An Ode to Ohio

Side note - On the day I left on my trip Margo Lynn caught me at breakfast and had me model a knit hat for this Mountain Man competition.  It looks like I'm climbing in the polls, but need your votes to reach the top.  Any winnings will go to BiCi Co.  You can vote once a day for the next week.  Just "skip" the initial pop up and vote for the guy that looks like the photo below.  The theme is fitting as I'm a day away from riding across West Virginia to Pittsburgh.  Ouch.

Vote early and often for your favorite mountain man.

After suffering through Kentucky, the Ohio River Valley route has been a dream.   Starting in Cincinnati through this morning in Portsmouth, Ohio I was almost entirely on route 52.  I was a bit worried that the route would be busy with truck traffic and repeat the Kentucky experience, but I've been pleasantly surprised.  Most of the mileage has had a comfortably sized shoulder allowing me an informal bike lane.  The drivers, car and truck, have been courteous and are passing at a comfortable distance.  Hard to believe that just across the river in Kentucky you'll find a backwards third world nation state of dangerous rednecks.  Don't go there.

A lot of my Ohio River Valley riding looks like this.

I heard that the Ohio DOT has been making strides in Complete Streets design that started when the director from Columbus moved up to the state DOT.  I can believe it.  The Ohio to Erie route from Northeast Ohio to the Southwest Ohio corner was amazing, with much of it on paved multi-use paths.  Even this southern state route 52 hugging the Ohio River is a pleasant ride.  Ohio is rightfully ranked 19th for bike friendliness, leaps and bounds ahead of Kentucky (49th).  Check out the Ohio DOT website for bicycle route information.  Ohio also has 12 bicycle region coordinators identified on their website.  For comparison, only one person on the Connecticut DOT has this role.

Portsmouth is a bike friendly landing spot for lunch after my stealth camp last night off a steep logging road in the Shawnee State Forest.  Portsmouth is an early stop on the TOSRV ride, and they have a large bike mural on the flood wall.  In fact, the entire flood wall is adorned with high quality murals.  A neat little town.

TOSRV mural on the Portsmouth, OH flood wall

Even in the Pea Soup fog, drivers have been courteous in Ohio.

This goes to show that it's about leadership.  A city and state with leaders that appreciate sustainable transportation can really improve things.  Keep this in mind when you're voting.  What are the candidates saying about transportation, biking, walking, and transit?  We spend a lot of time and resources getting from point A-to-B, so our elected leaders should be up to speed on the topic.  If they look at you like you're speaking French when you talk about Complete Streets, they shouldn't be in charge.

U.S. Grant whupped up on the Confederates.  Hooahh! Y'all lost.

Unfortunately, Utopia was a failed experiment.

Sometimes you find your camp spots in the most curious locations.  You might stay in a national forest campground, like the Vesuvius Recreation Area.   Other times you may be in a riverside city park in the ghost town of Cheshire, OH.  The local power plant bought up all the homes and businesses and tore most of them down to prevent future law suits against the coal fired plant in their backyard.   The funny part is, most of the mercury and pollution heads downwind.  Can these power plants buy off the entire Northeast?

Historic hot blast furnace at Vesuvius.  Coal and ore in them there hills.

Cheshire, OH.  View from my camp at the local park.

Entering Pomeroy, OH.  Creative treatment of a concrete retaining wall.

Bridge from Pomeroy to West Virginia - worth a stop.

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Connecticut cyclocross season starts this weekend

The 2015 Connecticut Series of Cross begins this weekend with two races in the Hartford area. Cross is a great spectator sport--in countries like Belgium where cross is extremely popular, crowds come out in droves to watch riders wrestle with muddy, wet, and slippery conditions on off-camber turns and hills. If you're interested in cyclocross but not ready to race, or if you're a fan of live sport, this weekend's races are a great chance to see competitors up close on a variety of terrain. Bring some beer or bust out the apple cider, ignoring the 90 degree heat we've been having and celebrate the beginning of fall in your local parks.

Not Connecticut cross.

