Hike Ohio Rack Cards and Local Economics

The Hike Ohio rack cards are now posted inside and out of the Tourism Cabin in Caldwell of Noble County.  I'm from up near Cleveland and I wish that I had somebody from one of the chambers of commerce tell me about every factor that is economically adverse to this part of Southeast Ohio.  I've got the feeling that the trails in this area are going to be very tied to that situation.

I've been mulling over the situation in Monroe County some.  The Wayne leases hunting land.  I'm not sure about the scope, but lets say that it's to two or three dozen hunters?  Economically speaking, most of them might be local?  Out of all of them, they might require services in Marietta, Newport, New Matamoras of Washington County and then Woodsfield of Monroe County.  That's spreads them out and they probably gravitate to Marietta?

The mountain bikers don't come any further north than the Archer's Fork Loop.  That puts them as far north as New Matamoras of Washington County and they likely gravitate to Marietta.  North of there, I do no know of any ATV or Jeep networks, so that leaves Buckeye/ North Country and two NFS campgrounds in part of Monroe County.  From the adventurer's view point, The Wayne's federal property is too fragmented.  From what I understand, that's the biggest contributing factor to it being (at least in my opinion) an under performing forest.  But from the local's view point, the forest has a massive presence where the federal government has acquired good farm land to expand itself.

Buckeye/ North Country in the area has always been "disadvantaged."  But it's hiking numbers have been bottomed out for a long time and we have nowhere to go but up from here.  I just commented on the Crooked River Chapter of the Buckeye Trail Association's Facebook group that we have "so little to loose and so much to gain."  Even if it's just by trying?

Hike Ohio Cards - SE Ohio and Mid-Ohio Valley West Virginia

For those of you who've picked up a "Hike Ohio" from the Buckeye Trail Association in the Parkersburg, Vienna, other areas of the Mid-Ohio Valley, West Virginia, as well as the City of Marietta and and other some other areas in Southeast Ohio, I probably put them there.

And I might imagine that you might be trying to determine what sections of the Buckeye Trail are nearby.  They are:

Belle Valley
Stockport
Road Fork
Whipple

In 2000, the Buckeye took over for the North Country Trail in the Marietta Unit of the Wayne National Forest. Currently, the Buckeye is a 1,445 mile circular trail within the four corners of Ohio.  North Country's 4,500mi route from Vermont to North Dakota still travels concurrent with Buckeye in the Marietta Unit of The Wayne.  You might drive by sometime and see that the "North Country Trail" signs have been changed to "North Country/ Buckeye." I just think of it as two highway routes on one road.  And the Buckeye Trail as the "roundabout" of the hiking world.  Depending on who you talk to, it's still the largest loop trail in the world.