Walking in eastern Ohio I...

Walking in eastern Ohio

 

I headed out from Caldwell toward Woodsfield on State Route 78. The directions for Woodsfield said the town had been founded by Archibald Woods and that according to legend, he bought a keg of liquor and offered drinks to anyone who would help clear the trees from the area. Story has it that the trees were cleared by nightfall. I think they walked off the effects the next day between Woodsfield and Caldwell. Hardly a straight stretch of highway.

 

People who had walked Woodsfield the day before said it was uphill and down. What do you expect in this area of Ohio? It is a hilly region, forested. It’s Appalachia. It’s a poor area of the state of Ohio, but still has a lot of history. It’s home to a professional softball player and a major league baseball player. It has a lot of railroad history – the Byesville, Zanesville and Cincinnati, or as they called it – Bent, Zigzag and Crooked. That was a small gauge railroad, the rails were not as far apart as regular train tracks.

 

It was up and down and a good workout. By 9 a.m., less than an hour on the trail, I was sweating. Temperatures were rising. I was beginning to run short of water so I stopped in at McDonald’s and got a yogurt parfait and refilled by water bottle. I even ducked in a gift shop to cool off.

    

Not much to see in Woodsfield, but I did see a neat looking bed and breakfast and a dairy museum where the story goes that dog power was used in the making of cheese. I don’t condone child labor and I sure wouldn’t want to see dogs used that way.

 

I didn’t locate an ice cream store, but another of the walkers did. Strange that we all hit on ice cream.

 

That afternoon I made it through Caldwell. I’ve walked Caldwell before, but got into some new areas. One thing I was looking for was the food pantry where I refer people each Monday morning during my volunteer stint in Columbus. I found it, although I had overshot a turn and had to turn around. To me it’s not a volkswalk unless I miss a turn or get lost. There were a few hills in Caldwell, that I knew, but I hadn’t remembered the hill going up to Olive Cemetery. There I saw a cube-shaped marker balanced on a base. I found that one en route to the Catholic Cemetery adjacent to Olive Cemetery. There was another grade to scale.

 

The interesting part of the walk was a trek to the first oil well dug in the United States. Residents were looking for salt brine when they dug the well and oil came out. Since they didn’t know how to use oil, they sopped it up with white blankets and wrung it out into containers. They called it Seneca’s Oil and sold it as a ‘cure all. They were also able to retrieve their salt brine.

 

I was getting a little tired. Caldwell was a 12-kilometer event since I did both the cemetery and the oil well. And it was 85 degrees or so and up and down hill. I’d rest a little under a tree and continue, walking quickly to the next tree.

 

More next week on other walks in eastern Ohio. I realize summer is here and it’s getting warm. Evening is a nice time to walk. You’ll find a lot of year-round events – those you can do any day of the year – and you can do them in the evening, after work, or even early in the morning.

 

I hope you’re getting out and walking. Check out www.ava.org for the walk nearest you.

 

See you on the trail.

 

Comments

[Lester Ybarra]

[this is good] I apologise, but it not absolutely approaches me. Perhaps there are still variants?

[sandlot]

Lester

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