Around Ohio

Circling the Buckeye State

Ohio isn't exactly round, but more of a square with nibbles taken out of it by neighboring Kentucky and West Virginia.

But the name feels round and looks round, and the state tree, the buckeye, sports a round nut. While the nut isn't edible, the buckeye candy is, a globe of peanut butter goodness dipped in chocolate.

The Buckeye Trail, a whopping 1,444 miles in a single state, is one of the longest loop trails we know of. So there's a lot of roundness circling around Ohio.

And that's what we did: circle the state. Although John is a native Floridian, his Ohio lineage goes back on both sides of the family to the earliest German immigrants who came to Ohio to farm, including the founders of the town of Lithopolis.

Sandra has a passing familiarity with Ohio, having lived in the Ohio Valley across the Pennsylvania border for more than a dozen years, with forays into the Buckeye State.

While a conference in Columbus anchored this trip, everything revolves around it - as does the Buckeye Trail, if you take a look at it on a map - and so did we.

Everything that goes around, comes around. So we'd like to give a shout-out to Dayton hiker Andy "Captain Blue" Niekamp, the first person to solo hike the whole Buckeye Trail.

Andy completed a thru-hike of the Florida Trail in 2019. He's the face of adventure in Ohio, something we learned more about on this trip: Ohio's outdoor adventures. Check out his website.

Itinerary

Southwestern Ohio

Serpent Mound
Hopewell Culture National Historic Site, Chillicothe
Armstrong Air & Space Museum, Wapakoneta

Northwestern Ohio

Liberty Aviation Museum

It’s not just aviation: military vehicles, automobiles, PT boats, memorabilia, and a diner honor World War II sacrifices at the Liberty Aviation Museum.

Trails and TravelJohn Keatley

Puttering Around Put-in-Bay

Puttering around Put-in-Bay, Ohio, in a rented golf cart, I was able to explore this island in Lake Erie at a relaxed pace while learning about its history.

Trails and TravelJohn Keatley

Spiegel Grove, Fremont
Put-in-Bay, South Bass Island
Twin Oast
Lakeside Daisy Preserve
Lakeside Chautauqua
Marblehead Lighthouse
Sandusky: Segway Tour, Carousel Museum, Cedar Point, Kalahari Resort
Vermillion

Columbus

Columbus College of Art & Design
Columbus Museum of Art
Columbus Riverwalk
Franklinton
National Veterans Memorial Museum
Scioto Audubon Metro Park
Short North Arts District
Thurber House
University of Ohio

Southeastern Ohio

Rockbridge
Hocking Hills State Park
Inn at Cedar Falls
Logan
Nelsonville
Jackson