Trail: Lamping Homestead Trail
Hike Location: Wayne
National Forest
Geographic Location: southwest of Woodsfield ,
OH (39.63038, -81.18973)
Length: 3.5 miles
Difficulty: 8/10 (Moderate/Difficult)
Date Hiked: July 2016
Overview: A loop hike with plenty of up and down through a
wide variety of habitats.
Directions to the trailhead: From Woodsfield, take SR
26 south 11.4 miles to SR 537, noticing the large number of oil and natural gas
wells you pass along the way. Turn right
on SR 537. Drive SR 537 west 1.7 miles
to Clearfork Road and a
national forest sign for Lamping Homestead.
Turn left on Clearfork Rd. The parking area for Lamping Homestead
Recreation Area is 0.2 miles ahead on the left.
A vault toilet but no water can be found at this trailhead.
The hike: Known regionally as “the Wayne ,”
Wayne National Forest Ohio . The forest was established in 1934 to buy up
land that had been depleted by decades of poor timbering and agricultural
practices. Other parts of the forest
cover former coal mines. Today the
forest features over 300 miles of trails, which make the Wayne
one of Ohio ’s best hiking resources.
Many of the
Wayne ’s trails interconnect to form
large trail networks, but the Lamping Homestead Trail featured here sits by
itself and connects with no other trails.
The Lamping Homestead Recreation Area is named for a family that lived on
this site from the 1800’s until 1971.
After the Forest Service acquired the land, the farm buildings were
dismantled, so only a small cemetery remains from the Lamping’s ownership era. The recreation area features a 2 acre pond
stocked with bluegill, bass, and catfish, 6 walk-in campsites, 8 picnic sites,
a picnic shelter, and of course the trail described here.
 |
| Trailhead: Lamping Homestead Trail |
Start the
hike by walking toward the left side of the fishing pond, which sits east of
the parking area. The Lamping Homestead
Trail makes a loose loop around the pond, but the trailhead to the left of the
pond is easier to find: look for a brown wooden sign beside a small pine
planting that reads “Lamping Trail.” Starting
here and hiking the loop clockwise gets the toughest climb over with first. Also, the area’s picnic facilities and
campsites are located here.
The trail
heads up the left side of the fishing pond before curving right to cross one of
the pond’s feeder streams on a wooden footbridge. White plastic diamonds mark the way, and
brown carsonite posts labeled with trail distances appear every quarter
mile. These markings and the above
average trail maintenance give this hike a frontcountry feel in spite of the
remote location, which keeps trail traffic down. I did not encounter anybody else on this
trail when I hiked here on a Saturday in late July.
 |
| Fishing pond |
Now on the east side of the pond,
the trail begins a long gradual to moderate but occasionally steep climb up a
series of ravines while curving right to head south. In addition to some steep areas, parts of this
trail have high cross slope, i.e. the treadway slopes steeply from right to left
or vice-versa across the side of the hill.
Therefore, I recommend boots or shoes with good ankle support for this
hike.
 |
| Climbing the ridge |
Just shy of
1 mile, you enter a pine planting near the top of the ridge, which stands more
than 250 feet above the pond. When you
reach the top of the hill, a trail signed as the Short Loop exits right. As its name suggests, this trail goes
downhill to shortcut the main loop, thus reducing the hike’s distance to only
1.5 miles. Continue straight to hike the
longer loop.
Very
quickly you enter a small prairie that contains a rusty old natural gas
well. While southeastern Ohio
is no Permian Basin
 |
| Hiking through the prairie |
Back in the
forest, the trail goes across the ridge to begin descending its south
side. The descent is gradual to moderate
at first, but a couple of later areas are so steep that I felt more comfortable
going down backward than forward. At 1.3
miles, the trail curves right to begin heading down a steep-sided but
flat-bottomed ravine. The nice
maple/beech forest here makes this hike an above average destination for fall
leaf peeping.
After 0.5
miles of fairly flat hiking, the trail curves right to begin climbing around
the hillside. When I hiked this trail,
some recent side hill work had been done here to reduce the trail’s cross slope
and therefore make the hiking easier.
While I did not help build this trail, my feet did their part to stamp
down the newly built treadway, thereby solidifying the new construction. Trail traffic is one of the best ways to wear
in new trails.
 |
| Improved sidehill trail |
At 1.8
miles, you reach a narrow overlook of the Little Muskingum River’s Clear Fork,
which was muddy on my visit. The Little
Muskingum River flows south and west from here to empty into the Ohio
River just upstream from Marietta . For the next 0.9 miles the trail passes in
and out of several small ravines between finger ridges as it goes more up than
down. More pine plantings appear as you
get closer to the top of the ridge.
 |
| Little Muskingum River overlook |
2.8 miles
into the hike, you top out on the ridge again just below a knob that rises to
the right. Next comes a steep descent
down the north side of the ridge. Just
past 3 miles, the signed Short Loop enters from the right. Angle left to begin the final segment back to
the fishing pond.
The trail
now enters young lowland forest, which contains some sycamore trees and a dense
shrubby understory. After hopping over a
small ditch, you pass on the right side of a low knob before coming out at the
southeast corner of the fishing pond.
Walk across the pond’s dam and through the picnic area to return to the
parking lot and complete the hike.
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