Ironton, Ohio

I had eluded to a second nude recreation spot from Lee Baxandall's World Guide to Nude Beaches and Recreation Areas in a blog I wrote a few months ago, and I wanted to write more about it. This was not only the second place I visited from Lee's Guide, but also the second place I had ever gone nude in a "public" setting (which I define as the possibility of being seen naked by another, in a nude recreation spot or not). The Ironton Strip Mines had directions that were fairly easy to follow, though there were some typical country like directions, like, "turn right at the grocery store), LOL. They were located north of Hanging Rock east of a small town called Pine grove, and after turning right, you made an immediate left up a gravel road, to what today has been paved and is now called Route 25. The directions said to drive half a mile to the first road on the right, park, and walk in. I found the strip mines to be pretty nice, and there was actually a string of them, about four, that curved from the west to a north/south part, before curving to the right and then a tighter curve to where the strip mines headed south. The water was pretty clean, and I had total privacy the first time I went there. I saw a few Kingfishers and a great blue heron during my time there and it was nice to tan and swim nude on one of my trips between Cincinnati and Ft. Bragg. But I only went twice. The second time I went, I had a lover with me who had been my "date" at my mother's 50th birthday. She and I were on the outs, and I was probably going to (and ultimately did) break up with her when we got back to Fayetteville. I told her on the Monday we drove back, which was the actual Labor Day, that I had found these strip mines where one could go skinny dipping and walk around nude and get an all over tan if one so desired, but when we got to the gated entrance, she refused to go with me, which was a bit confusing since she was very sexual and liberated gorgeous Vietnamese woman, and loved to experiment. I would have thought she would be gung ho to go naked in nature and want to fuck each other's brains out under a gorgeous blue sky. Nope, she refused to go with me. So, I told her I was only going to take a quick dip to cool off (I had a Ford EXP two-seater with no AC, but had a moon roof) and that I would be gone for at least 15 minutes, but no more than a half hour. I hoped that she would change her mind and come and join me. She didn't. However, after stripping down and leaving my clothes on a log near the shore of the first strip mine and swimming through the next three, I returned to find that I was joined by an unexpected surprise ... two teenage couples, high school age. Well hell, I swam around for about ten minutes and figured my lover was going to get pissed off just sitting there in the hot sun in my car, and I hoped the teenagers would get bored and leave. Nope. They sat there on the same log I had put my clothes, and when it became obvious that they were not going to leave anytime soon, I told them, "Guys, I was skinny-dipping before you got here, and those are my clothes, which means I am naked". I then asked, "Is anybody going to get upset or be shocked to see me completely naked ... which means you girls are going to see my cock when I get out?" One guy spoke up and said that they did not care, so I got out, walked to my clothes with two sets of wide open female eyes, whose mouths were dropped open ... I got dressed and walked out to the car. I was a bit pissed off since these teenagers had to have walked right past my lover and she did not bother to run ahead of this group to warn me (It could have ended as a disaster if these teens had run to call the sheriff), and she even acted upset because I had taken so long, but I got in the car, turned back to the highway that followed the Ohio river, and it was a very quiet trip all the way back to North Carolina. Yes, I did break off seeing her again after that incident. I ended up getting married about eight months after that to another girl, but we never had the time to stop and visit this place again near Ironton, and to be honest, since I had been caught bare assed naked by textiles, I was definitely skittish to try and go again, but from consulting Google Earth today, it looks like the mines are still there, but it also looks as if there has now been a house built on the shore of the first mine, pretty much at the same spot I encountered those teenagers, so I doubt they can be used today. It looks as if, from looking at Google Earth, that there are some dirt roads that lead to the other end of the strip mines, but I have no idea if those dirt roads go through private land, if the area is frequented by textiles, and if it its safe or a danger to those seeking a nude recreation spot. Lee Baxandall has passed away since then. But since he started The Naturist Society, I hope that one day, the administrators at both TNS and AANR will put out a questionnaire to its members so that places currently being used for nude recreation would be documented and shared to its members. That would be cool, and a much needed resource. But as far as I am concerned, both of these nude recreation spots that I found in Lee's guide, the Ironton Strip Mines and the Bland Quarry, are no longer a safe place to use in our nude pursuits. What a bummer.