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Heading for the hills

Heading for the hills

LOGAN, Ohio - My hands were getting filthy, but I didn't care.

I'd finally figured out the delicate, steady pressure that was required on the foot pedal to keep the potter's wheel in front of me spinning at the right speed. As my thumbs dug into the reddish-brown lump of clay on the wheel, it began to take on a fanciful shape.

There's something utterly relaxing, almost meditative, about throwing clay, and - don't laugh - something kind of sensuous, too. I felt a little like Patrick Swayze in the movie Ghost, and almost imagined that I could hear the strains of the Righteous Brothers' "Unchained Melody" rising in the background as my clay continued its magical transformation. All I needed, I thought, was Demi Moore to lend a hand, and

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"You need more water."

Huh? Demi?

"You need more water. Your clay is getting too dry."

It was the voice of Teresa Speakman, pottery instructor at the Logan Art Gallery and Art Center, where I was playing Patrick Swayze for the afternoon. She dribbled some water onto my clay, and suddenly, it was no longer just a shapeless lump. It had become a wet, shapeless lump.

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The tiny town of Logan is one of the few pockets of civilization in the Hocking Hills region of southeastern Ohio, one of the state's most popular tourist attractions. Close to 4 million people a year visit this area, which is part of the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.

The big draws hereabouts are the gorgeous scenery and the geologic marvels, which include waterfalls, deep gorges, soaring rock formations, and huge recess caves carved out of the layered sandstone. Many people visit in the spring and summer, when they can hike the miles of trails - both easy and rugged - or go rock climbing, fishing, canoeing, horseback riding, camping, and golfing.

Or they come in the fall, when the blazing colors of the Hills' many species of trees are equal to - some say they're even better than - anything that New England has to offer.

But winter has its own special charms in the Hocking Hills, not the least of which being that there aren't nearly as many people around. This means that neither the trails nor the lodgings, restaurants, or other attractions are elbow-to-elbow.

My wife and I had been to this area before, but never in the winter, so a long weekend in late January gave us a chance to experience a little of what the Hocking Hills have to offer in the off-season. That was how I found myself throwing pottery at the Logan Art Gallery one day, while my wife was making a necklace in another part of the building.

Naturally, indoor activities take on a higher priority during the winter months, and we sampled a few during our visit. Among the more interesting was a tour of the last operating washboard factory in the United States.

The Columbus Washboard Company, which was founded more than a century ago, avoided closing when it moved from Columbus to an old shoe factory in Logan in 1998. It's open for tours most days, and visitors can watch its four employees - all females - making some of the 30,000 washboards the company turns out annually, assembling them one at a time on original, turn-of-the century equipment.

Most of the frames are made from white pine and poplar grown in Ohio, and the scrubbing surfaces can be made out of anything from stainless steel to tin to glass. Co-owner and factory manager Jacqui Barnett said that about a third of the washboards made by her company are for use in crafts, furniture, and decorations, with another third bought by musicians to be used as percussion instruments.

The rest are sold to the Amish, and to campers, students, soldiers, and others who use them for their original purpose. When the company learned that many soldiers deployed overseas had no way to wash their clothes, a special "care package" was put together and is now available to be sent, at cost, to troops serving in Iraq and elsewhere. The package includes a washboard, tub, soap, clothesline, and clothespins, and the cost is less than $20, plus postage.

Every year the company and local businesses sponsor a three-day Washboard Music and Arts Festival featuring jazz and jug band music, as well as parades, craft shows, and other activities. This year's festival is June 17-19.

At the Old Bear's Den nature photography center, veteran Hocking Hills lensman Eric Hoffman offers workshops on photographing landscapes, waterfalls, wild flowers, birds, fall color, and other outdoor subjects. Amateur photographers interested in trying to capture better images of their trip to the Hocking Hills would probably find Hoffman's classes ($55 to $99) quite helpful.

And the center even has room for overnight guests.

Another interesting stop - and you can grab lunch there, too - was Etta's Lunch Box Cafe, a quirky little diner and general store in a town near Logan called Starr, where owner Ladora Ouesley and her partner, Tim Seewer, set up shop a few years ago after leaving the German Village area of Columbus.

In the general store, you can find anything from kites to penny whistles, or just sit down, grab a bottle of soda, and visit with Elwood, a big, friendly black Lab mix that has the run of the place.

In the cafe, while waiting for Ouesley to whip up a hobo ham steak or a pizza in a poke, you can check out more than 400 lunch boxes that are displayed on shelves around the room. The little metal and plastic boxes are covered with illustrations of everybody from Mickey Mouse to The Osmonds, Roy Rogers to the Dukes of Hazzard, and if you spot one like you used to lug to school, Ouesley can probably give you a little history about it.

