Hocking Hills Superbowl Hike

On a rainy dreary Saturday, I joined my friends Tom and Kim, better known as Sequoia and Kim-Possible, for a day of hiking and exploring in the Hocking Hills. This area has been on my radar since we moved to Ohio, it is known for interesting geologic features and beautiful trails. Sequoia was hosting his third annual Superbowl Hike Event out here, but unlike his event in Berea, this one was less focused on finding a lot of geocaches, and more about hiking and exploring some of the hidden places in the Hocking Hills. Sounded good to me.

After a nice early start, and a breakfast of waffles off the interstate, we met several other geocachers at the trailhead to Balanced Rock. The morning was foggy and damp, but not all that cold. There were a few large icicles hanging from some of the cliffs on the hike up, but they were melting fast. Balanced rock was a fun hoodoo like formation that looks like one strong gust o wind could knock it over. It reminded me a lot of rock formations around Los Alamos. We hung around here for a while, taking some pictures and chatting about geocaching. Two of the geocachers had to leave after this short hike (only 1/2 mile!).

Group Picture for the Event

One precarious rock

Doesn't look as precarious from this angle

From the same parking lot, we hiked north to Chapel Cave and Chapel Arch, a bit longer hike, but still pretty short. We visited the Chapel Cave first, which was aptly named, it felt like a wedding service could be held in it. The nearby earthache at Chapel Arch probably would have been overlooked entirely if it wasn't for the geocache listing bringing us there. Compared to the Chapel Cave, it was a pretty small feature tucked away on a small rock bluff, but it was pretty cool in its own way. There were two entrances a small cave chamber, connected by a very narrow fissure. I tried squeezing myself through the fissure without success at first, but then got down on my belly and crawled through a wider gap at floor level. Good fun. A rich reddish iron oxide gave the location some wonderful color contrasts to the vivid green mosses growing around the caves.

Chapel Cave

Chapel Cave from afar

Group picture near Chapel Arch

we completed both of these hikes before lunch, but the real treat was still in store for us. Sequoia had contacted park officials and got us special permits to visit two locations that are not open for regular access by visitors. We gathered up our lunches and headed over to the first spot called the Salt Peter Caves, only a short ways down the road. In my opinion, this was the coolest spot we visited. The rock bluffs here form a series of multi level cave shelters. The caves are deep enough where a flashlight becomes necessary, which also make them suitable for bats to roost in. Makes sense, since Salt peter, which is essentially bat guano, was mined here once. The first cave we came to I immediately went back as far as I could, which required stooping low, and sure enough, there were a few bats hibernating. I counted 7 in that first cave, not a lot by any means, but it was good to see them utilizing the cave. We were careful not to shine lights directly on them or get too close an disturb them.

We were all pretty hungry, so we sat down in the soft dry sand in this first cave and ate lunch. Well, most of us did, two cachers, MetalHead and half of the BoydFamily somehow got split up from our group and while we ate lunch we could see them far below at the edge of the river, trying to figure out how to get to us. The first cave we were at was less obvious to get to then the other caves and the had missed a faint turn off. By the time they got back to us, we had finished most of our lunch and were ready to explore the other 3 caves. I get so giddy exploring caves, at each one I was immediately going as far back as I could, and looking for any tight passages to squeeze through. There were a couple fun little belly crawls that connected different parts of the caves, but none of the caves was deeper than a hundred feet or so from their broad entrances. They were all really nice spots to hang out though. Sequoia set up a few more group photos as we monkeyed around the caves and small waterfalls.

LadyB and LandisB at Cave #1

Group Shot at Cave #4

Exploring the depths

Cave #2

Cool ice stalacmite

Dew covered bat

Our final hike was to Rocky hollow, a spot where there was some old growth hemlock forest. There was a nice trail cut through an area of clear-cut that was thick with small trees and thorny briars, and then a decent trail down into a ravine, but then the trail just stopped, and we were exploring the hollow as if it was virgin territory. We went upstream a short ways to an impressive waterfall, and spent some time scrambling the slippery rocks around its base. Th hemlocks here were massive, and the moss was thick and deeply verdant. A very peaceful place that probably gets few visitors.

A curious rock in the hollow

Curious rock from another view

Zen Moment

While these afternoon hikes had no geocaches on them, they were definitely the highlight for me. I think the rest of the group agreed, although most of them had previously found the earthcaches at the other spots. Hats off to Sequoia for getting us access to such wonderful spots. It was nice to meet som other Ohio cachers too, ones not from the Cincy area. I chatted with Boydfamily, ArmyMom and Metalhead about caching in Dayton, and the possibility of finding some old Weeds19 hides. LadyB and LandisB, from Columbus, I had met before from MOGA events, and there is a chance that we'll team up this year to compete in the 4-man.

The ride home had a couple detours to pick up a few caches that Sequoia needed for a challenge he is working on involving ancient civilization monuments. The most notable stop was at Hopewell Culture National Historic Park, which was a recreation of Hopewell Mound constructions. Stopping there was just the cherry on top of a great day exploring Ohio. It was a day out with geocachers, but it certainly wasn't about geocaching. That said, after this trip I am now sitting at 4,999 finds. Next one is a big milestone, and hopefully I can find an equally big adventure cache to find for it. Maybe international....?