The Zaleski Backpacking Trail - Beautiful Misery

Thanks to Facebook (a website that I loath, but still get too much benefit from to ditch completely) I was able to reconnect with a college acquaintance whom is an enthusiastic outdoorsman. Through some Facebook messages and some IM conversations I was able to get myself invited to go along on a backpacking trip he was planning. This was to take place in April of 2009.

I was extremely excited. This would be my first backpacking trip in several years. I immediately started digging through all of my equipment. I got my pack out and sleeping bag. I discovered what equipment I had and what I had lost in our last two moves. I also purchased some new gear; an MSR Blacklite Gourmet Cookset and the MSR Alpine Kitchen Set.



I broke out the dehydrator and made myself dehydrated fruit for snacks and a rigatoni and pasta sauce dinner. It was my first time experimenting with freezer bag cooking and it was mostly a success. (I'll post more about FBC later, but if you want a good resource for recipes now, go ahead and visit Sarbar's wonderful site Trailcooking.com.) I also packed the staple, instant oatmeal, for breakfast and I had pita bread and a prepackaged boil-n-eat curry for lunch. My bags were packed, food prepared, I was ready to go!

We had planned on a two night hike so after work on Friday, I met my friend J and his buddy W at J's house. Zaleski is a three hour drive from the Akron, Ohio area. We found that driving down Interstate 71 through Columbus and taking US 33 was much quicker than trying to get to Zaleski from Interstate 77. It was a very easy drive and after a quick stop for a fast food dinner we arrived at the trailhead parking.

Welcome to Zaleski

The Zaleski Backpacking trail is next to Lake Hope State Park along State Rt. 278 (coords: 39.331481,-82.339864 approx). It is located in a beautiful part of Ohio, one with steep hills and winding valleys. I really do like this area and it is a fine location for a backpacking trail. Unfortunately this is not a fine backpacking trail, but more on that later.

This was not the first time I tried backpacking Zaleski. When I was in college and my now wife was a Senior in highschool we opted to go backpacking instead of going to her Senior Prom. It was a way to save money. I picked Zaleski for two reasons, one because I had never been there (this was mistake #1) and two, because the campsites have latrines and potable water. It is a bit less remote than other areas I backpack in. That trip was not the best one I have been on. We packed too heavy (mistake #2) and the terrain was much more rugged than I had imagined (mistake #3). We had a LARGE group of students from Ohio University pack in and they crowded our first night's campsite and completely took over the second night's site, so much so that her and I just hiked out and spent the night at a motel. Needless to say, she was not impressed and never went backpacking with me again.

So I had some experience with Zaleski. Did that help me this time around? Not much.

That's my huge and heavy pack in the foreground.

Since I over-packed my first time at Zaleski, I figured I'd do the same for my second time. I had gear for warm weather, and cold. An extra pair of jeans, cotton long johns, a sweatshirt, extra socks, underwear, stocking cap, gloves... It was 90°F that weekend. I don't think the night time temperature got below 80°. It was unseasonably warm for April. Also note, all the cotton. Except for the t-shirt and the pants I was wearing, everything I had was cotton. This trip taught me the value in buying synthetic clothing; it is lighter, packs smaller, and wicks better... all around a better choice for backpacking.

I digress. Friday night we set off on the trail from the parking area. We were meeting J's Dad and another friend at our first campsite. We hiked the 2 miles or so to camp area "C". Zaleski locates their campsites on top of ridges; I assume this is to protect the water resources from hikers who do not practice no trace camping. Since you are not allowed to camp anywhere other than the designated camp areas this causes crowding. Each area is provided with a pit latrine for a restroom and there's a water spigot which is supplied from a cistern. This is a very important detail that I did not appreciate until the next day.

After trudging up and down hill a few times (that's Zaleski's trademark, if there's a hill, the trail climbs it, sometimes repeatedly) we arrived at "C". The place was packed. It was a good thing that J's Dad had gotten there early and had picked a nice spot for us, because everyone else was scrambling for ground. I thought it odd that so many people were at this site since the parking lot had not seemed overly crowded. It was a nice night, we had a small fire and good conversation. I was extremely hungry. My Wendy's burger from earlier in the evening had not been enough, but I didn't have anything planned for dinner tonight, so I just snacked a bit and then went to bed.

The next day we packed up early and started on toward camp area "H". According to the park service map that's about a 6.5 mile hike by trail (if you backtrack to the parking area and head to "H" from there). J and his Dad got out their Topo map and saw that there was a county road close to the campsite and we could see where the access drive for the water truck was. Hiking the road out would cut about a mile or so off our hike so that is what we did. Walking to the road, we discovered that this was where all the campers had come from. There were cars everywhere.

Saturday was hot. Very hot. My oatmeal breakfast was not enough to sustain me and neither was my dried fruit snacks. The trails in Zaleski are rugged. They don't have switchbacks so if you are going up a hill, you are going straight up a hill. A couple of spots require some serious scrambling. I was not in shape enough and my pack was too heavy. That being said, I survived the hike. It's a shame that the trails are not better laid out. This area contains some lovely sandstone formations, beautiful valleys and nice streams. If the trails had been designed a bit better, the sightseeing would be more enjoyable. As is though, it's hard to appreciate the natural beauty while you are just trying to survive the trail. I suffered, but I made it to our second night camp and we actually made good time considering the difficulty of the hike.

At camp area "H" we had lunch and napped. I felt infinitely better after that. My curry and pita lunch was VERY tasty, but I decided the prepackaged curry was too heavy to carry on another trip.

This is where I had nap time.

We spent the rest of the afternoon either taking a quick hike to look around, or gathering firewood. There was not much of that left. The camp areas are pretty thoroughly scoured. The other thing we did was watch people arrive. First a couple, then more, then more until the camp area was flooded with people. Some of them had coolers, some had bags, some had camp chairs strapped loosely to their packs. I was amazed. All these people with all this crap and they looked fairly fresh.

That's when it dawned upon me. These people had not just hiked the same trail I had, they parked on a nearby road and walked in along the water truck access drive. That explains the coolers, camp chairs, and the rest. By the time it got dark, I'd estimate that there were at least 75 people camped around us. Some were drinking and partying, though most were fairly quiet. It was a far cry from the solitude that I usually want when backpacking.

The next morning we ate quickly and left before too many people were up.

We took the G to M to O to P part of the trail to get back to our cars. This allowed us to hike a loop without much backtracking. Other than one major climb this hike was much more pleasant than the previous day's hike, that is, until we got toward the parking lot. The trail descends from camp area "H" and crosses over SR278 (I believe you follow 278 for a bit) and then climbs back up another hill. It winds around along a ridge for a few miles before descending down into a valley. It then follows a stream which wanders back and forth between the steep valley walls. This section of the trail is both beautiful and challenging. It is very poorly maintained and I lost track of the number of blow-downs we had to navigate. The trail was muddy, there were no bridges or boardwalks in areas that needed them. Eventually about 100 yards from exiting the woods the trail just disappeared. I'm not sure what happened, but I do know that coming from the other direction I'd have never found where the trail started.

I'm not going back to Zaleski which is a shame because the area is so beautiful. I found the campsites restrictive in space. Their proximity to roads pretty much guarantees that people will be using them who are not backpacking. The trails are not well laid out nor generally well maintained. If you really want to get a flavor of what Southern Ohio has to offer, Zaleski is a nice location. The trail offers plenty to see. If you want a quiet weekend in isolation, this is not the place for you.