Maybe this should go on ruralohio.com, but sometimes this urban aficianado likes to get out in the country. I like the city, and I like the country, but I like them separate and distinct, without suburbs and exurbs blurring the distinction with the worst of both worlds.

 

So I went to Southeast Ohio to hike a seven-mile portion of the Stockport Section of the Buckeye Trail with my brother who is a volunteer and board member for the trail association. (The trail is 50 years old this year.) We started in Noble County and ended in Morgan County. Our hike was mostly on unreclaimed strip-mine land that nonetheless was reclaimed by nature and is very pleasant.

 

Who knew the Lincoln Highway was a dirt road in Noble County?

 

I was surprised to see a lake in the woods, and then realized the steep hill behind it was a strip-mine highwall. We saw lots of lakes left behind by Big Muskie, the giant dragline whose bucket is in a park a few miles away.

 

I was even more surprised to see an old barn standing in the woods. No doubt it belonged to a hardscrabble farmer who sold the mineral rights, or the land, and moved away, leaving the barn and pasture to turn into woodland.

 

Barn again

 

My brother on the trail, which he helped build

 

Example of the aforementioned lakes and streams

 

Brother on the highwall

 

Me on the highwall

 

There was a beaver dam along here

 

And this is the beaver

 

Out of the woods for a stretch

 

A new bridge, built by Boy Scouts last year

 

Another of the many creeks we crossed

 

A beaver did this

 

The wind did this. Note the swatch of blue paint on the tree in the foreground. That's one of the blue blazes that mark the trail on its 1,400-mile loop around the state.

 

The biggest lake we saw, and the biggest highwall

 

Then we realized the lake was so big because beavers had dammed the stream. And we had to cross the dam to connect with the rest of the trail.

 

Damn dam!

 

Then we took a short drive to a nearby covered bridge, no longer in use, and in land altered by strip mining and land reclamation. At least it was saved, while others in the county were lost.

 

From the other side

The last two photos - reclaimed strip mine land? It looks nice from afar, but is it production grade soil? The terrain is much easier to work with in southeast Ohio, because some of the lands have been converted into farms or woodland, but if you've been to West Virginia and seen their "reclamation," you'll know the dark side of strip mining. Likewise, many strip mines in the Vesuvius N.F. have yet to be reclaimed (e.g. a lot of Lawrence County).

Thanks!

Must be really beautiful in the summer.

The last two photos - reclaimed strip mine land? It looks nice from afar, but is it production grade soil? The terrain is much easier to work with in southeast Ohio, because some of the lands have been converted into farms or woodland, but if you've been to West Virginia and seen their "reclamation," you'll know the dark side of strip mining. Likewise, many strip mines in the Vesuvius N.F. have yet to be reclaimed (e.g. a lot of Lawrence County).

 

I don't know details about this particular land, but in my newspaper-reporter days, I interviewed a Colorado rancher who moved his Longhorn herd to Belmont County in eastern Ohio and grazed them on reclaimed strip land. He had the occasional problems with sinkholes -- even lost a steer to one -- and said the land wasn't much good for anything but grazing. On the other hand, he said reclaimed land in SE Ohio, with all its problems, is far, far better than good rangeland in Colorado. He called SE Ohio a potential goldmine for cattle.

A friend used to own property a few miles up the road from the ferry landing at

Fly, and I tromped the area quite a few times in the sixties, both in his company and solo. It wasn't reclaimed mine land, but it showed many topographical features similar to your photos.

 

There was a township road near his place, but the private road to his property ran sharply downhill and had a clay surface. If it rained there was no getting out, even with 4WD, until the surface dried. He had a winch on his truck, but I always parked at the road and walked in along the creek.

 

I camped there a few times, and once in April about two inches of snow fell overnight. In the morning there were myriad critter tracks of various kinds in the snow, evidence that my tent had been thoroughly inspected while I slept.

 

Beaver says, "get off my dam house!"

If I were looking at the pictures and didn't know otherwise, i'd say you were in Adams County. SE Ohio is beautiful especially in the fall.

Great photos of an interesting part of the state.  Photos threads like this validate UrbanOhio's home page mission statement that "...(Ohio) has one of the greatest diversity of land for a state its size." 

 

Perfect time of the year for these photos.  The trees haven't leafed out yet, so you can still see medium and distant views.  But the some foliage is starting to bud out, so its starting to green up and doesn't look as barren as a wintertime view.  After you posted these photos, the Dispatch travel reporter had a Buckeye Trail article in the Sunday paper (4/26/09).  Here's a link to the full article Buckeye Trail cuts circular path through amazing diversity of Ohio and below is a map of the entire Buckeye Trail included with the article.

 

Yes. A fine article. My brother is the Buckeye Trail board member quoted early in the story.

Strip mining is pretty dirty, but it does leave some interesting sights behind. The strip mined are north of Zanesville is a moonscape of hills, highwalls, wide gravel roads and occasional undisturbed graveyards. I think it's about as lost as you can get in the State of Ohio.

I like how the trail is sort of shaped like the outline of the US.

 

Things to do: hike/ride the entire Buckeye Trail.

Beaver dams are remarkable feats of engineering; they're surprisingly effective, and if one gets damaged the beavers quickly get to work making repairs.

 

Sadly, Indiana DNR considers beavers to be pests because their dams cause lowlands near streams to flood, causing problems for the subdivisions that never should have been built there. Beavers built a dam nearly five feet high in a creek that runs through a woods on our farm, and although I never sat still long enough to see the beavers at work, I loved how the once-shallow stream had become deep and wide enough for canoeing and good fishing.

 

One one visit, I discovered that the dam and den had been dynamited without any contact with the property owners (my brother and me), and there was no trace of the beavers any more.

I like how the trail is sort of shaped like the outline of the US.

 

Things to do: hike/ride the entire Buckeye Trail.

 

Sans the portion in Clermont County. It was hideous and not that scenic.

Always fascinated by this trail, thanks for the pictures!

 

Would be a nice trail to use if it wasn't so isolated and in such rough shape in most parts. Up by Taylorsville Dam in Dayton, it is EXTREMELY hard to tell where it passes through.

I'm a fan of this trail too (and the American Discovery trail).  Trying to get the kids to do more hiking on it, but not too successful yet.

This could be a big investment in some under invested areas and would hopefully bring some tourism dollars along with it. 

 

Rep. Tim Ryan seeks national designation for Buckeye Trail in Ohio 

 

https://www.cleveland.com/news/2022/02/rep-tim-ryan-seeks-national-designation-for-buckeye-trail-in-ohio.html