Thought I'd chime in and say welcome, from a fellow midwesterner. Born in Richmond, IN and raised near Indianapolis, but a good chunk of my family comes from out west. Been to/through Columbus a handful of times.
Looking forward to seeing some trips from your neck of the woods.
It actually is surprising how many hikers are from the Midwest.
As anecdotal evidence, the top three states for PCT hikers this last year were obviously CA, OR, and WA. No surprise there. But coming in at #4? The Mitten, despite being far outranked in population by states like Texas and New York. The midwest definitely has an outdoors tradition of its own - it obviously involves a lot more camo and a lot less cuben fiber, but an outdoors tradition nonetheless. Perhaps that's what contributes to it?