HOCKING HILLS REVISITED

The tunnels along the trail add interest and are unlike anything I've seen out west.

There are times when it’s worth a second visit.

The folks at work had really hyped ‘Hocking Hills’. I was expecting something grand. Hocking Hills isn’t magnificent. 

It’s not stunning. Interesting? Yes. Pretty? Yes. But it simply doesn’t rise (literally) to what we have out in the great Northwest.

 Last week, on the way out, I talked to the ranger who seemed to understand my mild disappointment. She was from New Hampshire and the key thing lacking in the Columbus area is elevation gain. But she did give me some tips and one of them was a longer, slightly more challenging route around ‘Old Man Caves’ up to Cedar Falls. I did some research on local hikes and that very hike stood out among the available alternatives. So back to Hocking Hills it was.

After doing the 6 mile loop, my views changed. OK, it’s not the Cascades or Olympics. There are no stunning views. But there’s a quiet beauty. This morning there weren’t many on the trail and once I got out of the primary ‘Old Man’s Cave’ area, I only saw 4 folks in 3 miles. And there’s enough up and down to get a work out.

The blazes must be an east coast thing

The trail through the valley (blue trail) is a little more interesting than the upper trail back (red trail), but both are nice. The red trail seems built for conversation; two possible three could walk side by side and chat. All in all a great walk / hike and a nice way to start the day!

ROCK and ROLL HALL OF FAME

Jodi had to be at the airport midmorning, so I took her there, then headed back into the city to take a look at the Rock and Roll Hall of fame.

So close, why not? It was pretty cool.

When you walk in they have the early influencers of Rock and Roll – both Rhythm and Blues and Folk.

Then there’s a section well chronicling the opposition to Rock and Roll. Many of the older set predicted the fall of western civilization if Rock and Roll were allowed to continue. Decadent, a bad influence on teenagers, etc. I chuckled – until I realized that their dislike of rock and roll had some parallels with my thoughts about rap (does that make me old?).

Then the fun begins with a big tribute to Elvis. The key rock and roll cities have displays. Memphis. Detroit. San Francisco. LA. But not Seattle. The only two references about Seattle were Jimi Hendrix and Pat ODay.

 They have quite a few artifacts and it was a fun couple of hours going through the Exhibits.

Jim Morrison of the DOORS was a cub scout.  Who knew?

THE BEATLES section was pretty cool

 The original lyrics in the songwriters handwriting.

There was a section on the technology side of sound reproduction and radio.

CLEVELAND

Jodi had an audit in Western Pennsylvania and the audit was destined to conclude Friday afternoon – too late to comfortably fly back to the Northwest. Airfares were better through Cleveland, so we concocted a plan to meet there Friday night.

I did some research on what to do in Cleveland on a Friday night, but didn’t get much past the fact the nickname for the city is ‘The Mistake By the Lake’.

When I asked around work about fun activities in Cleveland, it seemed the words ‘fun’ and ‘Cleveland’ didn’t really belong in the same sentence. The Rock and Roll Hall of fame was there, but beyond that I was told that Cleveland had seen better days.

 So with very low expectations I drove 2 hours north to Cleveland and picked up Jodi from the Rental car return area near the airport.

She had found a great rate in the Hyatt downtown and what a Hotel it is. It was originally the Cleveland Arcade building, first opened in 1890. It’s beautiful.

The staff was preparing for a rehearsal dinner in the huge atrium and it looked like quite the affair (although we were later to learn from a staff member who cattily informed us the Bride had gone for the barebones dinner, with no enhancements).

Just across the street was an alley with dozens of restaurants and bars. It was upscale, but with history. My initial thought was if you blended pioneer square with Bellevue, you’d get something like this. It was great.

Our first stop was the ‘Society’ bar. Nice atmosphere, but the vibe wasn’t quite right. We decided on the ‘Greenhouse Bar’ for dinner, and decided to split one 5 course meal. It was gluttony. And wonderful. And we took left overs!

Artwork.  And how we felt

Staying in Cleveland was a treat. Between the hotel and the grouping of close in restaurants, we had fun. Sure, much of the city is old and industrial, but there was an unexpected vibrancy to it.

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!