June 16 Mason to Xenia

 

We cycled into Zenia on a clean trail.  After the storm on the 14th,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 Little Miami River.  With all the canoe and kayak rentals facilities along the way, the river must get very busy.

This morning we saw many more 3 wheel recumbents (trikes) but not many other trail users until we reached Zenia. There we stopped at the trail head, sat in the shade by the water fountain, and talked to many cyclists heading south. It was a pleasant way to “while-away” the rest of our morning.

Pictures

Map


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

June 15 Cincinnati to Mason

Getting out of Cincinnati was not as difficult as yesterday’s arrival.  We were fresh, the temperature, while hot, was still much lower.  Once we got back on the rail-trail we saw lots of people out for their morning exercise.  A group of roadie cyclists pulled along side of us and inquired about our journey. One woman, a self confessed competitor, decided Jeff was going to slow so she moved up next to Joe. Joe is not one to skip a challenge and they were off to the races.  We all ended up in Loveland ,  OH , where they asked us to join them for coffee. Some of the group had already done the OTET and the GAP trail in Pennsylvania but were also talking about cycling the C&O trail in Maryland and the New River trail in Virginia . We shared our travel experiences on these trails before they headed back south and we continued north. After yesterday’s long 70 mile day we were thankful that we had planned to cut our trip back to Xenia into two segments of ...
Read more

June 18 Columbus to Mt Vernon

  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. ...
Read more

June 21 Akron - Cleveland - Falls Church - Pleasant Valley

Our final bike ride to Cleveland was uneventful.  Only one picture today because we left the hotel when it was very dark.  Both of us wanted to get home.  After nearly 40 miles of cycling, we loaded Joe’s van and headed east.  With a few stops we arrived in Falls Church at 4 p.m. and then Joe decided he could not wait to see his lovely wife, drove to Pleasant Valley, arriving at 10:55 PM.   Picture Map Northbound Trip Map Some trip statistics: Name                               Miles     Elevation Gain (feet)   06-09 Cleveland to Akron           43.81     1,092   06-10 Akron to Millersburg         69.95     1,215   06-11 Millersburg to Mt Vernon     43.07       765   06-12 Mt Vernon to Columbus...
Read more