Mohican River
I gotta chance to hit the Mohican in North-Eastern Ohio. I had been down this river a a kid but didn't remember much of it. I got down their Sunday afternoon and found this was an off-week time to go. The crowds were leaving and the water was clearing out , a perfect time for a kayaking trip. I didn't bring any fishing gear , hearing about the crowds. Someone in our group did , and managed to catch a small musky. Having multiple people with trucks , kayaks and tubes let us ferry back and forth without using a livery. We stayed at Mohican Wilderness private campsite. This kinda improved campsite/ car camping isn't really my thing , but kids love it. They had showers , bathrooms , a general store with ice and food , and tons of activities for kids. I was also surprised to find a trail that I happily hiked on a 90 degree day.
Having a beverage on a paddle.
The group on a lazy float.
A panoramic picture taken with my new camera a Pentax WG-1. I just started messing with it , but so far the pictures are adequate for a point and shoot. The real draw of this camera is the waterproof rating that kept my other camera at home for a few months.
\
More new gear , a Gränsfors Bruks Scandinavian Forest Axe. This axe makes quick work of logs , and will work good for smaller kindling. Sharp as razor out of the box , great fit and finish, this might accompany me on winter trips.
The foot bridge to the hiking trail . I was scared to cross this.
Clear Creek metro park
I'd actually planned on doing the Zaleski South loop again , and decided to pull in here and check it out. 12 miles of trails total. I happened to walk the flat low portions. They were pretty muddy. as most are after all the rain we've had. I fished along the banks and didn't see or catch any. They do stock trout, which have probably died off by now.
Creek view. Future Kayak route.
You'll walk through a few meadows on the creak side path. A flower blooming.
Small saplings along the path. There is also a lot of what I call "Ohio Bamboo". I have no Idea what it is.
Roots seeking moisture on a cliff.
Butterflies mating? I scared off most of them taking the picture.
Check it out http://www.metroparks.net/MapClearCreek.aspx
Wandering Rocky Fork area
I haven't got any backpacking in lately. Just wandering/exploring here and their. Last weekend was the Rocky Fork area and downstream scouting pull offs and portages. I got a chance to check out the 7 caves park. Apparently it used to be a private park that let you explore the caves. It went under and was bought up by a non-profit. For reasons unknown they won't let people checkout the caves. I'm sure it has to do with insurance , money, or maybe satanic rituals are held their.
The visitor center has maps and asks for a donation.
It's pretty hard to get perception of height in photos. This is about a 100 foot canyon. They have a couple of short bridges that span 150-200 foot gorges.
Three sisters rocks in Rocky Fork Creek. it looks like some of the views kayaking here would be spectacular.
A neat little stone footbridge on the trail. This was pretty easy hiking. I'm guessing a total of 3 miles around a loop.Terry walked it in flip-flops.
After leaving Seven Caves we drove upstream to Rocky Fork Lake. After damning ourselves for not bringing fishing gear we found this old stone grist mill near the main splillway. Just downstream from here looks like a good kayak put-in.
Paint Creek to the Scioto
Started the trip Friday evening at Waters Edge Canoe Livery. Did a quick four mile paddle to unknown campsite. A thunderstorm rolled in right before sunset and got everything in camp wet , except my sleeping bag which stayed in the dry-bag inside my kayak until the rain subsided.
A camera phone shot of the campsite during a break in the weather.
The morning after my camera showed moisture problems.
After getting off to an early start Saturday my friend ran into a tree tipping his kayak and dumped his camera in rapids. It was never found. It's waterproof , and I'll be out their next week to find it.
I was afraid to bust my camera out at this point , so some of the best parts of the trip were without pictures. Cruising down to were Paint Creek Meet the Scioto River had some of the best rapids and scenery. About 5 miles from were they meet , the Scioto River get a little deeper and slow moving. I'm guessing the fishing would be good around here.
Taking a lunch break on the Scioto on a large Island.
We ended up porting out about 20 miles into the trip , about 15 miles short of the goal of Pee Pee Creek and Lake White in Waverly. A moving average of 3.6 MPH made this a pretty easy paddle. Next time will be with fishing poles.
July 4th Ohio River Trip
I took a 12 mile solo trip down the Ohio River , west of Gallipolis to some private property in Athalia Ohio. I managed a 3.5 mile per hour moving average with a light headwind.
The barges look innocent enough , but their wakes could become 2 foot rolling waves on certain shorelines.
