River to River Trail and Shawnee Forest Exploration
River to River Trail Hike
Hutchins Creek Updated with 6-10-22 Hike with Shawnee Saunterers.

Hutchins Creek Updated with 6-10-22 Hike with Shawnee Saunterers.

Hutchins Creek is a great hike, with great scenery weed free hiking (nearly) and it’s off the beaten path. PLUS there is no mud, it’s all gravel. Back in the old days (70’s 80’s) They put car bodies in the creek to keep the banks from eroding. Silly people. There are remenants of cars and trucks here and there along the way.

****This page has been updated with the latest trip I made there and some photos from an earlier scouting trip before the Saunterers hike I led on 6-10-22. They were added to the end of this page rather than start another page.****

The Creek is public domain shore to shore. There is a guy who will argue with that, but according to two FS workers I talked to, it’s too much trouble to argue with the guy (You will see his house North of the washed out bridge) so the best place to park and go in is the wide place before you have to cross the Creek coming from the South. You can go down the spur off Pine hills road with the road closed sign on it, but you will get an earfull from the landowner down there, and I wouldn’t want him to spoil your day. Just go from the south and don’t worry about it. The parking is better too. Directions, Forest Road to Beech Road North, take the Hutchins Creek road laft at the split and keep following the creek to the crossing. Go South or North, the Bus is South, The R2R and Washed out Bridge are North.

I did this in two trips and made a great day trip out of both. If you get an early start, you might even go to Odies place about a half mile north of the R2R crossing on the West side just north of a pretty deep ravine. A horse trail goes in at that place and Odies is just North there and see the old homestead. I went in summer and didn’t bother. It’s much better I’m sure after leaf off when the weeds are down.


Parking area at creek crossing.Very wide, park to the side.
Great place to get out and hike mid July when the weeds and ticks have taken over the trails. Beautiful any season.
The R2R is really weedy where it crosses.

Hutchins Creek Hike with the Shawnee Saunterers 6-10-22

That old guy on the left is me. Never pose like that. I do have arms.
Buckeye seed pods.
Some formations around the first bend.
    Always a great hike. I wore crocs but I had to stop and take out rocks pretty often.
    It had rained most of our way down (from Mt. Vernon) It cleared off after a while. It was still cloudy here.
    Unusual leaves belong to the Swamp/Chestnut Oak. I had never noticed one before with their saw toothed leaves.
    Nice swimming holes, but wear some type of shoe due to the frequent “artifacts” from all the cars and trucks the county put on the banks for erosion control back when.
    It hadn’t rained in quite a while and there was a larger buildup of moss than I have ever seen in the shallow areas. A good rain will clean it up. It’s normally very clean and pristine with blue spring water.
    A photo in the sun.
    Man made or fossil? Tons of fossils and human artifacts in these rocks. There were farms along the creek up until the Forest service bought most of the land in the 30’s.
    We didn’t go much further than the washed out bridge. It would have been hopeless to repair it as the other side is far to the left of the picture.
    Some old fence posts. The creek bed moves from year to year and uncovers and buries stuff.
    • Always treat yourself after a hike!