September 8, 2016–C&O Canal Intro.

We will be visiting sections of the C&O Canal during our journey, however along the way we will also visit other things of interest.  The Canal was built east to west, from Washington DC to Cumberland, MD, but we will tour it in the opposite direction.  Our fasination with this is the history attached, not only of the Canal itself, but as a reflection of our country’s development.  Think of the events that occurred during the late 1700s to late 1800s.

A little history of the Canal first.  George Washington envisioned a westward expansion in the 1700s that would connect Pittsburgh (the Ohio River) to Georgetown (later Washington, DC).   At the time, the US capitol was Philadelphia, and DC didn’t exist, remember this is prior to the Revolutionary War.  So it was his dream to connect the Ohio and Potomac Rivers.  He was going to name it the Patowmack Canal.  Well that didn’t happen, but in 1829 based on his vision, construction of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal began.  By 1839 they had made it to Hancock, about 130 miles. 

A shortage of funds, labor problems, constructing a tunnel (the Paw Paw Tunnel), and the recently completed railroad connecting Baltimore and Cumberland nearly killed the whole project with only 50 miles remaining to complete.  The Canal was completed in 1850 but ran only to Cumberland, not Pittsburgh as originally planned.  Not much happened until after the Civil War.  As growth in Washington exploded, the Canal carried coal, building products, farm goods, you name it.  It took approximately 5 days to complete the journey.

Business boomed until 1889 when a flood destroyed the Canal.  It went bankrupt, bought out by the B&O Railroad and reorganized in 1902, but commerce never returned.  Another flood in 1924 pretty much was the end.  In all, 184.5 miles of ditch and towpath were laid between Cumberland and Washington.  They built 74 lift locks (there is a 600 foot differential between Cumberland and Chesapeake Bay), 7 dams, 11 aqueducts, and a 3,118 foot tunnel.  Considering the tools of the day it is pretty amazing.

The first part of our journey will cover Cumberland MM 184.5 to Williamsport MM 100.  Not sure how much you will be able to decipher from the map, but hopefully it will give you and idea of where we’re at, and where we’re going.

 

September 5, 6, & 7–Hocking Hills, Ohio

After a short drive we arrived in Logan, however, finding the campground was another story.  The roads into Hocking Hills are twisty, narrow, 2 lane, blacktop with lots of hills.  Guess that’s why it has the name.  Garmin screwed us up by indicating, “You have reached your destination”,  about 1/2 mile too soon.  Signage for the campground was non-existent.  A road off to the left of the “destination” looked promising, so we took it.  OMG!!!  It was with steeper hills, big ruts for shoulders, and very twisty.  Car and Driver ranks these roads their favorite to drive.  Hey, try it with a 4 ton trailer! 

Couldn’t call for directions; no cell service.  After several a - -  puckering miles, we returned to Hwy 664 to find that had we gone straight 1/2 mile instead of turning left we would have been at the campground entrance.   Ms. Garmin almost became a UFO!! 

The campground is a disappointment.  Sites are tight, paved, but not anywhere near level.  The showers are from the 60s with push button 30 second squirts, with little privacy.  Worst of all, last cleaning appears to have been Memorial Day.  If we return here camping, it will not be in this State Park.  Boy, you don’t appreciate Michigan’s parks until you experience one of these. 

Tuesday - A new day and we are here to hike the trails.  So we laced on out hikers and set off for three trails.  The first is the most popular, Old Man’s Cave.

A significant formation here is the Sphinx Head.  It is the Park’s icon.

 

A big feature in the area are waterfalls, streams, and rapids.  That’s what carved these formations.  Well, the heat and lack of rain has dried everything up.  We supected that would be possible, but the formations nontheless are quite spectacular.  The trails are short, most less than a mile, and in good condition.  The CCC constructed most of the paths, steps, bridges, tunnels, etc. 90 years ago to make it possible to get around here. 

Our second trail was to Ash Cave.  Said to be the largest cave formation in Ohio.  It is a whopper and the acoustics are amazing.  It got its name from ash remnants on the floor left from Indian ceremonial fires.  No sign of it today, too many footprints.

