HOCKING HILLS

Invariably during casual chats, the difference between Seattle and Columbus come up.

Usually it’s along the lines of “how do you like it here?”, and with living in Seattle as my sole point of reference, I draw the comparisons. Fact is, Columbus is a very livable city. There is vibrancy about it with Ohio State University playing a strong role. Good restaurants, good people, it’s a nice city.

The things I miss are the mountains and the water, but invariably when I mention the mountains, I get asked, ‘Have you ever been to Hocking Hills’, or ‘you should see Hocking Hills’. When I recall the beauty of Mount Rainier, I get chided, ‘you should go to the Hocking Hills’. Talk of hiking in the cascades invariably result in ‘you must get to the Hocking Hills’. Words like ‘Olympics, Mt Baker, Mt Adams’ draw the response “Hocking Hills”.

OK already.   Off to the Hocking Hills!

My first clue was going on line and getting maps. There’s quite a trail system. Most of the trails are ½ a mile long. There’s one, ‘for the very physically fit’ that’s 6 miles long. All the trails have names. Out west they are so numerous most simply have numbers, but here they are individually named.

The second clue was the history. I’m quoting now: “The region was first settled by Christian Eby and was named from a shortened version of the Hockhocking River by the Shawnee Indian tribe. Hockhocking, in the Delaware tongue, signifies a bottle”.

Wait a minute. That’s a little like saying ‘It’s the ancient native description for a laptop’.

Since when were aboriginal tribes familiar with bottles?

Once the Europeans came some perhaps became all too familiar with the bottle, but something tells me this is not an age old name that the natives had for the place.

In any case I slapped together a sandwich and headed for the hills. As I got there I was wondering ‘where are the hills’.

While there’s no clean definition between a mountain and a hill, in general mountains are above 1000-2000 feet and hills are below that. Out west, our definition is a little higher. We may call it ‘Mount Si’, but it’s in the Cascade ‘foothills’. Rainier, Adams, Baker: Mountains at roughly 14,000, 12,000 and 10,000 respectively.

Some call Tiger, Sauk, and Cougar ‘Mountains’, and include them in the ‘Issaquah Alps’. Other cynics say they are the Issaquah ‘blobs’. I’m inclined to call them ‘blobs’.

So in the spirit of ‘Mountains’, ‘Hills’, and ‘Blobs’, where do the hocking hills stand (or lie, as the case may be)? They are lumps. Very minor lumps. Really small lumps. But very civilized lumps.

The ‘trail head’ is incredibly civilized with even a gift shop. The hike is quite pleasant and pretty.

 The rock formations are cool and it is a nice walk. But in general the adjectives are ‘pleasant’, ‘pretty’ and ‘nice’. The modifiers fall well short of ‘awe inspiring’ and ‘breath taking’.

The best part? Ice cream at the trailhead!