Hocking Hills

Hocking Hills, down in Ohio near the Kentucky and West Virginia borders, is a cool place to visit. I went with my wife this last weekend to hike there. According to her fitness app on her iPhone, we walked about 7½ miles and 37 flights of steps (equivalent). We did three hikes. I would have actually liked to do another one, but my wife injured her knee many decades ago, and it was feeling pretty sore. She was also just kind of done and tired in general. And then, the rain came in shortly after we called it, so it was probably for the best.

I would really like to go back and see more. This is my second time in the area, but the first time that I was actually in charge of the itinerary. Anyway, here's some pictures.

The place is pretty crowded any time that the weather is good, I think. But they weren't as crowded at every trail. Old Man's Cave and Ash Cave was crazy, but the Conkle's Hollow outer rim trail wasn't that bad (although I think the lower loop was crowded. The parking lot had plenty of people, and we could hear people down below from up on the rim.)

This isn't really exciting hiking, though. This is pull up with your family and a water bottle and walk for an hour or so, before driving to a new location and doing it again. I'm not suggesting that I'm at the point where that's the kind of hiking I'm migrating to, but with my wife and friends, I'll be doing more of that kind of less intense hiking, where I'm guaranteed to be back for dinner and sleep in a bed rather than a tent than I used to do.

Michigan and Ohio

I will almost certainly not do a big backpacking trip this year. I got laid off not long after coming back from the Bighorns, and while I found work again pretty quickly—better work, most likely even—my vacation is a bit limited this year because I'm still new at my new company. Just four months, even. 

However, since I live in the Midwest, my wife got some local small-hike books for us to do. We'll be doing hikes up near Traverse City and the Sleeping Bear Dunes, we'll be doing hikes at Hocking Hills State Park, and maybe we'll try and catch Cuyahoga National Park too. There will be a lot of smaller hikes too, that we'll do with some friends of ours. And there are places in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan that my wife and I would love to visit, like Tahquamenon Falls, or Pictured Rocks (you'll note I did pictured rocks with my son-in-law a year or two ago, but I'd like to go back with my wife at a different time of year.)

I've actually been to Hocking Hills before, although I didn't blog about it. I went with my oldest son about 12 years or so ago, and we did (among other things) rock climbing and rappelling there.

I'm not 100% sure I'm going to blog about most of these hikes, but if I can get some good pictures of them, I might.

Other than that, however, I doubt I'll have much to update this blog with this year. Hopefully in 2024 or 2025 I'll be in a position where I can afford to take time off for hiking in the Rockies again.