Turning the Next Corner - Day 89

  Today we turned north, hitting the farthest southeast corner of Ohio. Bill has just made the turn in this picture. He said, "Now the sun will be at our back all day." He was almost right. There were still switchbacks on the hills to make us squint into the sun. Please notice the word "sun." It was a most welcome addition to the day.

This section of the Wayne National Forest was really beautiful, and most of the trail was good (with some inevitable too-steep sections). Although we don't get to enjoy green at this time of the year, we really were able to get an expansive sense of the topography.

Early in the day we passed this beautiful waterfall. Perhaps it has no water at all except when the water is high. It has no name. I don't think the creek even has a name. It's on one of the dozens of intermittent streams in the area.

Two words that really describe the day are Caves and Rocks. The geology of this area is unglaciated, and the rock is relatively young- Permian and Pennsylvanian. There are lots of sandstone caves. I left this as a long shot so you can get a sense of the scale.

The rocks are impressive. This is another long shot so you can see the whole bluff of limestone. This area was unglaciated, so it didn't get ground down. But I don't know why these lines of rocks dominate some hillsides.

Here is one outcrop by the trail.

This is one of my favorite features in the Wayne, although I'll have to explain it. Draw an X through the picture from corner to corner. The line that goes from lower right to upper left passes through a light spot. That is actually where you are seeing light below the rock on top. This is a natural bridge. It formed when the back side of one of the caves collapsed, leaving an arch.

Now look at the line from top right to bottom left. This line passes almost across the top of the arch. The trail used to go there as well. Yes, we used to walk right over the top of this natural arch. Now, you have to take a little side trail to visit.

Here is the front of the arch. From this angle, you can easily see that it started out as a cave.

And, just because I want to show you, here is a picture of me sitting on this arch in 2001.

Miles today: 14.3. Total miles so far: 1132.1

See Into the Wayne