A Stop in Zanesville Ohio

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I had mentioned in the last post that after Salt Fork State Park we had reservations at Mohican State Park. We had forwarded our snail mail from our mail service in Florida to the local post office and had even scheduled to get our second Moderna shot while we were there. When we had car problems, we had cancelled the campground reservation and our vaccine shot, extended our stay at Salt Fork and reserved a campsite in Zanesville Ohio at Dillon State Park for 4 nights to get us through the upcoming weekend since this was near the place where the Jeep was to be fixed. It ended up that the parts required got in on time and were able to get the car repaired even before we headed to Dillon State Park. The drive from Salt Fork to Dillon is a short one of just over 50 miles. Generally we avoid traveling on Fridays and Sundays since that is when all the weekend RVers are on the road, but life happens and we have to be flexible. There were lots of others coming into camp on a Friday afternoon and the place was nearly full over the weekend.

Vaccine appointments were becoming easier to get so we booked one for that same evening at a Kroger pharmacy in the nearby town of Newark Ohio. We stopped and picked up some pizza at Elliot’s Wood Fired Kitchen in Newark and headed to a place called Newark Earthworks to eat and kill some time before our appointments. We discovered the pizza we got was some of the best we have had in quite some time. After eating we wandered the grounds at the Earthworks. What is Newark Earthworks? It consists of a series of earthen architectural features created by the ancient Hopewell Culture between 100 B.C. and 500 A.D. The largest creation is the Great Circle Earthworks. It is a circular mound of earth roughly 8 feet tall and 40 feet wide with a 5 foot deep moat around the inside of the circle. Maybe it doesn’t sound that impressive until you discover it has a diameter of nearly 1200 feet! It is believed to be some sort of ceremonial center for the Hopewell.

Steps Over Great Circle Earthworks

We walked around the park to see it from different angles but it is so large that it is difficult to envision it at ground level. I have used Google Earth to get an aerial view of the place and put in a elevation plot which shows the profile along the yellow line I drew. Hard to believe the effort required to accomplish this 2000 years ago. It was a pretty evening to enjoy the views. One of the trees within the circle had hundreds of tennis ball sized galls all over the branches. They almost appeared to have something else that was about to grow out of the galls - quite odd! We headed a mile down the road and eventually got our second COVID shot.

Aerial and Elevation Profile of Great Circle

On Top of Circle

Moat Next to Mound

Strange Gall on Branch of Tree

Of course, there was still the issue of our mail sitting in the post office in Loudonville Ohio near Mohican State Park. It’s a 60 mile drive but we didn’t have much choice. We got our mail without an issue but we decided to take advantage of the trip and actually visit Mohican State Park as well to see what we were missing. We are finding that the Ohio State Parks we have visited are free to visit the day use areas unlike ones in Michigan, Arizona and Texas to name a few. The park has driving tour route and that seemed like a good way to check out the park for the several hours we had to explore. First stop is the Gorge Overlook. Several trails start out of this parking area but they have signs about them being challenging terrain. We figure we didn’t need to stress Chris’ bum ankle any more than needed.

View at Gorge Overlook

Stop #2 is the Fire Tower. I enjoy climbing fire towers when we find them since they give great views of the surroundings. So many aren’t open to the public and at first I was optimistic this one was open based on the sign stating no more than 6 visitors are permitted at one time. Alas the plywood nailed over the first set of stairs led me to believe they really don’t want people climbing it. And while I likely could have gotten around the obstacle, I decided to behave and just check it our from below. Across the street from the fire tower was a shorter trail thru a natural area that seemed easy enough to give it a try.

Mohican Fire Tower

Looking Up the Fire Tower

Stop #3 is the Covered Bridge. At first it looked like the type of old covered bridge you might find in Vermont, but it turns out this one is a bit of an imitation. The bridge was built in 1968 and is modern construction with a covered bridge facade placed over it. At least the lumber used on the bridge was made from trees harvested within the state park.

