Caution urged after latest hiking tragedy strikes Hocking Hills area

Over the past five years, there have been four accidental fatalities at Ohio’s state parks due to falls, three of them in the Hocking Hills area — most recently on Sunday.

Mary Mertz, director of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, called this week’s incident “a huge tragedy” and said it serves as a sad safety reminder for all hikers to follow signs and stay on marked park trails.

“Follow the trail rules,” she said. “We cut out trails in certain areas for a reason.”

On Sunday, Willard L. Gay, 45, of Lima, was hiking the upper rim of the gorge at Conkles Hollow State Nature Preserve just north of Hocking Hills State Park when he slipped and fell about 80 feet, according to news accounts.

According to a report in The Lima News, Stacey Sams of the Hocking County Coroner’s office said Gay was walking the upper rim trail, observing a waterfall, when he dropped a personal item, He left the marked path and fell while leaning over to retrieve it.

The trails are well-marked and fenced, said Mertz, an avid hiker who urged park users to exercise caution and follow the rules at all times.

“The assumption is that we’re all invincible . ... We think we’re immortal, that it’s going to be OK.”

While there are no guarantees of safety while visiting technically challenging terrain, “if they follow the signs, I know it will keep people safer,” Mertz said.

This isn’t the first time a hiker has died of a fall at Conkles Hollow in recent years.

According to ODNR, a hiker died on June 5, 2019, after falling from a trail there.

Another death took place Aug. 24 of that year when a hiker fell from a trail at nearby Hocking Hills State Park. In western Ohio, on Jan. 9, 2018, a hiker slid off ice to their death on a trail at Clifton Gorge State Nature Preserve in Greene County, accounting for the fourth accidental fatality reported by state parks over the past five years.