I headed out to Ohio and Indiana with Eric Morse to do some
state high points and also hit some county high points, a few
interesting/unusual sites and get some running in at various parks. We flew out on Friday morning and were on
the road to our first location before noon.
Our first stop was Sharon Woods metro park, one of the great
parks located right off the highway. It
was time to get in some running before we did any "bagging". There was a paved 4 mile loop around the
park that we did twice getting the cobwebs out after sitting around all
morning. It was a bit warm (80's) and
humid but the shaded mostly flat trail was fun.
We headed west and soon arrived at "Mount
Miserable" which is purported to be the second highest summit in
Ohio. At 1,490 feet it logs in only 59
feet short of the state high point. We
met up with the grandson of the farm owner and a couple of minutes later the
owner arrived. He was well aware of the
significance of the hill and willing to let us go up. We headed up the lane and through a couple of gates (passing a
group of horses). At the end of the
lane we walked up the edge of the planted field to the oak tree near the top
and then checked out the summit. From
the farm you could see the towers on Campbell hill about a mile away. We thanked the owner on the way out, he and
his sons were quite friendly and happy to allow us to visit.
It was a quick drive from Mt Miserable to Campbell
hill. It was still pretty early on
Friday (just after noon) and there were quite a few cars at the Ohio High-point
career center. It was a grueling 20
foot climb from the parking lot to the high point. We took a bunch of pictures and signed the register. We also got a cool certificate to
commemorate the successful ascent.
From Campbell hill we headed to downtown Bellefontaine for a
couple of unusual sites. First up was
the World's oldest concrete street which was located at Court Street in
Bellefontaine (http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/10661). From there we drove another half-mile to
check out the World's shortest street.
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/11597 At 15' McKinley street was not much to see but a pretty cool to
bag a couple of World record sites.
From Bellefontaine we headed south for the highest point in
Champaign County. We parked on Bump
road and did a quick run out to the high point being careful not to damage any
of the recently planted crops.
From
Champaign County we headed to Buck Creek State park for our second run of the
day. We put in another hour of running
on various horse and hiking trails and a couple of roads. We were "only" lost for a little
while during the run but soon found our way back to the car. This looked to be a nice park although the
trail map left a lot to desire.
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