This Saturday, September 12 is Silk City Cyclocross in Manchester, CT on the campus of Manchester Community College. There are races for all levels, including juniors, women, and men.

On Sunday, cyclocross returns to the City of Hartford's beautiful Riverside Park with Riverfront Park CX. Riverside Park will be the venue for the 2017 US Cyclocross National Championships, a pretty big deal for the City and for Connecticut. There should be beer for sale at the event. Tony wrote about this national event coming to Hartford on the beat bike blog during last year's cross season. 'Cross races have been taking place at Riverside Park since the early 2000s. It might not be the best, pure cx course out there, but riding trails feet from the river in a race is pretty rad.

A great place to watch the action at Riverside Park is on the dike that the course rides up, down, and around in the northern end of the park. Heckling is encouraged. I rode an old steel mountain bike at last year's Veterans' Memorial CX Race in Colt Park (moved to Waterbury, CT this year) and was laughed at and heckled mercilessly by anonymous spectators--it was wonderful. My sense of the races in Hartford has been that they are relatively staid affairs, and could use more brash, inebriated spectators. I know that Connecticut itself is a staid affair, but we can do better, I know it.

Find out more about the CT series, which runs from September through December at the stylish website for the series: http://www.ctseriesofcx.com/.

See you Sunday, Justin Read more!

Don't Go to Kentucky on a Bike. Ever.

Today was a day for very strong feelings.  You know those feelings that make you want to pull someone out of the cab of their vehicle and orally extract their spine?  Those feelings.  Before I get to those, I'm going to breathe and think happy thoughts.  It's difficult really.  Once you've tasted fear, the follow on anger, and then spend hours planning for the demise of an entire state's bicycle tourism industry, its quite a process to take yourself back to those happy thoughts.

Happy thought.  I had an excellent ride from Santa Claus, Indiana to Clarksville, Indiana on my first day back on the bike.  Despite the inclusion of some state routes, the traffic on Labor Day was low and the drivers were great.  The Corydon Ridge Road was a treasure of low stress and beautiful to boot.  It was a scorcher, so took a nap in a park / barn / shelter with a pile of ice on my chest.  Explanation.  A Labor Day picnic had just wrapped up and they left a cooler worth of ice on the lawn near the shelter.  As you may have ascertained from my previous post, my tire had acquired a bit of attitude.  I noticed the tire flaw after my brain reached operational temperatures.

Found some excellent graffiti art in Louisville.

Louisville, KY was a successful pit-stop for a tire.  I grabbed a top notch Schwalbe Marathon Supreme from Parkside Bikes along with a couple of backup spokes.  In Santa Claus, my dad hooked me up with the Stein Mini Cassette Tool so I can change rear wheel spokes on the fly without heavy shop tools.  That is a key tour tool.  I caught dinner at a trendy downtown breakfast joint, Wild Eggs, over priced but tasty.  On my way out of town, I wandered around and found all sorts of interesting bicycle infrastructure improvements.  Louisville has earned it's Bronze Bicycle Friendly status.  The locals I talked to said there have been massive improvements in the last five years.

A wide bike lane (not parking) with a striped buffer.

There were bike lanes next to parallel parked cars with a marked "door zone" to keep folks out of it.  I recommended a similar treatment to Hartford's DPW for the new Wethersfield Ave. bike lanes, but... It takes a while to bring the barge around.  Note the reference to barges.  I've been riding along the Ohio River.  Lots of barges.  Barges and steam boats are super neat.  While leaving Louisville, on the Indiana side, I caught the Howard Steam Boat Museum in Jeffersonville, Indiana.  A required visit for someone on a bicycle ride starting in Hartford, Connecticut - home to Mark Twain.

And a bike lane on a one way street with a painted buffer to denote the "door zone"!

