Our Plan B Hiking Day

Last Saturday was our first day to hike on our little getaway. And what a BEAUTIFUL day we had for it! Like I told you a couple of days ago, our plan had been to hike Hocking Hills State Park, but it was closed, so we had to find alternative options. Ryan did a little research and discovered a nature preserve just a few miles from our cabin, so we decided to start early and go there first.

When we arrived, we were the first ones there, and a gentleman was walking his dog near the entrance. He told us we were wise to arrive early because that place would fill up to insane levels before the day was over. He said that normally never happens, but with the big park closed, everyone was forced into the smaller parks. We only saw a couple of people in this preserve the entire two hours we were there, but I will say that as we walked the wide trail out, we passed tons of people coming in. And the cars had sure piled up in the parking lot and down the road!

This preserve was really nice - and it was the only waterfall we saw the entire time.

 We thought, as we walked this nice wide boardwalk through a meadow back into the preserve that this might be a super easy hike. It didn't stay flat and boarded the whole time. ;)

 We thought for the longest time that they had marked a bunch of trees to cut down. Then we realized they marked the trail. Ha!

 I asked Ryan if he wanted to add our initials...

We came to a fork that was not clearly marked. We took a left, positive we would encounter the falls. Hiked about a quarter mile before giving up and coming back to the fork. Went to the right a few hundred FEET and look what we found??

It's actually a natural bridge!

 And the waterfall. LOL!!! This was it for us!

 Ryan and the waterfall...

 My pictures got a little out of order here (sorry) but here I am on the trail!

 Stranger danger!!!

 This picture is from all the way back at the beginning - with the meadow and all.

 Now we're back to the falls!

 He's so funny!

 It started to warm up, so we ditched the jackets and sweatshirts.

It was a nice area that went much deeper into the woods than we expected! The trails were steep and rugged in some parts, and we saw all kinds of terrain from meadows to rivers to rocks! It took us a good two hours to get through all of it, and then we moved on to a second nearby park.

(We did learn that neither of these areas had bathrooms or park offices. You just parked and hopped on a trail! I tried to drink enough to stay hydrated, but not so much that I would need a bathroom, since there wasn't one.)

 We borrowed these super cute walking sticks from our cabin. We didn't think we would need them at the first park, and then we wished we would have taken them. We were definitely glad we had them at the second one!

 Started out pretty easy...

 But we found the more rugged parts pretty quickly.

 I have never owned proper hiking shoes and I've gotten my shoes and socks wet going through creeks on nearly every hike we've taken. So before this trip, we found some good, solid hiking shoes for me. My first pair of high top shoes ever in my life. I had no idea you were supposed to wear tall socks with them. About halfway through the park, I had a good blister going on my heel, and our bandages were safely in the car. Ryan remembered he had a spare mask in the backpack, and it actually proved to be the perfect buffer on my heel!

At the end of the day, we headed back to our cabin, feet aching and hearts happy! We hiked about 11 miles that day!

And that night, Ryan built a fire in the pit at our cabin and we roasted hot dogs and s'mores and drank coffee. (And of course...the hot tub received a couple of visits.)

It may have been a plan B sort of hiking adventure, but it was still a great day!

Our First Plan B Day

I'm so glad you enjoyed our cute tiny cabin I shared with you yesterday! :)

I wanted to tell you about some of our adventures on our trip, too!

Last Friday was our first full day in the Hocking Hills area, and we planned to hike the entire day. Alas, the forecast showed storms throughout the day - some of them with bits of red on the radar. We weren't eager to be deep on some trail when a bad storm hit, so we decided not to explore any state parks that day. And so began the first of the plan B days! (Oh! And it never did storm. Of course.)

We found a brochure in our cabin for the Coffee Emporium, which was a little coffee shop just a few miles from where we stayed. It had recently reopened, so we decided to go for breakfast! We think this was our first time inside a coffee shop since Valentine's Day weekend! (WHAT?!)

It was a really nice morning, so we ordered our coffee and breakfast and took a seat out on one of the balcony tables. It was so delightful!

After we left our breakfast adventures, we went in search of some little shops we'd noticed as we drove into the area the day before. They were open and we poked around a little bit, fully masked up. We found this mini golf course, which said it was open for business, but when we got to the window, there was a sign that said, "Be right back - had to run next door." We decided to just move along, since "be right back" is a very broad time frame - ha!

Back when I did my Facebook research, I'd been told about this park (like a city park) in Lancaster, Ohio, where you could walk up to the top of a tall bluff and look out over the city. Since the weather was still a little iffy, we decided to try that suggestion. We knew it would be a short trail!

The town was adorable, and the trail (though quite steep!) was an easy walk.

The view from the top did NOT disappoint!

It was a windy day, but we stayed up there for a while enjoying the sights! We saw a handful of other people while we were up there, but for the most part, it was pretty empty!

Ryan was kind enough to scoot close to the camera for our trail selfie so my head looked smaller. :) He's so thoughtful.

It was a really cool trail and view - and we enjoyed the beautiful pond at the base of it, too!

I wasn't able to get a great picture of the bluff from down in the town, but this gives you an idea of what it looked like. (We were on the far side of the track in the photo above when I took the picture below.)

We hadn't had anything to eat since our breakfast, so we looked up a local ice cream shop and stopped in for a scoop of ice cream! It was open for dining in, and there was only one other customer in there. We sat across the room from her, and I ate the best-named ice cream ever:

Ha! Very bad breakup! It was good!

After we ate, we went back to our cabin for the rest of the evening. It did rain a bit, but we never got the predicted storms. We'd put some BBQ pork in the slow cooker that morning, so we had that for dinner. We took naps, watched TV, enjoyed the hot tub, and had a great, restful evening! Not too shabby for a plan B day!