Notice the size of the people for perspective on this cave’s size.

Our last stop today was Rock House.  This very large formation has a huge interior cavern, thus the name.

  

Here are a few odds and ends that show the interesting shape and color in these formations.

We covered a little over 6 miles today, so we should sleep well tonight!

Wednesday - Its getting a bit warm and muggy around here.  The only remaining trail we wanted to hike was the Cantwell Cliffs trail.  Looking at the map it appears to be a doosey.  So off we went this morning and our estimates were not wrong.  Although only a mile in length, half of it is down and the other half up.  These are the steps down into the gorge.

The formations were quite pretty.  There is (was) a river that flows though, but dried up.

This is our last day in Hocking Hills and we have enjoyed our visit (except for the campground).  It was a suprise to us that Ohio has this kind of scenery.  We may want to come back in late spring sometime so we can see these features with water flowing.  It might be pretty cool in the winter also.

Tomorrow we head to Flintsone, MD to begin our tour of the C&O Canal.

September 3 & 4, 2016 – Cavern, Critters, and Trails

The park has filled up completely since Friday; no open sites.  Been experiencing a 4 hour, power blackout from about 2 or 3 AM to 6 or 7 AM every night starting Thursday.  Inquired at office,  reponse was, unknown cause and we are the only ones to complain.  While we are not sure as to the extent, we are quite sure it isn’t just us.  Maybe a state thing to save money? 

On Saturday, we visited the Olentangy  Indian Cavern.  Discovered in the late 1790s and used by the early Indians until the mid 1800s.  It sat unused and pilferred for nearly a hundred years.  The land was bought and tours began.  It changed hands a few times, but tours were the main money maker.  The cave geologically is small and unremarkable, but it’s history is significant.  There are carvings and rock shaping by the Wyandotte Indians who lived in the cave for several years to avoid conflicts with the Iroquois, but little is identified in the cave.  Maybe on the guided tours, not held today, those items are pointed out. All the stalagmites and stalagtites have been stolen, some flow stone and beehive stalagmites do exist.

Since the cavern isn’t very big, to keep people there and spending money, they have a gem “mining” sluice and an animal petting area.  We went to the petting area with the deer, goats, and cows; Lynn was in her element.  The critters were just lying around, so Lynn yanked some weeds through the fence.  She became very popular, very fast, offering them a “snack.”

Even Dan got in on the action.

Sunday we visited one of the metro parks, Highlands Metro Park, located near the campground.  The park was located along a slate ridge along the Olentangy River.  There were several trails we walked, most not that special.  We have just seen so many unusual natural things on trails, it really takes something special to impress us.  The slate walls along the ravine were interesting and weep water after a good rainfall.  Not the case today since up until the past week or so, they too have been in a drought.

There was a really big and interesting mushroom on one of the trails.

 

There was a nice overlook on one trail.

Tomorrow we head for Hocking Hills State Park, near Logan, OH.  Only 75 miles from here. 

The park has several scenic trails that we plan on checking out.

September 2, 2016–Origami and Butterflies

Woke to a beautiful sunny and cool day.  What a relief from the 90s and humidity!  Today we visited the Franklin Conservatory a couple miles east of Columbus.  Having seen so many fantastic gardens and conservatories in our travels, we came with some pretty high expectations.  This park was OK, but did not impress.  There were however three elements that made it worth the visit.

First were several pieces from Dale Chihuly.  We’ve become big fans of his work, so these were a treat to see.

The second was a display of Origami works.  If you’re not familiar with Origami, it is a Japanese art form that creates objects from a flat sheet of paper through a series of folds and creases.  Actually, a paper airplane is a form of Origami.  What surprised us were the several large sculptures on display throughout the park.  These were not paper.  Since they were outside in many cases, being made of paper would be a problem in the rain.  Well, they are actually stainless steel cast from an origami paper object.  We have no idea how they did this, nor how they are coated to look like paper.  We think it maybe some type of powder coating.

Here are a few pictures.  The first shows the Origami object along with the sheet of paper showing the creases neccessary to make the object from a single piece of flat paper.

