Recess cave

Wednesday
After a delicious breakfast at the Inn, we headed over to Nelsonville, to ride on the Hockhocking-Adena bike trail, which runs from Nelsonville to Athens, the home of Ohio University (not to be confused with the huge Ohio State University in Columbus!) The 19-mile Bikeway is named in honor of the first inhabitants of this southeastern Ohio region. "Hockhocking," which means "bottleneck" or "twisted," was the native Indian name for the Hocking River, while Adena reflects the history of the Adena Indians who lived in the Hocking Valley over 2,000 years ago. We had ridden part of it once before, and thought we knew roughly where we were going, but we didn't find the trail in Nelsonville, and had driven several miles beyond, before we stopped to ask at a National Forest visitor center. We rode for 20 miles return, which took us to the outskirts of Athens. We got a Subway sandwich for lunch, then, rather than doing more hiking in Hocking Hills, which we are very familiar with, we decided to go to Lake Hope State Park, which we hadn't visited before. Over 100 years ago, this area was home to a flourishing iron smelting industry and most of the forest was felled to fuel the furnaces. However, the land has now recovered and supports a magnificent, second-growth forest, providing shelter to a range of wildlife. We had a beautiful hike - there seemed more color to the trees here, as you can see in my blip, and the trail stayed close to the lake. We practically had the place to ourselves, only passing one other group of people. I don't know how we've missed it on all our previous visits to Hocking Hills, as it must be a picture in the summer, as much of the lake is covered with lily pads. It must also be a great place to canoe. We will definitely be back. You can see more shots from Lake Hope on my Smugmug gallery, starting here.

One year ago: Back-lit leaf