A few weeks ago I was reading our local weekly newspaper The Yellow Springs News when I noted the obituary of Ralph Ramey. He was 90 years old when he died. A number of years ago Ralph made a couple of appearances on the program and when I saw that he was no longer with us I headed right over to my stacks of recordings of the show and pulled out this interview that I did with Ralph back in 2002 when he published his book "Fifty More Hikes in Ohio."
Ralph was an amazing guy. He had hiked over thousands of miles of trails in every region of Ohio and he was one of our leading authorities on hiking in Ohio. His previous book, "Fifty Hikes in Ohio" has gone though four editions and has sold over 100,000 copies.
Ralph spent 17 years as the Director of Glen Helen here in Yellow Springs. He was also instrumental in the preservation efforts at the Cedar Bog in Champaign County. Ralph was a visionary ecologist and his love for nature gleams brightly in his written work.
We had a lovely chat that day back in 2002. He was in his early 70's then and he was still an avid hiker. He had lots of valuable advice for hikers. He advised that we should never hike alone. Of course Ralph usually ignored his own advice and frequently hiked by himself. In this interview he imagined a morbidly humorous scenario of what might happen to him if he ever did get into serious trouble when he was out hiking alone. Fortunately, that never happened. Ralph was truly one of a kind.
The Book Nook on WYSO is presented by the Greene County Public Library with additional support from Washington-Centerville Public Library, Clark County Public Library, Dayton Metro Library, Wright Memorial Public Library, and Microsun Lamps.
