Buck Creek Lake & State Park, OH

Buck Creek Lake, near Springfield, OH

 

Buck Creek Lake would be the longest day-paddle of the trip, with 2,120 acres of lake surface. It lies in the Northeast suburb of Springfield, OH, and before the stay was over, I decided we should be able to sack and pillage Springfield, because there was no one left there to defend the town. They were all at the state park. We had seen so many Ohio license plates that we decided to walk around the park to see how many out-of-state tags we could find. After walking past all 200 campsites, we found not a single out-of-state tag, but ours, of course. The folks in Springfield know a good thing, and take advantage of it.



A Great Blue Heron stands majestically in a tree overhead.

 

The lake and park are easy to get to, just a few short minutes off I-70. The lake is deepest at the dam. It is 50 ft. deep there, and gradually shallows into the wetlands and headwaters of Buck Creek, where in some areas it’s only knee-deep on a water boatman, those skittery little black water bugs.



I finally located the headwater, Buck Creek.  A railroad

trestle crosses as soon as you enter the creek.



Buck Creek Lake is also known as C. J. Brown Reservoir, assigned that name in honor of Clarence J. Brown, Ohio’s Secretary of State, Lt. Governor, and Ohio’s man in the U.S. House of Representatives. So, to the Corps of Engineers, who built the 6,620-ft. dam that fills the horizon to the south, it’s a reservoir, but to everyone else, it’s Buck Creek Lake. The park was opened in 1975.
 

The creek is fun to paddle.  It had only a light current, and

was nicely shaded.  I found one quiet spot and stopped for lunch.