Of note, the Louisville Norton Hospital (take notes Hartford Hospital) had a street level cafe, bike parking near entrances, bike lanes, and "Sharrows" in their area.  It totally makes sense for an urban health care campus, surrounded by dense residential districts, to pay some mind to creating outward facing aspects of their business.  Everybody wins, more feet on the street, more money in the business, and you create a neighborhood that a percentage of your employees will be interested to live in.  First - let's make the Bone and Joint Institute less of a sterile, suburban-style medical office building.  Second - add standard sidewalk mounted bike parking in convenient areas around the other Hartford Hospital buildings.

Downtown hospital with a coffee shop, outdoor seating, and a bike rack!

Going from Madison, Indiana to Cincinnati, Ohio I happened to overlap with another bike tourist, Conner.  We suffered the slings and arrows of Kentucky as a pair.   We got an early start and it was a beautiful ride until the gravel trucks showed up.

Conner's rig.  A fully loaded Surly Cross Check

And now back to the less productive, but more gratifying portion of this article.  Why you shouldn't ride a bike in Kentucky (aside from Louisville).  

• The Kentucky DOT has a pretty awful standard for putting tiny shoulders on state highways, and then putting rumble strips on the 12" of available shoulder.  If a cyclist doesn't want to vibrate to pieces, they are riding in the traffic lane.  Not the most fun with 55 mph trucks and a lot of blind corners.
• It looks like the state of Kentucky doesn't have a three foot passing law.  The League of American Bicyclists ranks them at 49th for bike friendliness.  The only state worse was Alabama!  Ha.  Good company.
• Gravel trucks.  We were purposefully close called by four or five of these wonderful vehicles.  They were talking via CB radio and sadistically entertained themselves by risking our lives.  
• More "Get off the road!" hollering in one day riding in Kentucky that three weeks combined cross country riding.
• Folks may call the sheriff on you for simply riding a bike.  It happened to us.  The sheriff drove by, stopped, waved us over and said someone had called us in.  His review noted that we were riding perfectly legally and he wished us a good day and safe riding.
• Rolling coal.  It happens in Kentucky.  Yup.  You thought it was just a redneck internet meme.
• And Confederate flags - I hate those things.  They are an indicator of an either insensitive or under educated resident.  There are a lot of these in Kentucky.

Cincy - Finally getting out of Kentucky.  A most welcome view.

For further reading enjoyment.  My open letter to the Kentucky DOT.

***********************************

Lynn (Lynn.Soporowski@ky.gov),

I'm doing a cross country bicycle tour, and blogging about it.  Kentucky by far has been the worst state for my safety.  Riding from Madison, Indiana to Florence, Kentucky was awful.  We rode primarily along routes 42 and 127, since the region is rather hilly and there weren't alternate routes.  

Questions:

• Is it a design standard to put very narrow shoulders on the side of state routes, and then put a rumble strip on the entire narrow shoulder?  That makes the shoulder useless for cyclists.
• Does Kentucky have a 3 foot passing law?  Many states do, and couple that with an education campaign.
• I stopped into Louisville for a short visit.  They seem to be getting it right for Complete Streets and safe street design, they were recently awarded Bicycle Friendly Community Recognition by the League of American Bicyclists.  On the other hand, the state of Kentucky is ranked 49th.  Wow.  That's awful.

A bit of venting here, but after being purposefully passed within inches by multiple gravel trucks on route 42, I'm particularly irritated by my time spent in your fine state.  The truck drivers were communicating by CB and thought it was sadistically funny to put my life at risk.    For some reason it was particularly the "gravel trucks".  We had no issues with the tractor trailer drivers, who gave us ample room when passing.  Aside from the gravel trucks, a couple of individuals in personal diesel trucks "rolled coal" when passing, at least that's what I think it's called.  A healthy helping of diesel particulate is a great way to win over Kentucky fans.  

While we were stopped at a CVS on Route 127 another gravel truck, these guys are winners, came to a locked up screeching stop and just missed a school bus full of children at the stoplight.  Not sure who the major sand and gravel yards are hiring for drivers, but it seemed to an outsider that the entire fleet of drivers is due for a safety review and training - and firing the bad apples.

