I woke up refreshed and ready for the day. After brushing my teeth and making a shake I headed to Hocking Hills State Park about 1.5 hours away. The drive was relaxing and whereas Kentucky had fields filled with cows and horses Ohio's' fields were of corn and other grain products. The hills are not as steep as those found in Kentucky and they tend to be gentle rolling hills. I pulled into the park with zero cell service around 09:00 am.
At the camp store I obtained a map and got out some carrots and hummus to snack on before my hike. When I parked over at the Old Man's Cave parking lot I put on my hiking boots and got my pack ready for a day of hiking. Right away the trail started with amazing waterfalls within a magnificent gorge. I would come across: Upper Falls, Middle Falls, Lower Falls and the "cave" throughout my hike. It was so green and to be honest I don't have the words to truly describe the beauty of this place that would do it justice. A small stream bubbled along the entire trail as birds flitted about and the sun shone through the tree tops speckling the earth below with light. After Old Man's Cave I continued to Cedar Falls that passed through the "most exquisite area in Hocking Hills." It was laden with Hemlock and bound by steep rock walls and their accompanying grottoes and waterfalls I think when I was at the falls I caught a man asking a woman to marry him and she said yes.
The next leg of my hike led me to Ash Cave and was mostly on old forest roads. One could tell the landscape had changed for it opened up and was comprised of hemlocks, beech trees and various other hardwoods. Throughout this section the wind was blowing so fiercely it caused all the trees to wave back and forth. Above me it sounded as though stags were locked in an eternal battle it was so loud. Every few minutes a branch or even a full tree would fall down around me. When I reached Ash Cave I saw a brown bat fly away and I snapped some pictures before going back the way I had come. Near the end of the 14 miles my feet were dragging and unfortunately my phone died so my Strava app stopped recording at mile 10. When I reached my camper, I drove further away from people to park and make a wrap for lunch. It was a difficult task for the wind was blowing so strongly that my lettuce kept flying away along with everything else! Once I finished my wrap and a glass of tonic water flavored with cucumber I drove back to the camp store to get directions to the nearest hardware store since I did not have cell service to look it up.
Twenty minutes later I was at the Tractor Supply store in Logan looking once again for Eva-dry and/or Solar Seal. There I was asked by a guy in a cowboy hat if I was finding everything alright. I asked about the supplies I was looking for which they didn't have and we continued to talk in the aisle for a few minutes. Before leaving the store he gave me his card with his number in case I wanted to hang out later or tomorrow. As I left the Tractor Supply store I drove north to Lancaster where I stopped at a Lowe's with no success either. By this time it was 16:00 and a beautiful day out but my feet were sore and I didn't want to hike anymore and I needed to figure out where to spend the evening. Finally, I settled for staying at a Flying J's for the evening and hitting up a Starbucks nearby in the morning. At the travel plaza I bought a bag of skinny popcorn, which I practically ate the entire bag that night, and bought an Arizona green tea. I wrote in my journal, responded to messages for work and best of all it was hot in my camper :).
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