Killbuck Marsh Wildlife Area — Attraction in Ohio

My teenagers wanted to see the 2024 Eclipse totality, and we are from West Virginia. I wanted to avoid traffic and a lot of people, so I opted for Amish Country area, and chose the Marsh because the photos showed wide open spaces. Beautiful drive out Ohio's county roads.

We aimed for Old Truss Bridge. There are two small places to park. One is earlier on in the road and a lil walk to the bridge, but there's also parking next to the bridge.

The marsh still had some high water, so we took off our shoes and socks and waded through it. The water was so cold. Squishy mud. We hiked barefoot out the land bridge toward the center near a murder-flock-grind of red-winged blackbirds. We then regretted not bringing chairs.

We played Total Eclipse of the Heart on our phone.

Then we enjoyed comfy nature sounds. Sometimes you couldn't tell if it was a frog or bird chirping around you. You could hear the fish tap the water's surface. When the totality struck, you could hear these duck duck gooses hollerin like it's the end, which contributed to the atmosphere as the entire marsh grew dark, with the four of us, out in the middle of it, barefoot.

Fredericksburg nearby had a couple nice eating establishments, but we ended up taking a different route home and got Dairy...

The wild life area is huge but the only parts of it that you are actually allowed to go on is impassable marsh. All of the solid ground is on a wildlife sanctuary that is posted. With the CWD containment zone affecting the area it really isn't worth hunting there unless you're from out of state because you can't remove a deer carcass from the place. Anybody who has ever de-boned or butchered a deer know that one it would be way too much trouble to do out in the woods especially on a deer that hasn't had the opportunity to hang for a day and have the meat...

Be prepared, they logged this place in 2021, then the storm came along in June 2022, and now they are logging out anything that was left. I would like to know where the money from this logging is going. The state will probably say they have to pay the loggers to take away the wood.

if you are coming here to ride your side by side or razor, please stay home! Keep what peace is still here. those things...