Out of Our Rut: Searching for Bigfoot at Salt Fork

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We had only made two reservations after the wedding in Columbus for the rest of April and most of May. We were trying to be flexible because we were expecting our furniture we ordered for the rig back at Thanksgiving to be coming into Elkhart during this timeframe. We booked a week at Salt Fork State Park. We have actually camped here before but it was way back in the fall of 2011 when we still had our 24’ travel trailer.

Salt Fork is Ohio’s largest state park and isn’t too far from where I grew up in Canton Ohio. I vaguely remember going there with my dad and our boat to fish back in the mid 1970’s. Let’s just say I don’t have any fresh recollections of the park. Salt Fork campground has nearly 200 sites but most of them are electric only sites. We had reserved a spot in the “C” Loop because there were only about 20 sites in this loop and half of them were full hookup sites. We hadn’t planned nearly far enough in advance to score a FHU site, but we figured the nearby shower house wouldn’t be too busy since the majority of the campers in this small loop would just use their rig’s facilities for their stay. As it turned out, the majority of the FHU sites had a pretty bad slope that would have made leveling our motorhome a bit of an issue. Coming in on a Monday afternoon meant the place was nearly empty.

The highlight of our stay at Salt Fork had to be the morning we woke up to an inch or so of snow! We had headed out of Florida because we had started to need our air conditioning in late March. Now we needed to crank up the furnace to stay warm. The rest of that day, there were intermittent snow showers but no new accumulation. By mid afternoon I realized that our furnace hadn’t kicked on and the indoor temperature had dropped well below our set point. I investigated but could not find a source of the problem. We reverted to using our rooftop heat pumps but that didn’t work well once the temperature dropped to near freezing. Our electric blanket and a small electric heater kept us from freezing overnight. The next day, I contacted the furnace manufacturer to get some advice. By the time I heard back from them, the furnace had started to work normally again. I checked the few suggestions they made but never discovered the real source of that issue. So far so good but I might order a spare “aquastat” they suspect had gone flaky.

Snow Day

Apparently Salt Fork has a bit of a reputation for having Bigfoot sightings! I’ll admit I hadn’t realized this prior to getting here. But Chris found all sorts of YouTube videos that give some background about this. One of the park’s naturalists even has done a series of 1 hour videos on the background of Bigfoot through the ages. They do some organized Bigfoot walks during the year (at least before COVID). We felt obligated to watch at least a few of the videos and kept track of the spots in the park where sightings have occurred. The Bigfoot that is local to this area is named the “Ohio Grassman”. The videos didn’t convince me such a creature exists here, but they did seem to do a number on my mind anytime we went for hikes in the woods.

There are several hiking trails that start in or near the C Loop. We took advantage when the weather was nice to get in a few hikes. Chris’ ankle was doing a bit better as long as she didn’t overdo things. We were just at the beginning of the spring season and there were a large number of trees and wildflowers in bloom many of the trees were only starting to leaf out so the dogwood blooms really stood out in the understory of the forest. Gunn’s Glenn Loop was quite a nice hike. The trailhead is about half a mile from camp but it was easy enough to just walk along the park road to do the hike. We saw the occasional trillium and lots of May Apples. It was hard to tell if the flowers had already bloomed and the apple was starting to form, or more likely the flower bud was just waiting for warmer weather to open up.

Mushrooms

Single Trillium

Dogwood in Bloom

Peaceful Trail

Violet

May Apple

Gunn's Glenn Trailhead

There are some other interesting sites within the park. The Stone House was built in 1840. It is a beautiful home with a few out buildings including a root cellar. The view of the lake from this spot isn’t bad either. The museum wasn’t open yet this early in the season but we could peek thru the windows to get a glimpse of the furnishings inside.

Beautiful "Stone House"

Root Cellar Behind Stone House

View of Lake from Stone House

A Glimpse Inside

The history of the the lake and state park isn’t that old. The original idea for the dam was to simply create a water source for the nearby town of Cambridge but evolved over planning stages to become a large recreation area. The dam was completed in 1967 and a huge lodge and conference center was completed in 1972. So the lake was relatively new when I came fishing here. Our next driving stop was at the lodge. It is near a rather large public golf course. I’m not a golfer but given the undulating hills, I suspect it might be a tough course to play and a golf cart is likely a must! The lodge itself is rather large with a couple of wings that contain the 148 guest rooms.

