On a drive to Cincinnati for a family visit in July, I picked out a detour around Chillicothe to take on a couple SOTA summits: W8O/SE-009 Bunker Hill and W8O/SE-005 Rocky Knob. I had just worked Chris N8PEM on his activation of Bunker Hill a few days before this trip, and his reports for the area were invaluable for planning.

Bunker Hill is within the Great Seal (of Ohio) State Park and Rocky Knob is just outside its bounds. I thought this was an odd name for a park, but it turns out that Chillicothe is the city depicted in the Great Seal of Ohio, as it was the state’s first capital city.

I parked at the mountain biking trailhead off of Lick Run Road. The Mt. Ives trail starts from this point, which fans out into a network of trails throughout the park. First up was Bunker Hill.

W8O/SE-009 Bunker Hill

I followed the Mt. Ives Trail, then the Shawnee Ridge Trail, to the Bunker Hill Trail which snakes its way up the hill. The trails and junctions are well-marked. I did pass by a few mountain bikers on the way up. All told, it was 1.5 miles one way with nearly 500 feet of elevation gain. The majority of the hike was flat as the Bunker Hill trail mostly follows one contour around the hill until the last push to the top.

The activation zone at the top is large, so I hiked a bit further past the true summit where there was more room to set up. I used my trusty throw line to get the end fed up. Since this was a POTA site, I quickly got the required contacts, putting 17 in the log in about 25 minutes. Since the next hike was a bushwhack, I wanted to give myself plenty of time, so I decided that was good enough.

• Trailhead: 39.36710, -82.93829 : Mountain Bike Trailhead on Lick Run Rd
• Maps: [AA3TZ SOTA] [Great Seal State Park Map]
• Route: 3.0 mi out-and-back, Bunker Hill Trail
• POTA: Great Seal State Park (US-1954)

W8O/SE-005 Rocky Knob

Back at the car, it was time for hike number two. Rocky Knob, as of this writing (Feb 2025 – this report has been on the back burner for a while 😬) has only been activated 9 times to Bunker Hill’s 41. This is because Rocky Knob is a bushwhack. While a tract of Great Seal State Park connects nearly the entire way to the hilltop, the least strenuous way does pass momentarily across a well-trimmed lawn (private property) that is not within the park.

I started on the Lick Run Trail and after a tenth of a mile, followed a Connector trail to Lower Cellar Trail, working my way to the east end of the park. Once I had crossed the Cellar Trail proper, it was time to start the bushwhack.

I tried to follow this dried creek up the hill. It was somewhat rough going and the ground was softer. I kept consulting my GPS to try to stay in the park boundaries, which includes a narrow (tenth of a mile wide) panhandle to the east. The clearing just north of the park is an open, flat field that seems to be part of somebody’s property, so I did not linger.

Following the ridge got me back into the park for the final approach to Rocky Knob. There is a small wooded area surrounding some rocky protrusions at the top. There were signs of a recent campfire, with a small rock pit and firewood around. There were many trees to choose from to get a wire up into and a handful of rocks to sit on.

Even though the edge of the park boundary might overlap with the activation zone, I decided to operate closer to the peak south of the park boundary to be safe. I did a bit of S2S chasing here, logging a few prolific SOTA and high-profile activators. George KX0R on Radial Mountain (W0C/PR-091), Al N1SMB on Lily Mountain (W0C/FR-050), and Ara N6ARA on Kratka Ridge (W6/CT-014). 14 QSOs when I wrapped up. It was an uneventful hike back, but I did find a tick in my pants when I made it to Cincinnati a couple hours later. Thankfully, it hadn’t bitten.

• Trailhead: 39.36710, -82.93829 : Mountain Bike Trailhead on Lick Run Rd
• Maps: [AA3TZ SOTA] [Great Seal State Park Map]
• Route: 3.4 mi out-and-back, about half on trails, half bushwhack
• POTA: Very close to Great Seal State Park (US-1954), activation zone might overlap a small portion of the park.