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Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Chesterhill OH to Logan OH

We have put in so many miles I don't know if I am going to be able to remember everything that has happened. We have spent a lot of time on some footpaths through the Wayne National Forest which is such a blessing. The roads really take a toll on your joints. When we left Chesterhill we walked towards Wayne National Forest (WNF) and came upon this beautiful view of the countryside with hints of autumn on its way. We were running out of water and we noticed we had cell phone service so we walked up to a lovely home and I was praying they would find favor with us so we could sit there for a while and take in the view. Not to mention they had a fabulous pavilion that looked perfect for camping under!! We walked up the sidewalk to the front door and were greeted by a kind man who immediately asked if we were walking the trail. We said yes we were on the Buckeye Trail but are actually doing a much longer trail called the American Discovery. He had a similar smile that we see on many people's faces. One that says, "Wow, that sounds fun but man you're crazy!!" He offered us some cold drinks and said he would even bring out some meatloaf sandwhiches if we were hungry. We all thought that was a beautifully generous offer and took him up on it. So he said he would tell his wife to get busy. As we sat on the porch of Steve and Joyce's house we ate our yummy sandwhiches and got to know Steve. He is a very likeable guy. He had such a kind heart and a warm personality. He said we were more than welcome to camp wherever we wanted. We told him we usually have a bible study in the evening if he would like to join us. He said that sounded great so we headed to the pavillion to make some phone calls and set up our tents. We took some great pictures of the view at sunset. (Sorry we haven't been putting any of them up lately!) When Steve came out we were still getting camp set up. Eva was very exited about her new way of organizing her pack and so she did not want to undo it. She asked Steve if she could just sleep on his porch. He said well you can just come in and sleep in the house if you want. She was so taken back by his kindness that she blushed a little. But of course she accepted the generous offer!! We studied I Timothy chp. 1-2. We has some lovely discussions and then it was getting pretty dark so Steve and Eva went to the house and Jeff and I crashed in our tent after we had a long gaze at the stars of course! The next morning Steve and Joyce invited us in for coffee and cereal. It was a great start to our day. We even read a daily devotional with them and rapped our visit up with a prayer. Then we headed off to Burr Oak State Park.



--Kristin



The Buckeye Trail has been really great for walking feet. We've put in some 10 mile days without realizing it. While we were setting up a lunch campfire, some one came by and offered us rabbit. His name was Chris, and he raises rabbit to eat on his land nearby. Now, typing this, I apologize to my vegan and vegetarian friends. You can skip down a few sentences. It's nice to know where the meat comes from, which isn't always possible with a grocery store. It was delicious. Later on, we met Norma Jean. Her family used to own portions of the park which are now available for public use. She's been connected to the land her whole life. Her car broke down, so between the three of us, we helped her, and helped her get help for it. Norma had lots of stories, life philosophies, and hysterical sense of humor. As for me, I'm still working on meshing the reality of this cross-country walk with volunteer service. I'd like to help out along the way in towns and for the trail itself. Still researching the options. I don't want to walk as a vacation. There are many ways to give back.