Earlier in the day someone called the county sheriff and reported cyclists operating recklessly.  Seriously.  The sheriff came out and noted that we were riding in a perfectly legal and responsible fashion.  I'm a certified bicycle safety instructor and regularly teach classes on how to safely and courteously ride with traffic.  I'm glad the sheriff knew what he was doing, but bothered that residents of Kentucky found it illegal that we were riding bicycles.  Sprinkle in more, "Get off the road!," yells from vehicles in one day than I've gotten in three weeks of riding, and Kentucky has far and away earned it's 2nd to last ranking.

I know it's difficult to work on bicycle and pedestrian design issues within a DOT that seems focused on highways, trucks, and cars - but other states are doing it.  Kentucky is far behind the other states that I've ridden through for both infrastructure design for safety, laws on the books for vulnerable users, and personal interactions for vulnerable road users.  I wasn't surprised to see very few pedestrians or cyclists.  

I'm planning to ride the rest of the Ohio River Valley this week, but will be avoiding the KY side - and spending my money in Ohio.  I'm also composing an article for my blog that shreds Kentucky, highlights the 49th League ranking, and recommends skipping the state entirely when considering vacations or cross country bicycle tours.

Thanks for your consideration of this note.

Tony Cherolis

*************************************************************

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Louisville Gets the Boot

This bulging tire needs a boot!

Not really.  So far Louisville is fine by me.  On my first day of the return ride from Santa Claus, IN to Hartford, CT I noticed a hop in my back tire.  Early in the tour I picked up a nail while riding through Native American land in upstate New York.  The nail had come in sideways through the tread and damaged the casing over about a half inch, rather than just a small puncture hole.  At first the reinforcement of the patch behind the weak spot was enough, but the tire degraded at the damaged location.  ~ 600 miles later - the back tire is hopping and the tube is trying to exit the casing.  Time for a tire boot.  I wrapped the tube with a dollar bill (great solution, right?) and tucked it back into the tire.  Good enough for now, but I need a new rear tire soon.  Aside from the blazing heat, it was a great day of riding with surprisingly low traffic and beautiful scenery.

Not a bad view from lunch.  Overlooking the Ohio River.

Crossing a rail bridge where the trail ended.  Shhh.  Don't tell.

Fortuitously, I was stealth camped just across the Ohio River from Louisville, KY and it's several bike shops.  The camp was quiet, appropriate for a camp fire, and boasted a river view of Falls of the Ohio.  Stealth camping doesn't get much better.  A short ride down the bike path, through a junk yard with a hole in the fence (trail ended), and then along some more dike-top bike paths brought me to a converted rail bridge between Jeffersonville and Louisville arching over the Ohio River Falls and dam.  The bridge was spectacular and lured one to linger with classical music and benches (really!).

This bridge plays you music.  Because awesome!?

Fingers crossed that the bike shop in Louisville that opens at 10am carries 700x40 tour capable tires.  I need the fatties for my GAP and C&O tour leg, not to mention my random trail jaunts for camping.  The minor detour will also give me a chance to peruse the bike friendliness of this  Bronze Bicycle Friendly community.

Falls of the Ohio, looking toward Louisville

Falls of the Ohio, looking downstream

Plug of the day - Night Fall.  There is a key Night Fall fundraiser on Sunday (9/13) at the Pond House in Elizabeth Park.  Support this surreal and ephemeral art and performance event, coming yearly to Hartford's parks.   Be a part of the community that loves and furthers this Hartford gem.  And save the date for the Night Fall performance on October 10th in Keney Park. Read more!

The Art of the Camp

I get incredulous looks from folks when they hear about my typical bike touring accommodations.  Certainly, one could stay at hotels, or line up a string of friends and WarmShowers hosts.  Even state parks with ready electrical outlets and community bathrooms are upper tier lodging when I'm traveling.  I appreciate the luxury of a bed, air conditioning, a door that locks, and the all important shower.  Having access to a washing machine to wash away the road and start fresh is a gem.

View from a stealth camp.  Photo credit Meghan Tarkington.

