall. Our most recent trip is documented in our post: "Fort Hill: Canby’s Mountain Lover Trail and Keyhole Arch". We also visited two weeks earlier when fall foliage was near it's peak. This post focuses mostly on our earlier trip.
We started 
This past Friday we visited Raven Rock State Nature Preserve. It was our first visit to a permit-only preserve. We'd planned a visit to Shawnee Lodge and had applied for a permit more than two weeks before our trip.
It was a cool, overcast afternoon when we parked near the trailhead for Raven Rock. There were two parking spots, one of which was already occupied. The trail is 1.25 miles (one way) and ends at a cliff 550 ft above the start with a stunning view of the Ohio River and the hills of 
Buzzardroost Rock Trail offers a truly stunning vista perched 500 feet above the Ohio Brush Creek valley. The trail is part of the 16,000-acre Edge of Appalachia Preserve in Adams County. Located just south of Ohio SR-125, the trail stretches 2.2 miles one-way along ridgelines from the parking lot to the observation area, making for a 4.4 mile hike.
A sign at a gravel turn-off on the south side of SR-125 identifies the parking area and trail-head for Buzzardroost Trail. About a quarter 
We recently visited Harpersfield Covered Bridge Metropark in Ashtabula County. The star attraction of the park is the aforementioned covered bridge. The 228 foot (69.5 m) covered bridge spans the Grand River and is the third longest covered bridge in Ohio. The bridge was built in 1868 replacing a prior bridge that was destroyed by a flood. In 1913, another flood washed away the ground on the northern side of the bridge. A 140-foot (42.7m) steel truss bridge was added on this end.
The