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Sunday, February 27, 2022

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. hiker with turn blaze

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. hiker in Wayne National Forest

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. waterfall

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. sandstone cave

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. limestone bluff

Here is one outcrop by the trail. limestone outcrop

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. natural arch in the Wayne National Forest

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

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


Miles today: 14.3. Total miles so far: 1132.1

See Into the Wayne

2 comments:

HannahBWalking said...

Part of the Archers Fork loop! One of my favorite places! You should have more sun tomorrow...enjoy!

Here in the woods said...

Very cool that you had a picture when you walked it before! Keep on trucking! Loren