Trails & Ales Redux! Deer Creek State Park / Harding's Lounge

Summary

So nice they ran it thrice!

For this meetup, we will hike my favorite Ohio state park: Deer Creek. Afterward, we'll have drinks and food at/from Harding's Lounge.

About the Hike

Deer Creek is a severely underrated park, with much better hiking than people realize. As a result, you stand a very good chance of getting the trails to yourself when you go. The strenuousness of the hike will be on a par with Highbanks, but much of the trails are narrower and more easily given to being muddy when conditions are wet.

We will hike the Van Horn, Rolling Hills, and (Hawkview) Meadow Trails. This will be around 5-6 miles. Here is a simple map of the hiking trails, and here is a more detailed map of the park (which includes more detail about the trails).

Alternately, however, we may find, as we get close to the Meadow Trail, that there's a particular stream that is impassable due to Spring rains. In this case, we'll instead hike some combination of the Ridge, Adena Ridge, and Lakeview/Waterloo Trails that are near the cabins by the Lodge.

Please give consideration to bringing waterproof or water-resistant hiking shoes if you have them. I wear these. An extra pair of socks isn't a bad idea either, just in case.

Where We'll Meet

We will meet at the Deer Creek Lodge at 2:30 p.m. The actual address of the lodge is 22300 State Pk Rd 20, 43143. You can drive directly to the Lodge for this event.

However, for those who either wish to carpool, or simply follow me so they don't have to worry about getting lost, I will meet you in the parking lot of the Walmart Supercenter in Grove City, where we will head out not later than 1:45 p.m. The actual address of this Walmart is 1693 Stringtown Rd, 43123.

The caveat is that you must let me know in advance if you want to do this! If I don't hear from anyone, I'll just assuming we're all meeting at the Lodge and I'll head there directly myself. Please note that my car is too small and full of bric-a-brac to accommodate passengers in any case.

After the Hike

Harding's Lounge is a separate lounge facility within the Lodge that officially opens at 5 p.m. However, at this time of year, it's likely the Lounge will be open well before this.

This is because the Lodge has a tiki bar at their outdoor pool which sells drinks and food provided by the Lounge. So if their occupancy is high enough -- which it usually is at this time of year -- it is likely the Lounge will be open even before we arrive at the Lodge for the hike. They just don't carve any of this in stone, though.

Harding's food menu includes burgers, subs, and pizza that I find comparable to Marco's. In addition to seating inside the Lounge, the Lodge has a large common seating area just outside Harding's, with large comfy seats, big tables, a fireplace, and a nice view of the lake.

The Lodge also has an outdoor patio which overlooks the lake, dam, and beach area. This patio is an amazing place to sit when the weather is nice. I find few things relax me more than sitting here and looking out over the water.

In addition, as Deer Creek is my favorite state park, I'll buy up to two large pizzas for the group, as long as neither of these pizzas has sausage, because sausage on pizza is gross.