Date: 08/03/2019 – Distance: 3 mi – Elapsed Time: 2 hr – Ascent: 262 ft – Descent: 269 ft – Difficulty: Easy
After last week’s day of hiking in John Bryan State Park, I decided to check availability of camping sites at their campground. I was able to book Saturday night 8/3 at short notice from their website. To get to the campground head west on 70 from Columbus. Take SR 72 south to Clifton. Go east on SR 343 and south on SR 370. Turn left into John Bryan. The Camp Office is on right and campground is right just past office.
The site I was able to book didn’t have electric. There are a few which do, but you have to reserve them at least a few weeks ahead. There are a few centrally located water spigots which are drinkable, but other than that no running water. Toilets are plentyful, but not flushing. Since there is no sewer, there are also no showers. Sites are quite large with room for a latge rv and several tents. Each has a fire ring and picnic table. Most have at least one large tree for shade. There are about 65 sites total. Checkin is 3pm and checkout is 1pm.
I setup my tent and decided to get in a short hike before evening. On the southwest side of the campground there is a maintenance road. Just after entering this road there is a trail to the left called the Furnace Trail. It’s not a long trail and leads toward the Little Miami River into the valley and eventually ends near the South Shelter where I parked on last week’s hike and intersects with the Pittsburg-Cincinnati Stagecoach Trail. There are a few signs which mark the trail but also a few confusing intersections. Shortly after the trail begins, only several hundred feet, the Quarry Loop Trail, which is labelled, goes off to the right. I did not take this trail but the signs says it comes back to the same spot.
About a quarter mile from the Furnace Trail entrance is an old stone furnace standing in the woods. There is another trail which continues straight past the furnace and leads to Glen Helen Nature Preserve. The Furnace Trail turns left at the furnace and continues into the valley.
You pass by another trail on the right which has a sign saying “to Glen Helen”. Then you come to another intersecting trail on the left called the Ridge Trail. These trails crisscross a few times before ending at the Pittsburg-Cincinnati Stagecoach trail east of the South Shelter.
When you get to the valley floor, there is a small unlabelled offshoot trail which goes to the right a few hundred feet to the Little Miami River at the border between John Bryan and Glen Helen parks.
I went back to the Furnace Trail and continued until it intersected the Ridge Trail again. I could have hiked back up the hill to the campground, however, I decided to backtrack the Furnace trail to where I started.
When I got back to the campground I walked to the north side because there was a geocache in that direction I wanted to try to find. There was a small access trail to Bryan Park Rd. I turned left on the road and hiked a couple hundred feet to an access road to the Group Campground. I hiked around the campground looking for the cache with no luck. There was another cache near the entrance to John Bryan Park. After trying to find a path through the woods with no luck, I went back to John Bryan Rd and hiked along the road about a quarter mile to the park entrance. I had no luck with this cache either. From there I hiked to the Camp Office where I found an access trail to the camground and arrived back at my site. Altogether I spent about 2.5 hours hiking about 3 miles.
Once back at the site, I started a fire, cooked some hotdogs and settled in for the night. The night was peaceful with the sound of several different types of owl calls and cicadas in the trees.
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