Summary: Getting out of the house and putting in some physical activity has been beneficial for me over the course of my life. It was during The Pandemic, however, that I used some of the trip logs I had stashed to find some off the path spots to go out for weekends or short overnights in the Ohio Valley Region. Great Seal State Park, one of my favorites for its low traffic, small footprint campground with a large number of strenuous trails to get lost upon has a nearby sibling which I just checked out last night. This post is about Scioto Trail State Park after doing the short ~3 mile lake loop last night.

Camping Log: Scioto Trail State Park, Ohio

Scioto Trail State Park has been on my radar for a couple years now. Esp after driving in, a while back, for a short 3 ish mile loop hike around Stewart Lake. I’m not an RV’er so I like smaller off the path spots away from Lakes and Rivers typically. With those kinds of places, you usually get fewer “party oriented” types and a lot less noise. Solitude and disconnecting from tech is my thing here. Think of either walking along a path, making outdoor meals, sitting by a fire, reading a good book, looking up at night at the stars and giving thanks. That’s my jam.

Perfect Trees for Hammocks

You can read the history of the park and the surrounding area above, but it’s damn intriguing with the importance of the Shawnee River to the Shawnee Indigenous peoples, the Serpent Mound, some hermit guy who lived in a cave in the region and the fire tower you see right out the gate when arriving.

Sunlit Tree Tops

I drove from Columbus to just a bit further South of Chillicothe to grab a spot for the weekend and get a little walking in before dinner. The sites at Stewart Lake Campground are a bit close to one another but the way they are laid out is genius. Basically, it’s a set of sites along a couple paths that you walk into depending on how much solitude you are seeking, you could either do a small group, a family sized site or just grab one off to the side like I did and be happy as a clam. There are no amenities, beyond a pit toilet and a water spigot (which was perfect). The stream was dry, also perfect in the sense that the mosquitoes were somewhat less aggressive than you’d normally see this time of year. The tree cover was young but thick. The fire rings and picnic tables were also in really good shape, so it didn’t feel like it was an abandoned spot.

Campsite 21

Given this experience, I am lining up for this series of hikes in probable order of execution August through early September as a way to keep gradually improving my cardio health along my 90 day get-back-in-shape larger goal.

Hikes

If you want something rustic and “foresty” this is the spot. Oh, also, bonus, there was zero AT&T signal, so my phone was quiet.

Morning Coffee