What I'd like to share is that the value of these luxuries is amplified when you stealth camp.  I often say, "You can't be happy until you've been sad."  That's my logic.  Those swaddled in silk pajamas, pillow top mattresses, and climate control don't truly appreciate those amenities.  When I get to a quiet, secure, and comfortable bed - it's Heaven.  Sleeping on clouds for a week at least.  If I forget I'm in Heaven, I can think back on the road and it's Heaven again.

That's not the only reason.  You think through reasons and details during a long tour.  The next reason to stealth camp is minimizing overhead.  If you're going to take off work for 6-7 weeks for a bike tour, and you're not disgustingly wealthy, the cost of the trip is of import.  Even a state park will run you $15 - $25 a night.  If you camp in a "dispersed fashion" at (or near) a state park, but then catch a shower on the way out in the morning, you just saved as much as food is going to cost for that day - doubling your range if financially limited.  WarmShowers is also a good financial option, since hosts will often feed you dinner and maybe even breakfast, but it's difficult to line up a host for every evening.  A tour that combines WS hosts and stealth camping can be had on a shoestring budget.

Far off the beaten path in pursuit of what looked like a pond. Photo credit Meghan Tarkington.

The last value of the stealth camp is the isolation and novelty.  I've had some of the most amazing and private camping spots on this past trip.   When you can stand around and air dry for 30 minutes in the sun after jumping in a pond - that's a freedom not many experience.  Try that in a State Park and you'll have a different type of lodging for the evening.

Do These Things

• Trust your gut feeling.  If a camp feels sketchy or not right, don't stay there.
• Start looking early.  Well before you need to camp, keep an eye out for good looking parks and wooded parcels.  
• Be prepared for rain.  My first long tour was with a hammock that didn't have a rain fly, and that significantly cut down my camping options.  Hammock camping can be super light, but you should get one with a fly.
• Plan your water supply.  You'll need enough water to get to camp, for in camp use, and then enough to get to your next refill.  I've been carrying 3 large bottles late in the day, and I have a filter bottle for backup if I need to pull from a lake or stream.  When you're riding during the day you may only need two bottles full.
• Bring toilet paper.   A bit more than you need for two days.   Stealth camps nay not have a bathroom.  Be a good camper - bury your waste.
• If you're going to "publicly" do an informal camp, it doesn't hurt to ask first.  I camped at a grassy trailhead in the small town of Millersburg, OH in Amish country at the recommendation of a Boy Scout troop that I passed on my way.  I followed up by asking local recreational cyclists if they thought it was acceptable to camp there, they said, "Sure.  Can't see why not."  
• If you know (or intuit) that the park or trail is going to get busy in the morning, get up early and move on.  
• Keep an eye out for free or locally accepted informal camp spots.  These often occur along popular through riding bike paths.  For example, the C&O Canal has a primitive camp site every five miles along it's length with well head, a grill, and a port-a-john.
• Have a helmet light or headlamp.  Stealth camp setup often happens at dusk or even at dark if you're running late.  An advanced technique is to scout a trail, catch a late snack, and just at dusk duck into the trail and set up camp after the last folks are likely to wander by.  Also after park staff has left for the night and potentially closed the park gates.  A headlamp makes this much easier in the dark.
• Bring a pair of comfortable (test them / acclimate at home) earplugs.  Your spot may look great, but be fifty feet from the train tracks or US interstate.  
• *** Initially not on the list. *** Learn what poison ivy and similar itch inducing plants look like.  It's a good idea to learn about stinging nettles too - although that is just a temporary skin fire.  My physiology is particularly well suited for stealth camping.  I don't get poison ivy and no bumps from mosquito bites.  That's why I forgot it in my first list of important things.  I've heard there is nothing worse than squatting to go to the bathroom in poison ivy and finding your nether bits covered in oozing, itchy patches for weeks.  Funny (not funny) story about my youth.  My brother, David, gets severe poison ivy.  I found it hilarious to pluck a section of vine and chase him around with it.  He'd get an itchy tattoo for weeks wherever I was able to swipe him with it.  I was a horrible child.

