Our 2022 OTET Ride

  We left very early today because of the planned 70 mile ride and projected rain.  However, Joe discovered a short cut that saved us 14 miles of trail cycling.  The trail made a big curve that we decided to cut straight across on a county road.  Unfortunately, the short cut had one very large and steep hill that we had to walk. So our 70 mile day became 54 miles (we don’t know what happened to the remaining miles). Not much rain but very cool temperatures. We got into Akron at noon , checked into our hotel, and had our lunch/dinner. Tomorrow will be a short day back to Cleveland where we will reload Joe’s van and head home.   Pictures Map Northbound Trip Map

  We had a short ride today so we lingered at our hotel breakfast in Mt Vernon, lingered on the trail, and lingered in Millersburg waiting for our room to be ready. We should have lingered longer before leaving Mt Vernon because it was cold this morning. Today started out at 47 degrees and our hottest day so far was 97 degrees.  Needless to say, we were bundled up this morning with extra clothes. Not much to see on the trail today except for a jogger, who in full stride, was juggling 3 balls as we past him. We were impressed that he could both run and toss balls in the air at the same time. Today was not a good day to stay in a small town.  They were still cleaning up after the tornado came through a few days ago.  The trail was still full of debris, and some of the restaurants did not expect to open for a few more days.  Also, today is Sunday and the ice cream shop, candy shop, and brewery were closed.  We are thankful that we have a place to stay. Tom...

  We arrived in Mt. Vernon only to find that George Washington was not here.  But we are sure you knew that.  We cycled 12 miles on the trail to reach our breakfast stop.  We knew that we picked a good place because it was packed with customers.  After a hardy breakfast we took an alternate route off the Ohio to Erie trail and went around Hoover Reservoir that is more than 10 miles long.  The nice thing about this route was that it was no longer than staying on the trail.  Mostly it was on urban trails and roads with little traffic. The only downside was that we were exposed to the gusty winds.  With 24 miles in, we were back on the trail and continuing to climb to its highest point, 1,285 feet.  While that may seem high, we reached this point over 3 days of cycling on 1 and 2 percent grades. We were easily able to cycle 12 mph most of the time.  After we crested the high point , our speed increased to 14-15 mph.  Near Mt. ...

  Nancy , Joe’s wife urged Joe to get out of the hotel and see Columbus , the capital of Ohio .  So after cycling nearly 60 miles we took a 5 mile walk. Our first destination was Columbus’ German Village.  We were hoping to find a German restaurant for our dinner but only found a German coffee shop.  Next we headed to the Ohio Statehouse that was begun in 1839 on a 10-acre plot of land. The Statehouse was built of limestone from the Marble Cliff Quarry Co.  After seeing the Statehouse we headed to the Flat Iron Grill for our dinner and beers, both of which were excellent – and fortunately, it is within 200 feet of the hotel.  We were glad that we got out but wished for more interesting sites on our walk. Pictures

There is not much to see when you leave the hotel at 5 a.m. and cycle on a tree covered trail.  But then we didn’t care.  Our focus was to get an early start on a 60 mile day before it got to hot. We continued cycling as daylight appeared.  We pushed for 30 miles to reach  London , OH where we stopped for breakfast. There we met another cyclist whose trail name is Speedy.  Speedy endorsed our choice for breakfast, ignoring the reality that the M&M Diner was the only place to eat. Speedy was on a new bike taking his initial shake-down cruise. Speedy told us that he got the bike yesterday and he cycles about 14,000 miles a year. With that kind of mileage, he deserves a new light-weight bike. Even though we cycled this section of the trail a few days earlier, we were surprised about seeing things we forgot and not finding things we were sure were on this section. However, it was mostly a day to cycle toward our next nights lodging,   Pictures Map ...

  We cycled into Zenia on a clean trail.  After the storm on the 14 th ,the trail was a mess for our ride to Cincinnati . The maintenance crew did a fantastic job.  We saw them this morning and told them how appreciative we were of their hard work.  When we planned our trip we saw that Zenia to Cincinnati was down hill so figuring that we would be climbing, we broke the return trip into 2 days.  What a mistake.  While we did gain elevation over the past 2 days, the cycling was easy and could have been completed in one day. Thus these 2 days were short and we ended up in locations with not much to see or do. Before we left, Jeff’s wife said that we should embrace our return ride because it will give us a different perspective.  We did see a few things that we missed on the way south so they are included in today’s photos.  When heading south we were worried about dodging all the trail debris and failed to notice that we were cycling along the Li...