Salt Fort Lodge and Conference Center

We wandered around the inside of the lodge. With three floors, there were lots of places to sit near one of the several fireplaces. There is a bit of an arts and crafts feel to the place with a few rustic deer antler lamps. The day we visited was mid week and not very crowded. The large outdoor pool area was just starting to be cleaned up although it wasn’t clear what COVID restrictions might do to limit the facilities. We ended up spotting the “Ohio Grassman”, or at least a very nicely carved wooden replica outside one of the bars.

Large Fireplace on Upper Floor

Cozy Sitting Area

Antler Lamp

Chris Makes a Friend

Those ARE Big Feet

Another Fire Place

The day use areas within Salt Fork State Park are free to the public. While the campground has its own small beach area, there is a much larger beach near a nature center and concession stand. It was pretty desolate on the day we visited but based on the size of the parking lots, they appear to be able to handle a few hundred carloads of beach goers. One area that was getting some use was the 1 acre fenced in dog park with its own small beach area. One of the huskies enjoying the park came over to great us as we walked by. Our Shelby would have loved playing here.

Campground Beach

Salt Fork Nature Center

Main Beach at Salt Fork State Park

Overlooking Dog Park

Part way through our seven night stay, the Jeep started to have some issues. A loud clunking noise from the front end suspension made me worry something was going to break and fall off the car. I crawled underneath as best I could but didn’t spot the source of the problem. We called around and found a dealer in Zanesville that could get the car in at least for an assessment but not until the day we were scheduled to leave Salt Fork. We decided that it might make sense to cancel the second reservation we had made at Mohican State Park up near Mansfield Ohio since it wasn’t clear towing the Jeep would be safe and we could easily extend our stay at Salt Fork and even stay in the same site. When I took the car in to be diagnosed, it turned out to be something that wasn’t a safety issue nor would it cause more damage by driving it. But unfortunately the parts needed were not at any nearby dealership, even as far away as Columbus. It would take a few days to get them in and given the track record of getting deliveries on time - who knew?

We managed to enjoy the few remaining days in Salt Fork while we waited for parts. I did a few solo bike rides in the park. It turns out this park is quite hilly and can be a challenge to ride. We also did the very short hike to a place called Hosak’s Cave. This is a very short but challenging hike over some very uneven terrain. Chris managed to make it back to the cave even with her bum ankle. On either side of the trail were some sloped hills that were loaded with trillium in bloom. The cave itself is off limits to visitors. At least now it is. There was a small statue at the trailhead that explained how a 14 year old girl had fallen to death from the top of the cave. I suspect this statue and plaque does more to prevent people from entering the cave than any of the other signs along the way.

Approaching Hosak's Cave

Side Slopes Were Full of Trillium

Trillium Close Up

Entrance Statue with a Sad Lesson

We had already booked a site at Dillon State Park just outside of Zanesville to cover the upcoming weekend and to be close to where the Jeep would get fixed. However, we got lucky and the parts for the Jeep arrived as scheduled so I was able to drive back over to Zanesville on Thursday to get that fixed. On our last day, of what turned out to be an 11 night stay at Salt Fork, we had some time to kill since check out here was 1 PM and check in at Dillon wasn’t until 3 PM. There were a few more hikes that we hadn’t gotten in. Chris decided to rest her ankle so I went solo.

Morgan’s Knob and Pine Crest Loop both start at a trailhead just across the road from the golf course. I had intended to just try the former since I thought it might give a view of the dam. It was a nice trail with a bit of a climb up the knob, but alas the tree cover prevented any real views of the lake or dam.

Ferns Unfurling

Cool Moss "Forest"

As I got back to parking and saw the sign for Pine Crest Loop, I figured I could squeeze this one in too before needing to get back to the rig to break camp and head out. This trail was on of the better ones in the park. There were some nice views of the lake and some of the cabins that visitors can rent during their stay. There were some very large erratics left behind by the last glaciers in this area. Having the trails to myself, I found myself stopping occasionally and just looking all around with the hopes of seeing Bigfoot! I saw a few strange shadows going thru the woods but quickly realized they were simply the shadows from large birds circling overhead. All the trails in the park are well marked and one of the markers had the sticker that showed I was on the right path for Bigfoot. When I got back close to the parking area, I heard lots of voices. There were at least 40 people with boots, hiking poles and backpacks milling around the parking lot. I asked one couple whether this was an organized hike or a search party sent by my wife since I had been gone longer than planned. It was just a hike.