A roof to keep the dew off.  Photo credit Meghan Tarkington.

Things Not To Do - Some of these are Lessons Learned

• ***NEW*** Do not camp among the boulders near the base of a tall cliff.  Those boulders got there by falling off the cliff and tumbling along.  In the middle of the night, you have a remote, but entirely avoidable, chance of getting smashed by falling rocks.  A frightening night listening to rocks cleave off a too close cliff in the Hudson River Valley helped create this rule. 
• Camp below the high water level on a river, creek, or beach.  Be a bit conservative here.  A tidal river can quite sneakily rise overnight and all the sudden you're sopping wet and your gear has floated away.
• Ignore trespassing signs, particularly ones with guns on them
• Keep food in your tent.  Unless you want to intimately meet a raccoon or bear, put your food far from your camp.   I keep it double bagged in my touring dry sacks.  When bears are a concern, the food gets hoisted into the air on a tree branch a good way from the tent.
• Do not start a forest fire.  If you don't know how to contain a fire, put it out all the way, or ascertain if the conditions are just too risk - do not start a camp fire.  Be careful with your camp stove.  Another reason to think twice about your camp fire is that it is an obvious camp giveaway and locating beacon if you are trying to keep a low profile.
• Pick a swampy spot.  You'll get eaten alive.
• Leave your bike unlocked while you take a hike or sleep.  I just sleep better, and this one time a drunk Quaker on the Earlham Campus green tried to steal my bike while I was sleeping right next to it on the ground.  I always carry at least a lightweight cable lock, and the amount of effort to lock up and unlock is negligible.
• Camp 20 feet into a well used trail, unless you're okay with every damn dog walker strolling by at 6am.  Go in at least half a mile.  That weeds out all but the most ardent walkers.
• Try to do this in a big city.  Camping under a bridge in a city with a lot of valuable gear and a transient population is a great way to get robbed.  I've camped several areas in Hartford, but that requires a lot of knowledge of the area.  Not something you're going to have passing through on a tour.
• Expect to get the perfect spot every night.  Some nights you might totally strike out and have to go to a "backup".  Getting a great view is a challenge for stealth camping, because a view means that you're potentially visible too.
• Neglect to dry out your gear.  This is a camping basic, but on this trip I've had to take extra steps to keep things from getting musty.  With stealth camping you sometimes have to get up early and pack up wet.  The dry out may be at the end of the day, rather than the beginning.
• Freak out about every noise you hear during the night.  There are animals in the woods.  Toads hopping in the leaves certainly sound like a person sneaking up on you when your lizard brain is engaged.  

Cliffs are pretty, but don't camp too close.  Falling rocks do happen.

There are backups.  Camping behind a church is usually okay, but be up and gone by services.  You can often get a spot behind (or even inside) a fire department if you stop and ask.  When you are super rural, and it's nothing but farm fields, pick out a farm house that looks well kept and you can ask if sleeping in their back yard or field would be OK.  

What if someone comes knocking?  It happens.  Be courteous and apologetic.  Explain what you're doing.  If it's the park ranger, you'll probably have to pay the camping fee.  Maybe sing an aria.  Meghan, the opera singer, actually did this on her first night ever stealth camping.  I prefer to be a likable, harmless story teller.  I've not yet had to "move on" in the middle of the night.  But it's not the worst thing that can happen.

Happy camping!  And remember ----- the following rural roadside advertisement was the cutest thing ever.

Past - School Houses - Take it Slow

Let the Little - Shavers Grow - Burma Shave

Did you "Like" and "Share" the BiCi Co. Facebook page?   Membership drive coming soon at this new Hartford community, teaching bike shop.  We need your help to get this wheel rolling.

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The Practical Matter of Survival

First - Some exciting BiCi Co. news.  We just created a BiCi Co. Facebook community page.  This will be where announcements for the new shop go up.  Please - Like and Share!  We are still recruiting for the Fall youth Build-a-Bike / Earn-a-Bike program (online recruiting survey), and we are about to kick off a shop membership campaign.

