Ohio to Erie Day 4 Westerville to Millersburg

 Today will go down as the day of different trails: a smattering of the names:

County line trail

Genoa Trail

Galena trail

McKitchen Trail(?)

Heart of Ohio Trail

Kokosing Gap trail

Holmes County Trail

I think I may have missed one or two. The amazing thing is one trail always seemed to lead right into the next. We were off early given the distance we needed to cover. We had some meandering around in the northern suburbs of Columbus by 10 miles we were back in the country. The towns today were great. We had a wonderful surprise when looking for water in Centerburg we were told a church was gracious enough to put a fridge full of water bottles. Wonderfully cold water. Very thankful for them.

As we traveled we were frequently by water- mostly rivers.

When we were not along rivers we had many blooming wild flowers along the trail. We even saw some deer crossing the path. 

Coming in to most of the towns there were many great places to stop refill water and rest in some shade. The winner for nicest place was the town of Gambier. We had a comfortable place for lunch with plenty of water. Best of all after lunch I got to play train engineer!

The last third of our ride today was through Amish country. We saw quite a few signs of horses on the trail but only one buggy. Maybe tomorrow we will see a few more. We did enter an area that was considerably more hilly. We had a 3-4 mile up hill climb followed by the same length down hill. 

The arched bridge was built in 1874! 

Tomorrow is a bit shorter but will involve some riding on gravel trails. Will try to get an early start again.

We biked 76 miles today and total to 236 miles. 

Ohio to Erie Trail Day 3 Cedarville to Westerville

Sleep provided much needed recovery!

Up and at it again this morning. Breakfast consisted of microwaved breakfast Burritos from the hotel. One note if you are visiting Cedarville on a national holiday just plan on the Subway for dinner… everything else is closed. At subway we did meet an Australian couple who were spending 3 months biking across the US from Washington DC to Seattle, Washington. The still had 26 miles left at about 6pm. Hope they got in before dark. 

The other event of the evening was the surprise fire alarm at 915pm. Evidently our neighbor across the hall with a generous amount of hair was spend so much time drying her hair that a few hairs in the blow drier ignited and the smoke set off the fire alarm. We got to meet some very nice Cedarville volunteer fire fighters. 

Our journey today started out through farm fields. 

We were mostly traveling east so the sun stayed in our eyes as we pedaled. Thankful for sunglasses had trees to shade the way. Yesterday we met a family biking from Cincinnati to Cleveland. Dad, Son, Daughter in law and Mother of daughter in law. Along for the ride was their 1 year old son. Their big advantage was sag service from the Mom of the family. Today we see sawed back and forth with them stopping and talking at breaks, and riding together for a few miles on the trail. I suspect we will see more of them over the next few days. 

Our morning went by fairly quickly. We really only went about 38 miles before we were in the outskirts of Columbus. Unfortunately we had a lot of Columbus to go through. The first bunch of miles were not to welcoming for a lunch stop. We finally were able to stop around mile 50. A highlight of our tour of Columbus was biking around “The Ohio State Stadium” and Biking along Woody Hayes Drive… Well I guess you have to be an Ohio State fan to truly appreciate those highlights….

Our route today was an alternate due to a bridge closure on the main route. The end result was a fair amount of weaving through neighborhoods as we made our way north out of the downtown area. Tomorrow we should be quickly out of the city…I hope.

Today was 66 miles. Total trip mileage 160 miles.

Time for some relaxation tonight before a long day tomorrow.

Ohio to Erie trail Day 2 Milford to Cedarville

 Today was our first real day of travel. Our 33 miles yesterday without our gear along made for an easy ride. Today we started out fairly early. We stored Paul’s car at the Milford Police station. Has to be a safe place… who would try a theft in the police parking lot???? We had some time lost with gear issues. I had to stop several times to readjust my panniers to make sure they were on and adjusted correctly. 

It was a bit cool at the start but things quickly warmed and the ride was very comfortable. We met Giovanni as we cycled. He his an avid cyclist from Cincinnati who is planning a trip to Cleveland in June. He he rode with us for several miles and we again met him when we stopped for lunch. 

A bit more about what we are doing. The Ohio to Erie trail is not one bicycle trail it merges several trails in the state. It began in 1991 and by the end of 2022 90% of the trail was on dedicated bicycle path. Today we started on the Little Miami scenic trail. The trail is old rail and is flat with only mild trade at times. It follows along the course of the Little Miami river. The trail has towns about every 6-9 miles. Rest breaks are easy to find in town. Today most of the parking lots were fairly full being Memorial Day. After biking 50 miles (+3 extra for detour) we were in Xenia. 

Xenia is a unique town if you are a cyclist. There are multiple trails that leave from the Xenia station. From Xenia you can go to Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus, Springfield, or Chillicothe. We met a few other bikers heading to Cleveland. I suspect we will bump into them over the next several days.

Leaving Xenia we headed east towards Columbus. We are now cycling on the Prairie Grass trail. This will take us to Columbus tomorrow. There isn’t to much Prairie grass as it’s name might imply but a lot of corn!

For tonight we are in Cedarville staying at the Hearthstone Inn. Very biker friendly. Tomorrow is a few miles longer than today. We wind our way through a detour in Columbus. I think about a third of our day is weaving around the city to reach our Hotel.

Another great day of biking and a successful 61 miles.

Ohio to Erie Day 1 Milford to Milford

 So the title of today should really be Zeeland to Milford via Cleveland and a quick run to Cincinnati for good measure. So let me explain….

First the big Picture. For the second year Paul (a long ago friend from High School) and I are doing a bicycle tour for a week together. This year the plan is to bike from Cincinnati to Cleveland. The tour will be 6 days and we will cover about 350 miles. So to do the logistics of the trip we planned to meet this morning in downtown Cleveland. Paul drove in yesterday and I woke early this morning and started driving around 3:45. Traffic was obviously light and we dropped a car off in Cleveland. Next we drove from Cleveland down to Milford, Ohio, parked our car, changed in to biking duds and biked to Cincinnati.

So today and much of tomorrow we are following the Little Miami river. The trail is a converted rail trail that seems to get a fair amount of traffic. Today was an easy day we were able to leave all of our gear in the car and bike easily the 16 miles to downtown Cincinnati. 

In downtown we did the traditional dipping the back tire into the Ohio river. In a mere 350 odd miles we get to dip the front tire into Lake Erie. 

 

So some History Cincinnati was named after Cincinnatus who was a Roman who when called up was quickly able to defeat an invading army. After which he was the ultimate ruler. History said he gave up the power of his own will and went back to farming. 

So today we started and finished in Milford covering 32 miles but really only 16 total. Tonight we had a great pizza at the Little Miami Brewery. Tomorrow should be another great day of biking!