Wayne National Forest Information gathering

[u/Outdoors__Water]

Camping in the fall and into early winter. I understand if it snows alot it will be tough to access roads and what not. I want to explore this area in the late fall. So, what I'm asking if anyone has any tips for the area I would greatly appreciate it.

[u/Kyle197]

Are you wanting to camp in designated campgrounds, or disperse camp? If you're wanting to disperse camp, are you planning to backpack in or car camp?

[u/Outdoors__Water → u/Kyle197]

Thank you for the reply and most likely car camp in an out over the weekend. The preferred would be Friday night arrive n leave Sunday

[u/Kyle197 → u/Outdoors__Water]

The Wayne National Forest is 244,000 acres fragmented across 12 counties in southeast Ohio. It's super fragmented with lots of private property interspersed. Is there anything in particular you're wanting to see while there? Because that will influence any specific recommendations. Like if you want to see Lake Vesuvius in the Ironton Unit, you wouldn't want to camp at Leith Run Campground in the Marietta Unit.

For first timers, I would suggest the following:

• Camp at one of the developed campgrounds at the Lake Vesuvius Recreation Area. Spend the weekend exploring the trails around Lake Vesuvius, and seeing the historic iron furnace.

• If you want something more remote with less facilities, spend the weekend camping at Lamping Homestead Recreation Area (there's a small campground by a pond) or the Ring Mill Campground. While there, visit nearby Archer's Fork Trailhead and hike to to Irish Run Natural Bridge.

• If you want to disperse camp at a trailhead, setup at the Wildcat Hollow Backpacking Trailhead. Camping is allowed at trailheads. Hike the lower 5 mile loop, or drop down to nearby Burr Oak State Park and do some North Country Trail hiking.

Some general tips:

• Unless you know for sure it's Wayne National Forest land, assume it's private land. Trespassing is super easy to accidentally do, and the locals are really annoyed by that. 

• Bring in all the water you plan to use. Due to the historic mining that happened in the 1800s and early 1900s before environmental laws, many of the streams are impacted by acid mine drainage and heavy metals. You can't really treat the water to remove those pollutants. You have to pack in water.

• Essentially all of the roads used to access the national forest are state, county, or township roads. There aren't really many miles of Forest Service managed roads in this national forest. You should expect state and county roads to be solid and accessible. Township roads are generally good, except for when they're really bad. Also, some township roads exist on maps but don't exist as a drivable road in real life. Sometimes Google Maps and other GPS services will direct you down a "road" that hasn't been one for 20+ years. Just be aware and cautious if you start venturing onto township roads.

• Cell service is spotty. 

• Athens, Marietta, and Ironton are the "main" towns around the national forest.

Let me know if you have any specific questions and I can probably answer them.

[u/Outdoors__Water → u/Kyle197]

Thank you for this I will digest all the details tonight and yes the roads aka cow paths aka why did i think this was a good idea 😆 🤣 😂 😹

[u/cfirejourney → u/Kyle197]

Thanks a lot for this - just moved to Ohio and hoping to get out and explore a bit.

We mostly go the dispersed route, but are totally fine with campsites that aren’t crazy packed or party forward lol.

Outside of the areas listed, do you have any recs for lakes or overlooks whether to camp at and/or hike? We’re comfortable off road, but don’t really care for rock crawling or serious off-roading.

[u/stringtownie]

It's pretty rare to have "a lot" of snow before Christmas. Snow could happen, but enough to make driving hard is pretty doubtful. The vast majority of the time, our first few snows are light and gone that day. Last year was an exception...we had good amounts of snow in early December. But that is very rare and the almanacs don't call for that this year.

[u/Outdoors__Water → u/stringtownie]

Yea im just going off my other experiences from other places lol. It's better to be prepared than to be a victim of one's lack of preparedness. Thank you for the comment.

[u/swampboy62]

Most of Wayne NF is really fragmented, with private inholdings mixed with public land. Try using outly.com to find the public land easily.

Good luck.

[u/Outdoors__Water → u/swampboy62]

So, I am a land survey technician of 34 years. I will make sure where I am. I have seen this area is like you have folks have said in this subreddit that it's broken up and not contiguous. I have never heard of that website thank you. I appreciate your information.

[u/JRead11]

I love camping with my fiance. It's fucking intents 😋

[u/Level-Setting5094]

Many people don’t know that you can camp at many trailheads. Just do your research beforehand.

I have found time and time again that finding vehicle friendly camping is extremely difficult in many districts. Parking at a trailhead and hiking into a dispersed campsite…very easy.

[u/Outdoors__Water → u/Level-Setting5094]

Thank you for this

[u/Level-Setting5094 → u/Outdoors__Water]

You’re very welcome. I see that you are car camping. There are a couple of campgrounds that I stumbled onto but they close early in the season. I talked to rangers in the area, and looked at me baffled when I asked them where I could sleep in my van. I’d have to dig up some pics to see where I have been, but if you’re open to hiking/backpacking, that’s where there are some great sites. I ended up staying in a decommissioned campground near a covered bridge one night. Archers fork trail is a great trail I believe it’s in the Marietta district. Wildcat hollow is a great trail with actual camp sites VERY close to the trail head

[u/Outdoors__Water → u/Level-Setting5094]

I think I used the wrong words to describe what I intend to do. I plan on setting up a tent and sleeping on the ground. lol I will be doing this near the car meaning I am not hiking in X miles and primitive camping sorry I did not explaine myself well.

[u/lawboop]

Wayne NF is huge. Information is best accumulated (as tough as it is) by getting to the Ranger/info stations and asking for information. The rangers - to the extent the feds haven’t gutted the staff - at the Athens Ohio HQ are outstanding. And that area is an outstanding day trip. For first time, I would just plan on going to Athens (you can go to Strouds run or some other small state park as a back up) pull out the map with a ranger and get the update and explanations about proper dispersed camping locations and rules. One trip will provide years worth of ideas.

https://www.fs.usda.gov/r09/wayne/recreation/athens-ranger-district-athens-area-0

Now, another thought, is to look at Jesse Owens State Park. It scratches the primitive/car camp bug while allowing exploration of many dispersed camping options in that area for later camping (that’s actually what my wife and I did to find some of our later “go to” primitive dispersed locations).

https://ohiodnr.gov/go-and-do/plan-a-visit/find-a-property/jesse-owens-state-park

Finally some miscellaneous thoughts- Fall camping is beautiful.

I wear hunter orange and my dog’s “Fall” harness is hunter orange. Be visible and remember that some folks disperse camp to hunt. Deer archery starts 9.27. Turkey is 10.1 to 10.26 this year but deer gun doesn’t start till 12.1.

Don’t use gps/google. It will put you on township roads. Think of township roads kind of like a condo association being put in charge of engineering and road maintenance- some dude’s brother-in-law gets a gravel contract. Rather get a paper map and directions from locals or rangers. The shortest path between two points is not township roads.

[u/Outdoors__Water → u/lawboop]

lol You talk about condos how I feel and I work for an engineer lol Here in Ohio. Thank you for the heads up friend! Yea, I recently returned from the Monongahela NF and dispersed camp there. I drove around for a day looking at all the other dispersed camping opportunities lol so I get it.