I wasn't of afraid of this old barge that apparently sunk and is now used for erosion control.
Ohio River Sunrise at camp in Athalia the next morning.
Ohio River diving board , or a 16 foot duct taped ladder.
Big Darby trip report
6/20 Started the trip @ 9:30 or so on the upper Darby creek at a small putt-in courtesy of Trapper Johns Livery. This is a fairly scenic and remote creek , bordered by a wildlife area. The water was fairly high, and I only bumped into a couple of rocks. Normally in late summer this trip is a little more challenging with lower water levels comes shallow sandbars and rocky rapids. It's a real good time shooting through rapids without getting knocked around and having to step out onto slippery rocks. Another bonus of the high water level was the fast trip time. We managed a moving average of 3.7 miles per hour. A 6 mile trip took 2 hours with a small lunch break. The following pictures are courtesy of Terry, as I'm still recovering from an accidental Windows 7 upgrade format that wiped out my hard-drive.
Me grinning at the start of the trip.
Lunch time
I'll try and get more pics up as soon as I get image editing software loaded.
Overall this is a trip worth taking for experienced paddlers as well as novices when the water is high.
Blacklick Creek Trip report
We started out about 9am Saturday morning north Of Main Street in Reynoldsburg Ohio generally in good spirits and well caffeinated. We had dropped Terry's truck off @ Three Rivers park without even checking for a port in(a dumb move I'll talk about later). Getting back to Reynoldsburg and putting in at a friends house I was enthusiastically thinking of a quick 6 hour 15 mile paddle. The creek was low at this point and necessitated getting out and dragging the kayak a few feet , here and their.
Cruising under Main Street , Reynoldsburg Ohio. Everything was going pretty smoothly. I never realized the abundance of giant carp in this little creek , I must have seen a few hundred throughout the trip. Luckily neither of us brought our fishing gear. We ended up not having enough time , nor the will too catch and keep those nasty fish.
Cruising through I-70 , East-side Columbus we passed Blacklick Golf Course , and headed into TurnBerry Golf course in Pickerington. Terry bagged a few dozen golf balls , and found a green bouncy kids ball. We proceeded to play water polo , hitting it back and forth a few times. The first causality of the day happened when I swung wildly with full force , under the ball , smacked the water, and broke my carbon fiber Werner Camano paddle. I happened to love this paddle, and took my revenge on the green ball. Paddling through Turnberry, I found two full irons, and used them to support the paddle.
That's 4 casualties so far, for anyone who's keeping score. This MacGruber setup actually held up most of the 15 miles. Despite the losses, I was feeling pretty good, about 6 miles in. Then came the first bad omen this trip wasn't going to be as fun as I thought. Some lame housing development had diverted Blacklick Creek for some shitty little mud puddle. This affected the creek as it became narrower and shallower. The worst affect was logjams that couldn't wash out due to reduced flow. It's a son-of-bitch, getting over dozens of logs, with a kayak and gear. A big F-you to that housing developer and the no trespassing @ the diversion. A little farther down the road, right before 33 I believe, probably the same developer had installed 3 drainage pipes. I missed the bigger one and ported out over rock.
The 5th casualty happened around an innocuous bend around a partial logjam. My sit-on-top has terrible maneuverability, but very good initial stability. It looses all stability when rocking up to anything sideways. I ended up with a full dunk, loosing my camera. Edit 5/18 , camera started working again.
It was getting late, and the GPS was telling the dismal pace of 1.6 mile per hour would have us at destination @ 6pm. After putting a move on, which wasn't easy, porting over logs, bogs, and sandbars. I believe we got off the water @ 6:30. This brought to light the first mistake of not looking for the way off the creek. I think we overshot the optimal port in by a quarter of a mile. We ended up heading away from the parking , and doubling back, dragging the kayaks a half mile through the woods. About 8pm the kayaks were strapped up.
The final dead duck , was literally a plastic duck decoy , strapped to my buddies kayak , that fell off on I-270. Luckily it never skipped up and killed anything else.
I wouldn't recommend this trip. Initially I wanted to do this in flooded waters , but even the most experienced white-water enthusiast would find the logjams & drainage pipe portaging treacherous.
Hoover Reservoir
First day of Kayaking was pretty uneventful. No Fish , no pictures , and I didn't get wet. A few pictures after kayaking - Hoover Reservoir , Columbus , Ohio.
I probably get a better work out, getting the kayak in and out of the water than actually paddling.
Random shot of some geese , with rowers in the background.