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By Michael Andersen, Troop Historian
It didn't seem like very far to go at first: the longest day was 6.8 miles, according to the map, and even with full backpacks that didn't sound very grueling. Then we arrived at the camp. You must understand, this is Northwest Ohio, the flattest place outside of Southeast Michigan, and the terrain has given birth to numerous speculations on the accuracy of such legends as "hills". At Shawnee State Park, however, any skepticism was quenched with the first march up a 200-foot rise. The major difficulty with hiking 6 miles a day in Shawnee is that the distance between camps is much more than six miles. First, take into consideration the folding of the crow's-flight path into up- and down-hill trails; then, consider the winding of the road (unmarked by the map) to permit passage down the steepest of slopes; finally, add the actual distance of the camp itself from the points measured on the map; on day 2 we learned that eight dots of "side trail" is a hell (pun intended) of a lot longer than it looks. Anyway, we had ten people on our hike: Mr. Saccone, Mr. Frey, me, Nick, Matt B., Matt F., Ed, Aaron, Phil, and Alex. Ethan didn't make it, and Andy had a university class to finish up. We carried the food for all four days on our backs, plus tents, tarps, cooking stuff, and personal gear; my pack weighed in at 35 pounds before food. We ate at the Centerville, OH, McDonalds for lunch on the 3rd -- if ever you're in town, go there. They give you free refills on pop. After arrival at Shawnee, we took a brisk little five-hour hike and got to camp as dusk draped the forest in a net of silent green shadow (Joe Metaphor). Phil had a run-in with heat exhaustion that day, and Eddie wasn't too happy to carry his 20-lb. tent over hill and under hill, but we survived. Ed was trail leader that day. It turned out neither Alex nor Phil (who had been working 4 weeks of summer camp staff already) had determined who was bringing their tent, so we had to flip a coin. Phil bunked with Nick and me, Alex with Ed, Matt, and Aaron in the big tent. The next day was .6 miles longer according to the map and about twenty-nine according to my back, but since we were on the road by ten, we arrived in late afternoon. That day we also earned a little of our keep by clearing half a mile or so of weeds from the trail after breakfast and before moving on. That evening there was time for a few games of euchre (five-card, of course -- the bad kind), and we got some entertainment from a very spirited discussion between Alex and Matt B. over strategy. To quote Alex: "Shut up. Shut up shutupshutupshutupshutupshutup. Shut up, shut up, shut up; shut up, shut up, shut up. Shaddup." Dinner was MRE's [Meals Rejected by Ethiopians] from the local ROTC station, and not only did we get cool brown spoons and inch-tall bottles of Tabasco sauce, but Matt B. got a bag of M&M's ("Proud sponsor of the 1992 Olympic Games"). Under trail leader Phil's direction, we had a fire that night and were in bed by ten. The third day began to slack off on the exertion (hallelujah). A shorter trail, and incentive to reach camp in time to cook noodles for lunch, got us to camp by 2 PM. Alex had a little trouble carrying the accursed tent, but pulled through; Aaron led the group that day. Since I was supposed to be trail leader the next day, I spent a little while finding a shortcut to bring us back from camp to the main trail quicker. So we cheated a little. So sue me. I also found a really nice Yankees baseball cap on the trail. If it's yours, e-mail the troop. If you don't happen to be one of the multitudes that read this web page, it's your own fault. By popular vote, we resolved to get up at 5:30 on Sunday for the earliest possible return time -- and pretty much, we succeeded. It wasn't quite so hard of a day; the trail was hillier, but our packs were lighter and it was only 4.6 miles long. We left just a bit off schedule, and after an extremely hearty lunch at the same McDonalds, headed back to good old Toledo. We had missed the Fourth of July festivities at home, but we had made up for it by making zilches (dripping plastic bags) and burning various amounts of magnesium in the campfire. According to Mr. Saccone, this trip will make Philmont next week seem like a breeze. I don't buy it, but I hope he's right. Be seeing y'all.
This is the route we took; we started and ended a point A. For additional information on the Shawnee State Forest Backpack Trail and other state forests please visit the Ohio Division Of Forestry. Return to our Photo Album
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