Couple Backpacking the Buckeye Trail

Peter & Joyce Cottrell (photo by Faye McNabb)

based on a news article in the Evening Leader, "Couple Hikes Trail," by Katie Yantis, June 19, 2009

Beginning at the small town of Richmondale this spring in southern Ohio, experienced hikers Peter and Joyce Cottrell plan to return there in September 2009. In 2003 the Cottrells were the first people to backpack the American Discovery Trail. The ADT is concurrent with the Buckeye Trail across southern Ohio. The North Country Trail also follows about 800 of the 1400 miles of the 1400-mile Buckeye Trail loop.

On June 19, the Cottrells reached St. Marys in northwest Ohio. The Heritage Park Trails District Director Allison Brady, who has hiked the Appalachian Trail, said she recognized what the Cottrells were doing. She offered them some help and a day without their 45 pound and 30 pound backpacks. She also bought them dinner and offered a place to spend the night. The kindness of people they meet never ceases to surprise the couple.

The Cottrells said they have enjoyed about Ohio, especially the local people. “I am really loving the birds,” Joyce Cottrell said. “We are really loving the people.” She really enjoyed sharing their story with a group of ladies in a coffee shop in Bremen.

“We get simple pleasures out of the Buckeye Trail,” Joyce Cottrell said. “This is all we do, we live a very simple life, and we are trying to make people understand you can do anything you want to do.”

See the Cottrell's story on the American Discovery Trail
See The Buckeye Trail