Hiking in Hocking Hills

This past weekend, Zach and I drove out to Ohio to go hiking with my friend, Denise and her boyfriend. It was a late get-together for Denise's birthday. We needed to drop Conner off at my parents' house, so we left the night before we were supposed to meet Denise and drove overnight to West Virginia to drop off Conner.
On the way, Zach hit a deer on the interstate. It ran right into us. We were next to a concrete barrier, so there was nothing he could do but hit it. Luckily, none of us was hurt, and there wasn't much damage to my vehicle. But, we are still going to have to pay the deductible to have it fixed.
We made it the rest of the way without incident. We stayed the night with my parents, and then left the following day to drive the remaining three hours to Ohio.

We rented a cabin for the four of us. It was really nice. None of us wanted to rough it, so we found one with two fireplaces, a hot tub, a pool table, and fooseball.
It was too late to do much when we got there on Friday since check-in wasn't until 4p.m. We met up with Denise and John, and then went in search of a grocery store to buy some food and drinks for the weekend. We were able to find a Kroger without too much trouble and bought all of the necessities for the weekend.

Before leaving, we went to customer service to ask for a good local restaurant recommendation. They recommended Millstone BBQ, and we went there, though I was a little hesitant because the thought of BBQ wasn't appealing to me at all. But, that's where Denise chose, so that's where we went. I was very happy when I got the menu and realized I didn't have to get BBQ. I got some southern fried chicken with green beans and mashed potatoes. It was really good.

After that, we went home and hung out in the hot tub to relax. Normally, I can only stay in a hot tub for about five minutes before I get too hot and start to not feel well. But, since it was in the 30's that night, the hot tub felt really nice. We stayed in for over an hour.

The next morning, we got up and drove down to the trails to start hiking. We had picked out some really easy ones to get the day started and figured we would be able to hike several of them because they were relatively easy. Well, that's where we were wrong.

Although most of the snow and ice had melted off the roads and most of the grass, deep in the forest where the trails were, everything was still iced over. The first trail to Ash Cave was supposed to be really easy. It was a half mile and handicap accessible. Well, I guess that only applies in the summer because the path was nothing but a sheet of ice. So we walked (ice skated without skates) as quickly as we could to Ash Cave. It had looked really beautiful in the tourism magazines, so we were excited to see it and get an opportunity to take some pictures. It didn't disappoint. There is a constant stream that flows down over it, and even though it was winter, it was still flowing. It was partially frozen. There was at least a ten foot high pile of ice where the stream had frozen. It was really pretty surrounded by the reds and oranges of the cave walls. We hiked the rest of the way out of the cave, and everyone but Zach (my husband) managed to fall.

After we finished at Ash Cave, we headed to Cedar Falls. The concrete stairs to the falls went straight downhill and were covered with ice. So with me leading the way, we went totally off the path and wound our way down through the forest avoiding icy cliffs along the way. We made it to the falls, stopping to take pictures. The water was totally frozen, so people were walking out to the waterfall, but I chose to stay on dry(ish) ground. I figured if anyone fell through the ice, it would be me, so I decided not to chance it.

After we finished at Cedar Falls, we were all wet and wanting to go back to the cabin. All, except Zach, who still hadn't fallen. The rest of us all fell at least twice, I think, but somehow Zach had managed to avoid it.

We stopped at a drug store to get something to drink on the way back to the cabin and asked them to recommend a good pizza place. They recommended Pizza Crossing, a pizza place we had seen the night before and almost tried.

Picking up the pizza, we headed back to the cabin to change into dry clothes to sit down and enjoy the pizza. It was so good. We definitely didn't go wrong by asking the locals for the best restaurants.

We spent more time in the hot tub that night, but this time it was well earned. We were all tired from the hiking.

We were supposed to go home the next morning, but since we hadn't been able to hike as much as we wanted the day before, we decided to head out again before going home.

We went to Old Man's Cave. It was the most beautiful of the three trails we walked that weekend. To me, it felt like we were in the movie Goonies at the end where they slide down the water and end up next to the pirate ship. That's how pretty it was and the kind of feeling I was getting from it. The paths were still icy, but by avoiding them completely, we were able to make it without falling. Of course, we couldn't complete the entire trail because there were icy stairs that couldn't be avoided, and we had to drive home, but what we did see was beautiful. Here are some more pictures I took at Old Man's Cave.