How do they figure out where to make the creases???

 

The third cool feature in the Park, was what they call Butterfies and Blooms.  They have a large conservatory of tropical plants where they release butterflies into the area.  But the most interesting part is a display area showing the butterflies emerging from their chrysalises.  Some pictures follow.

 

The chrysalis is hung upside down, as in nature, allowing gravity to assist the butterfly in emerging.   Most butterflies only live 2 to 3 weeks.  They fly around, eat, try not to BE eaten, and lay eggs.  Not much of a life.

The chrysalises that Franklin uses come from all over the world.  These are mostly from South America.  They have to be very careful not to let any of butterflies get loose.  They use double doors and the last set are monitored to make sure none escape.  Their larva could raise havoc with our eco-system here.

Campground is full tonight.  Activity picked up big time since yesterday.  Not sure what we are doing for the next couple days.

September 1, 2016 – Brooks Was Here

Today’s journey takes us to the Ohio State Reformatory.  What?, you may ask.  Well, it was the set for the movie “ The Shawshank Redemption”, one of Dan’s favorites.  In the movie, Shawshank prison was in Maine, not Ohio.  It follows the the life of Andy Dufresene, convicted of killing his wife and her lover. If you haven’t seen it, it’s worth the watch.  Many of the scene locations are identified on the self guided tour we took.

Historically, the prison was built between 1895 and 1910, as a halfway house with the goal of educating and training inmates to allow them to get jobs once freed.  It worked and was well known for its success.  That all changed in the early 70s when a fire destroyed the max security prison in Columbus.  They sent over 1000 inmates to OSR, nearly doubling its population, which was already pushing 90% capacity.  7x9 foot cells that housed 2 inmates, now held 4 and they were very, bad guys.

The reform programs ceased.  Violence and crime escalated until the prison was finally closed in 1990.  There are two replacement prisons, on or near this property.  Richland, a minimum security prison with the “reformable” inmates like those that used to be at OSR and Mansfield Correctional a max security facilty for the really bad guys.  Some were transferred from OSR when it closed.  To make way for these, much of the original Reformatory was torn down.  It is easy to see Richland out the back windows of OSR.

So who was Brooks?  He ran the library in the movie. His engraving was in a hotel room he lived in.  Oh, there is no longer a license plate shop or any other out buildings.  So we couldn’t enjoy a cold “Bohemian” on the roof.

The “patina” and the place’s popularity with Hollywood reminds us of the old train depot and Packard Plant in Detroit.  They have done some minimum restoration, but do not plan to go much further.  Mostly just to accomodate laws for public access.  

 

A pretty interesting day.

August 31, 2016 - On Our Way

Got an early start this morning for our trip to Alum Creek State Park, near Delaware, Ohio.  Even though the trip was only 200 miles, we were a little concerned about delays related to road repairs on I 75, especially in Ohio.  There was significant construction until well south of Toledo, but very lttle delay.  We got to Alum Creek about 2 PM.  Luckily we beat the big rain storm which hit about 3:30.

The campsite is really nice sized, good spacing, treed perimeter, paved, with good park roads.  The bathouse is OK, but not as nice as we’ve seen.  Our home for the next 5 days.

The worst of the trip was Michigan’s end of I-75.  Since we run 60 to 65, we get relegated to the right truck lane.  Even trucks pass us.  They should rename it Michigan’s Baja.  Anyone who wants to make a case for Michigan’s crappy roads and too heavy trucks should drive the right 2 lanes of this poor excuse for an Interstate.  Many areas were too rough to run above 50 mph.  Geez, the truck traffic, in the 100’s, nose to tail, occupy both lanes.

Fortunately, we tie all our cabinet doors shut, because as usual, the bumps unlatched a couple of the cabinets, but being tied kept the contents from escaping.  We’ve learned that lesson the hard way.

Our 2016 Adventure Planned Journey

This year’s journey takes us into the Appalacian mountains in West Virginia.  The general route we plan to take is shown in this picture.

We will begin August 31st, so check back for updates.