Today was a great day on the trail, but tough. But first, a bit about last night. We couldn’t find a nearby place to camp, but I discovered a nice spot on Tabor Ridge via AirBnB.This view is of the sunrise from the cottage.
Now, back to the day. Ed and I dropped my car at Wolf Run State Park, where we’ll be camping tonight and tomorrow. Then we drove back to my starting point. The weather was sunny and warm.
Almost as soon as I started, there was a gigantic uphill on gravel, which is hard on my bad knee. Since Ed is unable to hike this time, due to his kidney stone surgery, he recommended that he shuttle me up the trail so I could hike the ginormous hill downhill. Then he could shuttle me back up and I’d continue on. Genius!
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Heading to Road Fork Section Point 6
For the rest of the day, we employed this strategy. Any time there was a very steep uphill, he’d shuttle me so I could hike it down. Last year, the head of this trail section said it was the hilliest/toughest of the entire Buckeye Trail, and that it was much harder hiking it eastbound versus westbound. So, yeah – a good strategy.
At one point in the morning, I passed about six cars parked on the side of the road, all with signs in the windshields saying they were hiking the Buckeye Trail. Then, one by one, I ran into each of them, as we were hiking in opposite directions. That was fun!
A Long Day Finally Ends
I felt good much of the day until maybe 2 p.m. Ed had to keep shuttling me back and forth,
because the steep uphills were unending. And most of this was on gravel, which was shredding my feet. In two spots, there were crazy dogs that he shuttled me past (one shuttle was recommended by the dog owner; not sure why she didn’t just put her dog in the house … ).
We also had no wifi all day, just as yesterday. This is challenging, both for wayfinding and if either one of us was in trouble.
But tonight we’ve settled in at Wolf Run. Because it’s so early in the season, there are only a few campers here, so we have the bathrooms and showers largely to ourselves! As always, it will be interesting to see what the next day brings. (Flatter trails, I hope!)
Snowshoe
Ohio NCT miles today: 18.4 (29.6 km)
Ohio NCT miles to date: 804.7 (1,295 km)
Total NCT miles to date: 3,652.4 (5,878 km)
Total NCT miles to go: 947.6 (1,525 km)
Most useful gear today: My Prana hiking pants, which protected me from the sun, gravel and dust!