Covered Bridge over Mohican River

There were a couple of trails starting from the covered bridge that looked interesting so we headed back to the car to eat half our lunch before heading out. As we were eating there was a family - mom, dad, 2 young kids and a labrador - that was just preparing their inflatable raft for a trip down the river. It wasn’t perfectly clear the dog was thrilled with the idea but seemed to do fine as they pushed off. We started out on the Lyons Falls Trail. It started out generally following the river. There were lots of spring wildflowers in bloom along the trail. After half a mile, you can continue straight along the river, or turn left and head to the falls. Chris was doing fine so off to the falls we went. It was uphill along a small creek but not too strenuous. After 0.4 miles, we arrive at Big Lyons Falls and find a few others enjoying the stop. The water was more than a trickle, but definitely not raging over the 80 foot drop.

Trillium

At Big Lyons Falls

Heading away from the falls is a rather large wooden staircase. In another 1/3 mile we reach Little Lyons Falls. With only a 25 foot drop, it’s not quite as impressive, but the trail does cross right over the falls with a new looking bridge. More wildflowers were seen all along the trail with some Jack in the Pulpits just starting to bloom.

Stairs Big Lyons Falls

Another Trillium

Little Lyons Falls

Jack in the Pulpit

The trail comes back down to the river area and you can either head back downstream along the west side of the river back to where we started, or head upstream a quarter mile to Pleasant Hill Dam. We chose the later. It is an impressive 113 foot tall earthen dam created by the Army COE back in the late 1930’s for flood control. There is a large control gate tower that regulates the water level. There is a large spillway 45 feet higher than normal lake water level. I’d hate to think how large Pleasant Hill Lake would get if this spillway ever was used.

Spillway and Control Tower at Pleasant Hill Dam

Besides backtracking the way we came, there is the Pleasant Hill trail that follows the river on its eastern side. There is a massive staircase that goes down from the top of the dam to the outlet water level. There is a great deal of water being released from the control gate. It’s clear why there are so many river rafting businesses in town. This trail back to the car is much easier and nearly flat. The only issues are the handful of low lying muddy sections that need to be negotiated. In all, this was a very nice 3 mile loop. Although it tired us out enough that we decided to skip the rest of the auto tour and start heading back to camp. It looks like Mohican State Park should stay on our list to visit when we return to this part of Ohio.

Overlooking Outlet Side of Dam

Heading Down the Stairs

Water Released Thru Dam

Looking Back at Dam from Below

On Sunday, while most of the campers were packing up to leave, I decided to give some of the mountain bike trails in Dillon a try. There are over 11 miles of single track that winds thru the park. They are rated as intermediate to difficult, so Chris opted out. I found a path out of the campground that got me to the mountain bike trails. Fortunately I had downloaded the trail maps to my Garmin GPSr so I had a better chance of staying on the intended trail. Besides the ones for biking, there are equestrian and hiking trails and they intersect rather frequently. The trail was in reasonably good shape but it was rather hilly and apparently I’m not in nearly good enough shape. Several of the bridges at water crossing didn’t look sturdy enough to support me and the bike but none of them gave way. After a couple miles, I decided that this wasn’t really any fun for me and I bailed onto one of the park roads to get back to camp. If I was only 30 again!

Just before dark that night, I went out to do a night cache. The concept of a night cache is the hider will place “fire tacks” on trees along a trail to lead you to the final cache container. Fire tacks are similar to thumb tacks but with a very reflective head. After dark, a bright flashlight is used to spot the tack. When you get to the first one, you look around for the next one and just keep going. Most of the night caches we have done are short - a quarter mile or less. But from the sounds of this one, it was more involved and didn’t always follow a trail. Chris decided that traipsing thru the woods after dark with an injured ankle might be a bad idea so I headed out solo. The tacks were generally spaced so that the next one could be spotted from the current one, but not always. On a few occasions, I found myself wandering aimlessly and being forced to turn back to the last know tack and try again. This night cache was close to a mile long and took me almost an hour to complete but I found the final ammo can in the woods. Getting out of the woods and back to the motorhome was another story!