--Eva

OK so after we had woken up from a great nights sleep at Burr Oak State Park we took off back down the trail. We hiked around the south end of the lake and across the Dam where we found a bathroom with running water!! It's amazing how a good 'ol sink shower will brighten up your day! After freshening up and putting on clean undies, we headed back down the trail. We made it maybe 100 yrds when we ran across a Corp of Engineers office. We decided to stop to talk and found a couple of very friendly Corps. guys there. They offered us water and a snack and asked if we would sign the guestbook, which we gladly did. They were interested in our walk, but knew that we looked like we wanted to get moving so we kept it brief and started walking. About a mile down the trail we came to a highway and the blue blazes that mark the trail took a left down the highway and then promptly dissapeared. If I hadn't happen to look back over my shoulder I wouldn't have seen the trail kiosk tucked back into the woods just past the guard rail on the road. So we hopped the guard rail and headed back into WNF. The trail took us on a series of switchbacks with only a few inches of footpath between us and a steep slide down the mountain. It was pretty cool. Soon the footpath reached the top of the ridge and miandered over the hills and through the woods. It really was lovely to walk in. We hiked all day and took a few breaks. When we hit the gravel road on the other side of Trimble Wildlife Area we couldn't find a decent place to put our tents so we just had to keep walking down the gravel road. Gravel roads are pretty bad on the body. So after a few more miles of gravel we sat down to rest our feet. Still no place to pop our tent, we thought we would have to keep walking. That is, until we heard Ron's pickup coming down the ridge. He stopped to ask if we were alright and we asked how far it was to the blacktop. He said that it was a few more miles, and he must have seen our faces droop because he offered to give us a lift. We all looked at each other and nodded in approval! So we jumped in the bed of his truck and he wisked us down the road. When we started seeing houses we knocked on the back glass for him to stop and we climbed out. He said that this house right down the street would probably let us camp in their yard. So we gave Ron our blog and bid him farewell. As his truck went around the bend and out of sight we were loaded up and headed to the house he suggested. When we got there a woman was already outside unloading her groceries from her car. We asked if we could camp in the yard and she said we could. We quickly set up our tents, and while the girls were doing some stretches to unwind from the long day I figured out that we had done about 13-14 miles. It was the most we had done since Eva joined us and we all felt that it was a pretty good day of hiking. So we spent the evening talking and were serenaded to sleep by the cooing and clucking chickens. We woke up and were kind of rudely asked to leave by the woman's elderly father. So we packed up quickly and left. I guess they had second thoughts on letting us camp there or something. Anyway, once we started walking I realized that we weren't seeing any more blue blazes and that we were probably off the trail. I remembered that Ron had taken a turn and that we were farther East than we were supposed to be. No big deal though because we reached the highway we were supposed to reach and just walked down it a little further than was intended. So we ended up in Murray City anyway and asked a man where the place to get some breakfast would be. He kinda looked at us, then looked at our packs, and back at us, then kinda chuckled and said, "the American Legion 'might' be still serving food." He pointed the way and we walked over and right on in. It was a full on bar with guys in there that had obviously been there long enough to drink a few beers. It was 11:00 am. They said that they wern't officially serving breakfast anymore, but that they would fire up the grill and make us whatever we wanted anyway!!! What awesome folks! We got the best breakfast. We're talking heaps of eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, and toast. PER PLATE!! It just made me smile from ear to ear. We had coffee, orange juice, a couple of bags of chips and they filled up our bottles with ice water. Then they only charged us $5 a piece!! Well we spent a couple hours in there telling them about our journey and just generally chatting. It was very nice and relaxing. Once we decided to leave we went next door to stock up on trail food at the carry out and stuffed it away and headed back out on the trail. After another 4 miles of gravel, we found the woodsy footpath. We walked basically straight up this ridge. Once the blue blazes reached the top of the ridge they made a hard left then came out onto a jeep trail. This is where the trail markers just vanished like Houdini. I mean we walked a couple hundred yards in every direction and found nothing!! We went back to the last known marker and they literally just dissapeared. So we walked down the jeep path (which went in the general direction we wanted, N.W.) and came to a oil pump location where we decided to set up camp for the night. Of course it started to rain as we were setting up our tents and quit just as we finished setting up. It was saturday night. Luckily we had a map of the area, thanks to Jim Shaner, and were able to deduce apporximately where we were and kept traveling unmarked trails. We crossed two roads, doubled back twice and then finally met a dead end 80 yards from the final road we had to get to. We wound up bushwacking the last 80 yards and reaching the road. I double checked the map and deduced we should go left. We would either run across the trial again, or we would come to an intersection where we could walk the road on into Shawnee. We were trying to get to Shawnee for church. Well we found the trail and after scratching our heads as to how we got off course, we put a quickening in our step and actually made it to tecumseh lake just outside of Shawnee in time for church. As we emerged from the thick woods into the manicured lake property we saw a pair of squirrel hunters coming out of the woods on the other side of the lake. We met up with them at the north end of the dam by there car. It was a father and his son, and they had each gotten a nice spuirrel. We chatted for a second and they told us where to go in town to get to a church, and they also told us where the local greasy spoon was! We parted ways and walked on into town. We stopped at the carry out (convience store) and got something to drink and continued on to church. We arrived right in the middle of sunday school and were welcomed by pastor Cliff. He told us we could leave our packs in the lobby and "come on in!" It was a little white church with nice country folks in there studying the bible. We briefly told Cliff what we were doing and he thought it as great. He also asked if we would mind sharing our testimony, and we gladly accepted the opportunity to speak.

