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20210918 – Vinton Furnace State Forest – Arch Rock

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Date: 07/18/2021 – Distance: 5.7 mi – Elapsed Time: 2.5 hr – Ascent: 915 ft – Descent: 676 ft – Difficulty: Difficult (overgrown and poorly marked trail)

Vinton Furnace State Forest is over 12,000 acres and claims to have Ohio’s largest population of Bobcats along with several rare plant species. This forest also supports over 50 years of research and has been cited hundreds of times in scholarly papers. They do a lot of work with Oak trees here. There are several miles of trails, some not so well documented to good maps and navigation skills are a must. There are several known sites to see and today I was in search of one called Arch Rock.

I found this map at the Horseman’s Camp. I will include the GPS coordinates below.
The main parking spot. I will also include this location below.
Space for several vehicles.
Sign at the entrance.
The trails begin after a long walk down this drive after the closed gate.
Arriving at the forest headquarters, where most of the trails eminate from. I went past the building ahead and continued right on the forest road past the restrooms.
This fork is at a weather station. I went right, following the signs for Arch Rock, seen here on the right.
This fork was not labelled or on the map. I went right because I was following my GPS coordinates for Arch Rock. I’ll include that below as well.
The forest road keeps on going but it’s becoming less travelled.
Occasionally a view of the surrounding area comes into view through the trees.
The view I spotted.
The road while still cleared is almost gone now.
The final sign for Arch Rock I saw. Finally venturing off the forest road.
A closer look at the sign.
The road up to this point was mowed. Now not at all. Wear your insect repellant.
This looks like Turkey, which I saw on the road coming in while driving.
Just keep following the trail… or rather, the open area.
The trail ends at this amazing arch. You can get down there on the right side.
Arch Rock.
Don’t get too close. You wouldn’t want to cause erosion.
It’s beautiful and well worth the hike.
Heading back. This is the weather station.
Coming back on the forest headquarters. Those are restrooms on the left.
I stopped for a bit and spotted two caterpillars. That hairy one will cause a terrible skin irritation.
There are several other trails here, but I had already hike over 10 miles today.
Arriving back at the parking area.

Waypoints:

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One response to “20210918 – Vinton Furnace State Forest – Arch Rock”

  1. 20210919 – Vinton Furnace State Forest – Vinton Furnace – Hiking with Doc

    […] is a large experimental forest with several sizeable trails. I hiked here the day before to see Arch Rock, but I was back to search for the iron furnace ruins, which I knew about where they were. Someone […]

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