Ohio Valley Outdoors Magazine Fall 2001

There was an undeniable excitement about it. As I packed my gear, I could feel a thrill each time I thought of it: an out-of-state hunting trip. I was eager to get on the road.

So what was the exotic and distant destination that had me hustling around the house in a pre-dawn buzz? A Rocky Mountain elk hunt? Waterfowling on the Chesapeake Bay? Well, not exactly. Today, I would be setting out on a monumental trek to hunt ruffed grouse in . . . Highlandtown, Ohio, home of the 2100-acre Highlandtown Wildlife Area and about, oh, 40 miles from the end of my driveway.

But still, somewhere in those 40 miles I would cross over a state line. I even had to buy the $25 non-resident license. OK, so it was a cheap thrill.

Nonetheless, as I zipped along Route 39 west of Wellsville and spotted the sign for the wildlife area, the rush came back. Besides the fact that venturing into a new area in a new (for me) state promised to be interesting, this hunt was occurring weeks after the end of grouse season in my home state of Pennsylvania - I was hunting in the bonus round.

From the map I pulled off the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (DNR) website (www.dnr.state.oh.us), I had already selected the spot I intended to hit first. Indicated as brush land on the map, it was a piece of state forest land that formed the northern tip of the Highlandtown Wildlife Area. As I eased the truck into an abandoned roadway just north of the wildlife area headquarters and turned off the motor, the first sound I heard was the baying of beagles from the fields to the south. Apparently I wasn’t the only one trying to squeeze the last few drops of excitement from this season.

As my Weimaraner, Hunter, charged ahead of me into a brushy patch along a stream edge and the frigid air stiffened the hair on the back of my neck, I congratulated myself on finding a promising spot with nothing more than a quick glance at a map. Two hours later, though, after checking out an impressive beaver dam and sections of forest floor so torn up by turkeys that they resembled a tornado’s wake, we stomped back to the truck without a flush, without a glimpse, without a sniff of our quarry. Apparently I had missed the "Grouse-free Zone" label when I glanced at the map.

With no luck at that spot and no idea where to go next, I went to the most reliable source of information available to me - I stopped a guy who was walking down the road. Since this particular gentleman was accompanied by a brace of beagles, and his game bag bulged with a bunny or two, I thought he might have some insight for me.

After a brief recap of his morning hunt, he directed me to the designated dog training site along the eastern edge of the wildlife area. "That’s the only place I’ve ever seen a grouse in here," he said, making me wish I had run into him two hours earlier.

Another person I wish I had talked to sooner was Tom Henry, Assistant Wildlife Management Supervisor from the DNR Division of Wildlife. "Highlandtown doesn’t have a whole lot of good areas for grouse," Henry agreed when I spoke to him a few weeks later.

But just because I made a bad choice, doesn’t make it a bad spot. As Henry noted, most of the habitat at Highlandtown - primarily grassy fields and brushy strips, with a few areas of thick forest cover - is better for deer, rabbits, turkeys, and mourning doves and the management activities there are continuing this trend. The Division of Wildlife is currently planting warm and cold season grasses; raising food plots of corn, sorghum, and millet; and doing controlled burns of grasslands to make sure that this habitat stays productive.

Another habitat, one that sets Highlandtown apart from other wildlife areas, is Highlandtown Lake. Built by the Division of Wildlife to create an open water ecosystem, the lake now generates public waterfowling opportunities. Although, Henry cautions, the lake is not located along the major flyway, it still attracts some geese and mallards, as well as a few wood ducks in the brushier areas along the northwest edges. This is all in addition to a healthy large and smallmouth bass population that can help get you through those troubling times between hunting seasons.

In addition to the varying habitat, another Highlandtown benefit that Henry pointed out is relatively light hunting pressure. With the notable exceptions of pheasant stocking periods in the fall and the gun season opener for deer, both of which can be "quite heavy," Henry characterized the hunting pressure as only "medium to light". This is somewhat surprising, especially in archery season. "There is a pretty healthy population" of deer, said Henry. "I’ve seen some pretty nice bucks come out of Highlandtown."

Henry even went as far as identifying archery season for deer as one of the best bets for hunter success at Highlandtown, noting that the food plots and open habitat keep the deer well fed. He also called out mourning doves ("Excellent opportunities") and spring and fall turkey (On the state forest property to the north, as well as the wooded areas west of the area headquarters") as best bets at Highlandtown.

One species that was notably missing from this list was ruffed grouse, as my experience proved. Acting on the rabbit hunter’s advice, I did check out the dog training area and even managed to flush one bird. Naturally, that happened while a particularly sharp pine branch was attempting to puncture my temple, so I didn’t even get off a shot.

After that, it was off to grab a bite to eat. A quick spin through Salineville, about three miles west along Route 39, revealed three or four small restaurants and bars, a supermarket, and an ATM, but I was in a bit of a hurry by then, so I headed back east.

I opted instead for a candy bar and a drink at Curry’s store in Highlandtown, which also serves as the local gas station. Inside, my order was rung up on what has to be the oldest cash register still in existence outside of the Smithsonian. I considered asking whether the register had been there before the store, but thought better of it and moved on.

Thus ended my hunting trip to exotic Highlandtown. But now that this foreign land was no longer terra incognita, I began to feel an affinity for it. Next time, though, I’ll leave the dog at home. Now let me see, how much does that non-resident archery license cost?