I know when I'm getting ready to do these trips, recent reports are helpful, so perhaps some will find this useful. I spent two nights at Shawnee over the past weekend (May 10-12) and had a productive, pleasant trip despite rain and humidity, here's a run-down:
Total mileage: 26 mi*
Total vertical ascent: 5800'
Some background: I've done several backpacking trips in Ohio and out West, including a 2 week stint in the JMT, but I haven't been out in over a year, so this was a bit of a gear test and reminder of what I like/don't like. My pack was waaaaay too heavy, but even many years in I'm still learning what I need vs. what I want. I'm also an ultrarunner, so after setting up camp each night I did an additional 3-5 mi of trail running for training. I realize how this sounds--yes, it's "crazy," but it's how I like to spend my time. So all told I ended up with about 35 miles and nearly 8000' of vert for the weekend, which I felt was time well spent given the two hour drive from Columbus. Strava link here. This was also my first time combining backpacking and running in the same trip, and it went pretty well all things considered. I brought a Naked running band with me and used that with a soft flask on the evening runs after setting up camp.
Friday
View from the ridge. So much green!
Left Columbus around 2:30pm, got to the backpacking trailhead about 5:00pm (late!). Hiked about 7 miles into Camp 1 with. nearly 2,000' of vert. Whew! Quickly did my run and set up camp, made dinner, passed out. Everything was too wet for a fire and stayed that way for the whole weekend. The water drop near Camp 1 is about 0.5 miles from the camp, uphill, so I ended up filtering from the stream a lot (gear list below). Beautiful site among the trees here!
Saturday
Slept in ('cuz why not?), got up and made coffee while reading this incredible book ironically titled On Trails. About 10:30am, I thought "I should really pack up camp in case it rains." About 5 minutes later...there's the rain! So I ended up packing nearly everything back into my pack during the rain, but the trees helped keep some of it out. Just as I was about to leave, muttering to myself about waiting too long, I look over and see a group of ten fully Goretex-glad guys standing across the way, staring at me, hahahaha. I would presume boy scouts and their leaders, but unsure. They were after my site, which they got as soon as I took off. Those were the only people on trail I saw the entire weekend.
From Camp 1 I hiked around the entire north loop, stopping for water, food, and sun (dried out my tent) as needed, crossing the road near Camp Oyo, and continuing onto the south side towards Camp 4. I'd never been on some of these sections of the park, and it's all just so beautiful and secluded. Not the say the trails are easy--most of the grades are steep, rocky, and technical, and I enjoy that sort of thing. Further south there's a lot of logging and clear-cutting which has affected some of the trails, but the blazes and arrows are generally quite accurate.
One of the more open sections of the trail--these trails are often muddy.
Near Camp 4, in one of the more open areas where the backpacking (orange) trail meets the bridal trails, I encountered two aggressive wild turkeys. This was new to me. It might have been the same one, but given my hiking direction, I think they were separate. Both were female, and acted as if I was a true threat to their territory, squawking loudly at me, running towards me, and just generally being obnoxious. It was a little unnerving as most turkeys I've encountered in Ohio (from Hocking Hills to Pike Lake to High Banks) are generally timid and run away quickly. Not these guys--they were very upset I was there. I made a ton of noise and clacked my poles and yelled and eventually moved by, but it was strange, to say the least. Other than that, I saw no interesting wildlife (nor heard any) of any kind.
Camp 4 is also very cool, down a long hill and very close to its water drop. The stream was right next to me which made for a wonderful natural noise machine all night. After setting up camp I did another short run, going further south which opened up to a very clear cut section that I honestly found quite beautiful--the rugged logging roads make for great training, and the sun blazing down at that point, compared to the heavy clouds that morning. Camp was chilly that night, dropping into the high 40s, so I made my dinner and contemplated life by the stream. Below is a typical water pump near these sites--they are filled with (I presume) potable water from a tank usually ~100' away, and you push down very hard to use them. Some other ones have a different mechanism.
I filtered these anyway, using a Larq bottle (UV light), but I also had a Lifestraw with me for water with sediment from streams--I didn't use this much as in the evening I was boiling most of my water for food anyway.
Camp 1 to camp 4 was around 14 miles and 3,000' of vert, and took me around 6 hours going at a leisurely pace with a heavy pack.
Sunday
Woke up early to very chilly conditions, but no rain thankfully. After packing up I hiked out partly on the backpack trail, and then cut over to a bridal trail to come out on Mackletree Rd near Roosevelt Lake. You can cross this lake (getting wet in the process) nearly the southern point, and use a faint trail to connect to the campground hiking trails. I had done this before, but then hiked on the road back to the main backpacking trailhead. this time, I went through the campground and found a wonderful bridge connecting the very end of the paved campground road to the hiking trails around Turkey Creek Lake. This bridge is not on any maps that I've seen, so I plan to add it to Open Street Maps which Gaia and Strava pull from with each new update. GPX file for this here. After crossing that bridge you come out near the damn and a beach, and then take the Lake Trail back to the backpacking trailhead. When I left on Friday there were 3 other cars in the lot (mine made 4), and when I returned on Sunday, just two (including mine). So, not a ton of use, even for a nice May weekend. Maybe the rain kept some folks away. The final push out was just over 5 miles and 800' of vert. I was home by noon, making this entire trip just over 48 hours from central Ohio. Not bad!
Gear
I'm a huge gear head, so I'll make this brief and am happy to field questions.
- Hyperlite Mountain Gear 55L "Porter" pack
- Hoka Speedgoat 5 trail runners
- Garmin Enduro 2 watch
- Black Diamond Carbon Z Poles (120cm fixed)
- Mountain Hardwear Strato 2 UL tent (MSR stakes)
- Exped Dura 3R pad
- The new Nemo "Moonlite UL" chair
- Everything else is pretty standard or a hodge podge of old gear
My hope is to inspire you to get out there and hike, backpack, trail run, or whatever. Shawnee is a really amazing place that I think is underutilized, though it was definitely a drive for many of us. But the trails are remote, rugged, and you'll find tons of solitude. Enjoy!