In bike tour news, I did reach Santa Claus, Indiana this morning.  Not exactly the way I planned.  After a short mileage hot day on Wednesday, I woke up in the middle of the night with severe intestinal distress, and continued to make visits to the woods every twenty minutes and on into the daylight hours.  With potentially two more 95F days of hilly riding ahead (~100 total), I made a survival decision from my horizontal position.  A 7am phone call home brought a bail out by Bill and Sue Cherolis (AKA Dad and Mom).  Not too proud to make a phone call when the prospect of riding the next day might include an ambulance.  

Dehydrated and horizontal

Unexpectedly, I overlapped with a fellow bike tourist for the last day of riding.  Both Meghan and I rolled into Versailles State Park at exactly the same time, climbing the massive hill up to the campground.  I am not riding on a well used cross country route, so this was needle in a haystack territory.  We chatted for hours about stealth camping and touring.  Meghan was an opera singer (really!) and decided to head off on an adventure to mark a change in career to something in the teaching realm.  She is a first time bike tourist and was setting out with an extremely lightweight hammock camping arrangement carried via road bike.  After noticing the low spoke count wheels, I gave a crash course in wheel truing in case she snapped a spoke and needs to hobble into the next city with a bike shop.  We rode together in the 90F heat from Versailles State Park (pronounced verr-sails) to Muscatatuck National Wildlife Refuge.  I will not admit to camping at a gazebo in the refuge.

A lightweight touring setup, for comparison

Another state line.  I heart riding on state highways.  That's a joke.

Prior to arriving in Versailles, we individually rode through Lawrenceburg, IN and picked up a fabulous bike path that would have connected to the neighboring city of Aurora.  This was a welcome development because the alternate state highway 50 is a monster of high speed, multi-lane, and no shoulders.  Welcome, except the path was closed (multi-month construction) and only does one find this out once you've committed 2 miles into the trail - no signs at the trail head.  Meghan and I both experienced this frustrating trail and the stressful route 50 detour.  One lesson learned in both Ohio and Indiana that bike paths are great, and state highways are a horror.  IN DOT and ODOT need to get a clue about Complete Streets.

Foreshadowing?

View from the preserve gazebo. 

Lotus in the swampy lake.  Native Americans made flour from the seeds.

A fabulous trail between Lawrenceburg and Aurora, except... closed.

Would have been great to know the trail was closed at the trail head.

Aurora, IN has a bike killer grate right in the middle of a bike lane

After coming across this "bike killer" grate, I had to take a photo.  Right in the middle of the bike lane, aligned with the direction of travel.  I stopped by the splendid bike shop in Aurora, Weber Sports, and showed it to them.  Of course it was already on their radar as an important issue and it had been brought to the attention of their public works.  This kind of stuff is what happens when bicycle facilities are designed by non-cyclists.  Stay vigilant.  Bad bike facilities can be worse than no facilities at all.

Backtracking a bit in the tour - I crossed this bridge daily between my home in Madison Township and Middletown, Ohio.  You don't realize how beautiful the river is until you come back after being gone for years.  Something to remember when we take our own city's views for granted.  Stop, take a step back, breathe - and see what you're missing.

West Middletown Bridge - AKA home territory

The remains of the homestead tree house.  Tire swing still up after 25 some years.

We had a spectacular tree house and tire swing at the homestead in Middletown, OH.  The tree house is mostly gone, with just a few floor boards remaining.  The tire swing is hanging on, although I wouldn't recommend a swing on a 25 year old poly rope.  It was worth the half mile ride up Route 122, AKA West Middletown Hill.

Shed tears at the grassed over Sunset Pool

Our wet playground and training grounds at Sunset Pool in Middletown are now buried under the lawn.   This is a particularly sad thing, but offset somewhat by the cookie and icing sandwich I brought with me from Central Pastry.  Middletown has lost its amazing pool, but appears to be growing a functional downtown area with restaurants, coffee shops, and retail.  Was pleasantly surprised by the opportunity for lunch and catching up with a grade school friend, Christina Slamka at the new coffee shop - Triple Moon.  Christina's parents have owned and run Central Pastry since 1984.

