Years ago before I was the Section Supervisor for the Whipple Section - Buckeye/ North Country Trail on The Wilderness Loop, I was a hiker. And as I was heading clockwise/ westbound approaching the Little Muskingum River Flats, I crossed three streams where I had to descend 3, 4 and 7 feet. On the 7 footer, I had to slide down on something gravel like.
Where I'm from, it's a bit dangerous, but you can do a controlled slide down the 80ft river embankment using the outside bottoms of your feet against the dirt. But this 7 footer took me for a wild ride and there was no going back. I found the trail. I was unblazed and I followed it for about 100 yards along a hill before it disappeared. It wasn't a pine forest and that which should have been the trail was indistinguishable from the forest floor.
I was running out of water, so I slid down the rest of the embankment and found my way to the Little Muskingum River. I was plotting an emergency azimuth to the nearby Armstrong Road. The river was chest high and swift. I was carrying my 60 liter ruck over my head and I made it to the road. That was the day when I had to bypass the Little Muskingum River Flats on the basis that the trail was threat to me.
That was more than 4 years ago. Q: Is Whipple different now??? A: The whole Buckeye Trail is different now. In that span of time, it's Facebook group membership has grown by about 420%. The associations membership base has probably increased by 280%. It's gone from 1 to 4 chapters in that time. Maturity wise, the trail and association has evolved at least twice then. And these days, if you ask it's Facebook group if there are any spots that are notorious for bad maintenance, it will take them a bit to answer that. They can't just quickly come up with an answer like they use to. I got an answer back the last time I asked. It was on one area, but there wasn't any consensus on it. Again, things are different.
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