Shawnee State Forest South Loop

Hike Name: Shawnee State Forest South Loop Location: south OH Length: 27 Submitted by: Brendt Jacobsen Date Submitted: 0/0/00 Rating:	more Ohio trail reviews Ohio national parks Ohio state parks
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Description
Shawnee is a love/hate hike. I loved the fact that it doesn\'t see much use and you will see a ton of wildlife from turkey to snakes(lots of \'em), and the camp sites are pretty with good privys and firewood. There is water everywhere from the potable to streams.
The hate portion stems from the fact that the trails seemed to have been layed out by a masochist. From site 3 to site 4 you spend a lot of time walking on a trail that is strewn with ankle twisting softball size rocks or from 3 to 6 the trail seems to be a secondary stream path for pretty much the whole way when you are down in the valleys. The hills aren\'t huge, but evidently they were layed out before the advent of the switchback. The uphill portion right before you get to camp 5 is the worst trail engineering I have ever seen. You go straight up a gully that is full of blow downs not to mention darn near impossible in the rain as it is nothing but slick rock and muck all the way up. It is a little rough to Camp 6 which is a pretty site that sites down in a valley next to a little stream and it gets better from 6 to 7 to the trail head.

This is a trail that novices need not apply or if you have someone that has never hiked before and you want to torture them, take them here and they will never ask to go hiking again. This trail is also very difficult to make good time as you are usually having to watch where you step because of the poor layout. Also, the briars give new meaning to \"stickers.\"

All that being said, while not one of my favorite hikes, I did enjoy the campsites and the solitude. You should also be in pretty good shape for this hike as well due to the poor trail engineering.

Directions to Hike
sr125 from 52 in Portsmouth

Contact Information
Shawnee state Forest

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