Part of the reason we had been bopping around this part of the country was be able to head to Elkhart Indiana to have our new motorhome furniture installed. We had placed the order at Thanksgiving and were told the lead time was about 16 weeks or so. We knew with COVID, that would likely get pushed out a bit. We had allotted most of April and May to get this completed. But we are at 22 weeks since we ordered and already into early May. We contacted the company we are working with to see if they might have any updates. Turns out the big snowstorm that hit Texas this past February had damaged the main factory that produces foam for most of the furniture industry. We had seen something about this on the evening news a couple months ago and apparently the impact is real. Our contact told us not to expect it for another month or so. Since we already have reservations for June through September down in the Asheville North Carolina area and for Florida starting in November, it looks like furniture will have to wait until sometime in October. Hopefully it will be ready by then!

Since we aren’t headed to Indiana, we decided to figure out the rest of our stops in May as we head towards Asheville. We have been enjoying our stops in Ohio State Parks, so we added a couple more days here at Dillon and reserved a couple other state parks for the upcoming weeks - more on those in upcoming posts.

Our neighbor at Dillon SP was a local and gave us a suggestion of what else there is to see in the area. Blackhand Gorge recreation area isn’t very far from Dillon but from their description, sounded worth a visit. A paved 4.3 mile trail follows the path of an old railroad bed that snakes along the Licking River. We decided to go with the bikes so we could see the whole trail. We drove to the eastern end of the trail in the town of Tobosco and started our ride. It didn’t take long before the trail got quite interesting. The old Baltimore and Ohio railroad blasted through the rocky hills next to the river back in the 1850’s to install their track. What is left 170 years later is quite fascinating. The remaining rock faces are quite jagged with all sorts of vegetation growing along them. Some of the trees are rather large and the root structure is quite visible. Many of these trees don’t look like they should be able to hold onto the steep rock walls.

Parking Area for Blackhand Gorge

Tree Clings to Side of Rock Wall

It was a slow trail for us. Not because of hills, poor conditions or traffic, it was slow going because I kept spotting things every quarter mile or so to check out. There were numerous small waterfalls sending water toward the river and a decent size pond. There are also numerous hiking trails that head off from the paved path. Unfortunately they all had signs stating bikes not permitted. I suspect some of these hikes might be worth a shot in a future trip.

Large Pond Next to Trail

Licking River Next to Trail

Old Photo of Train on this Route

At roughly 3 miles in, there was a gate. It was open but there was also a “Caution Creek Crossing” sign. I presumed since the gate was now open the crossing would be possible. As I came down the slight hill, I could hear water rushing and realized it wasn’t the nearby Licking River making the noise but the creek crossing the pavement. I really wanted to continue on to see more of the trail, but it was impossible to see the bottom. We have seen so many of these types of crossings that have the depth gauges but this one didn’t have one (or it was washed away!). The way a standing wave was forming on the right side of the trail, I suspected it was well over a foot deep. With how quickly the water was moving, I could imagine trying to cross only to have the wheels of the bike swept from the trail and there goes Jack bobbing down the river. I’m pretty sure I would have turned back even if Chris wasn’t there to act as the reasonable adult. This was definitely a very nice stop even if it only amounted to a 6 mile ride.

Warning Sign Before Creek

Fast Flowing Creek over Trail

Another Falls

Tall Falls Along Trail

Old Cabin at Trailhead

On the way back to the campground, we did a slight detour to check out Dillon Dam. Like most other dam projects that the Army Corps of Engineers develops, they put in a few recreation areas and water access for fishing or kayaking. A local geocacher had also hidden a few caches in the park, so we had that to keep us busy as we checked the place out.

Control Gate Tower at Dillon Dam

Dam and Dillon Lake

Outlet of Dillon Dam

Turns out, the Zanesville area had more things to do than we thought but we fit most of the things in during our 6 night stay. Next stop - West Branch State Park near Ravenna Ohio.