~Jeff

The service was nice. The sermon was awesome becuase we had been explaining to Eva the significance of the law for the last few days and the sermon was all about that. It is so nifty the way the spirit works. Then the service was ended with communion. It was a great end to our Sunday morning. After church a nice lady named Joyce offered to let us do laundry and take showers so we hopped in her car and went home with her. We ended up spending all day with her and swapped God stories! She was a lot of fun and we will be keeping her in our thoughts and prayers. By evening we decided we would just go camp at the Lake and Eva mentioned seeing a sign that camping was only permitted by written notice. So Joyce called the mayor. He gave us permission and we were so grateful. After a long goodbye with Joyce we headed to the lake and stopped to get a pizza first! We all had a nice rest that night and when we got packed up Eva decided she wanted to send some emails before leaving cell phone range and so Jeff and I went to get some water from town. On the way through town we stopped at the headquarters for the Buckeye and North Country Trail. We talked to the coordinator, Andrew, for a while and thought Eva would probably have many questions for him, and so Jeff and Andrew went to pick her up in his truck. We got some emails out and made some more cards. I even sent out an email to a christian brother we met back at Dolly Sods to see if he wanted to come walk with us for a couple days. I thought I remembered him saying he lived in Ohio. We ended up leaving finally around 1 p.m. We walked through the woods a little while longer and came to a wide spot in the road and set up camp there. The next day we packed up and were all ready to go and Eva was not quite ready so we just said we would meet her down the trail so she could have some time to herself. We met back up with her ten miles down the way. Jeff and I were out of water so we were really anxious to get back to the roads. When we did we stopped at the first house and met a nice fella named Bud. He filled us up and we walked another couple miles and sat to eat some lunch and checked to see if we had phone service. When I turned my phone on I had two messages from Chris Hunter, the guy I had sent an email to about walking with us. He was in the area and was waiting on us to call him! "Wow!" I thought, I did not expect him to call so quickly. Eva came soon after that and we all headed down the road together and we stopped to say hi to some folks and they asked if we wanted a ride to Logan. We thought for just a few seconds and we all decided it would be a great idea. So we hopped in the car with them and got dropped off at the library where Chris called and said he was 15 minutes away and he would see us in a bit. When he found us we were all pretty hungry and we decided to find a cheap local place to eat. We ate at Bush's restaurant and our waitress, Haley, had all kinds of questions and said we could camp in her back yard! We said that sounds great. She was probably more exited than we were!! We went to her house and all 4 of us sat around and talked about God, prophecy, conspiracy, philosophy, and hiking!! Then it got dark so we set up our tents. Chris slept in his car. Haley came home and shared her dinner with us and said she would cook breakfast for us in the morning. That is today. She did cook us breakfast and asked us all kinds of questions. We sat around all afternoon talking and just relaxing and then decided to come to the library to type a new blog. Oh yeah and Jeff and I talked a couple days ago about checking to see if the thrift store had some long-johns, and you wouldn't believe it, Haley gave me some, and I did not even tell her I needed any!! She is a sweet young lady and she insists that we be friends for life. Before she headed to work she said she would like to have a bible study with all of us when she gets home. So we of course said YES!!! That is our favorite thing ever!!!!!! Oh and we recieved a nice box at the post office. Thanks Jenn and Mom for all the goodies! We already ate all the cookies!! Well.....until next time...Peace, grace, and love to you all!

~Kristin

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