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Be That Friendly Stranger

The kindness of strangers.  You depend on this a lot during a bicycle tour.  Stuff goes wrong.  You get lost.  Trespassing happens – sometimes unintentional.  Bikes break.  You stumble into diners at the end of the day and mumble something like, “Feed me anything.  And bring double.”  It’s a vulnerable time.  The day to day routine of everyday life, the insulation, is stripped away.  Everywhere you go, everyone you talk to, all the places you sleep, they are all new and that can be scary.

These bike path repair / pump stands are pretty awesome!

Thank God most folks are nice.  They think I’m a space alien, or European, for riding my bike all over the country, but they are friendly and curious.  This morning at a coffee shop by LakeConneaut a local fellow named Mick bought my coffee and cookie.  After blowing a rear, drive-side spoke in the middle of nowhere, I aimed for Warren, OH about 20 miles South on the Western Reserve bike path.  Warren looked sizable, and a bike path ended there.  It was also, sort of, on the way to Columbus.  While on the path, a friendly question to a passing cyclist confirmed that Warren did in fact have a bike shop – including directions.  Thumm’s Bike (and Clock) Shop in Warren has been in the same location for 109 years for good reason.  They hooked me right up and I chatted with the lead mechanic while he tutored a younger mechanic in wheel building.  I picked up some heavy, wet chain lube while there.  And right now, I’m informally camped in West Branch State Park – and counting on the goodwill of the park rangers to not roust me from this choice spot.

When I rolled out of Mount Vernon, OH on the bike path I came across Bonnie from Columbus, OH.  She offered to ride me back into the city and showed me the bike path route I would have otherwise missed.  It was really nice to have a friendly riding companion for 50ish miles when I've had so many miles to myself.   Bonnie had quite a long and storied history as a bicyclist, riding her first century on a tandem with her "bike nut" father at age five.  She has ridden many double centuries and her father was a pioneer of bicycle rear-view mirrors. 

Let’s hear it for the kindness of strangers.  Be that stranger.   One way to facilitate being a great stranger is to participate in WarmShowers.org.  Warm Showers is a reciprocal hosting website for bike tourists.  You can participate as a host, even if you never bike tour.  I’m a host in Hartford, and the more the better.  The network is international.  I used it in Nicaragua a couple years ago.  You meet amazing folks, and can offer anything from “camp in my yard” to “my little free B&B for touring cyclists.”  The travelers and hosts get reviews, so you don’t get surprised by a creeper.  As a major hub for the East Coast Greenway, Hartford metro area should have lots of Warm Shower host options - even those of you who live in the burbs.

BiCi Co. Aside - The community bike shop on Park Street in Hartford will deliver "kindness to strangers."  Strangers that may simply be visiting Park Street for the first time from Downtown or the near suburbs.  Hartford tourists and conventioneers looking for an inexpensive option to a rental car for getting around Hartford.  BiCi Co. will be a resource for touring bicyclists passing through on the East Coast Greenway.  BiCi Co. will be a welcoming community that sends visitors off with a shining review of both the neighborhood and the city of Hartford.  Be a part of it.  Stay tuned to the new BiCi Co. Facebook page for announcements and programs.

  

Akron had some neat water rolling through a downtown plaza and concert space.  Remnants of a canal.

Canal remnants and active train tracks in Akron.

Creative use of an underpass.  Come on CT DOT, get creative!

Amish country is amazing.  Baseball and livestock behind the neighborhood school.  Turnstile keeps the horse in.

Left side horse and buggy, right side bikes.  Yeah Amish multi-use path.

A barn and a stone bridge.

A really odd industrial art park in Mount Vernon, OH.

Industrial decay as art.

Felt a bit like Planet of the Apes.

Bike Stations!

Bonnie was my guide from Mount Vernon to Columbus.

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