Just because it was wintertime, though, that didn't mean there weren't outdoor opportunities as well. Oftentimes, snow and freezing temperatures create incredible sparkling tableaux out of the frozen waterfalls and streams in the gorges. During our visit, there was no snow on the ground, and none of the waterfalls was frozen, but the hiking was good.

One morning during a trek to Old Man's Cave, we joined a group led by Pat Quackenbush, a Hocking Hills State Park naturalist, who explained some of the area's ecosystem. Because of its delicate nature, he said, this was one of only a few state parks in Ohio where visitors are required to stay on the trails and leave the surrounding vegetation alone.

There are as many as 170 species of trees in the region, Quackenbush said, adding, "That's what makes this area so spectacular in the fall."

On another day, we were lucky enough to hook up with 74-year-old historian and volunteer guide Leland Conner, a local landmark himself, for a hike to Ash Cave, Ohio's largest recess cave and one of the area's most popular attractions.

We approached the cave through a narrow, quarter-mile-long gorge lined with hemlocks and beech trees, small waterfalls gurgling down here and there from cracks along the gorge walls. The path leading to the cave is wheelchair accessible. The horseshoe-shaped cave itself is massive, with a tremendous overhanging ledge some 90 feet above the ground, and a misty waterfall. The cave measures 700 feet from end to end, it it's more than 100 feet deep.

Pulpit Rock, a large, flat slab that had fallen from the cave's rim centuries ago, was often used in worship services in the past, and it's still used for weddings and other gatherings, according to Conner.

We didn't see much sign of the white-tailed deer, wild turkey, or other wildlife that's supposed to inhabit the area, but Conner assured us there was plenty there - including the occasional bear.

"And when you're around bears, you have to have a plan," he said, very serious but with a little gleam in his eye.

"And I have a plan," he deadpanned. "I don't have to outrun the bear. I just have to outrun you."

The gorgeous scenery of the Hills has attracted dozens of artists to the area over the years, and their galleries and studios, and cultural centers are scattered throughout Hocking, Athens, and Fairfield counties. A free, 24-page brochure is available that describes and locates the places where visitors can find pottery, paintings, woodwork, photography, sculptures, and other types of artwork.

With fewer tourists during the winter months, it's much easier to find lodging in the Hills than during peak seasons, when reservations are definitely advised. There are more than 500 cabins, cottages, and bed-and-breakfast guest rooms in the area, as well as campgrounds and a few motels. We stayed in one of the secluded cabins at Old Man's Cave Chalets, which bills itself as the "Hot Tub Getaway" of the Hocking Hills.

Plenty of the cabins in the Hills feature hot tubs, but not many of them drain and sanitize theirs daily, as they do at Old Man's Cave Chalets.

Among the other lodging choices in the area:

  • The Inn at Cedar Falls in Logan has guest rooms in its barn-like lodge, plus renovated mid-1800s log cabins and new cottages. An open kitchen in the triple-log main house allows guests to watch their meals being prepared. Breakfast is included, and lunch and dinner is available.

  • A Georgian Manner bed and breakfast is a remodeled 1840 farmhouse on a knoll overlooking Lake Logan. The house, which is modeled after the Kappa Sigma house at Ohio State University, is full of antiques collected by owner B.J. King during his travels as a missionary.

  • Glenlaurel is a Scottish country inn in Rockbridge with rooms named after various clans in its manor house and a nearby carriage house. There is also an upscale restaurant on the grounds.

    Like cabins and cottages, there are lots of places to eat in the area, from informal diners to first-class restaurants. We managed to sample the fare at a few during our stay:

  • The Spotted Owl Cafe in Logan, with an owl by the front door whose eyes flash when you walk by, is a good place for breakfast or lunch. (The chef here and at the upscale Sandstone Restaurant down the street is Tom Hunt, ex-Whitehouse resident and former chef at the Radisson Hotel in downtown Toledo.)

  • At the Inn at Cedar Falls, gourmet meals are served by candlelight in an 1840s log cabin.

  • Over at the Glenlaurel, guests are piped into dinner by a kilted bagpiper, and innkeeper Michael Daniels recites a little Robert Burns before a five-course dinner (seven courses on Saturday) is served.

  • The Grouse Nest Restaurant, located at the top of a steep ridge in South Bloomingville, has a number of signature dishes, including chocolate-dusted scallops with pumpkin seed cream and sweet potato cakes. The restaurant also has the Hills' only "traveling chef," who will prepare a four-course dinner in any cabin, cottage, or guest room in the area.

    When our weekend came to an end, we brought home a whole new appreciation for Ohio's scenic Hocking Hills, as well as plenty of ideas of what we want to do on our next visit.

    Oh, yeah, and I brought home a couple of funny-looking clay pots, too.

    Contact Mike Kelly at: mkelly@theblade.com or 419-724-6131.

  • First Published April 3, 2005, 1:33 p.m.

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