Bike Dust

Another fine Hampton Inn breakfast.  Checked out and hit the road around 9.  Canal Trail is too flooded to continue on NW, so we mapped out an alternative to west on a bike trail and then roads. Some initial route finding issues and then went onto Sippo Valley Trail.  Warning: Don’t do it!  A bridge was burned by a vandal. You need to stay on Lincoln Way headed west.  Right on 17th to rejoin trail.  (after a nice, long hill!).

Still plenty of hills to go around, and we were pretty worn out, so pace was not brilliant (like 10-11 mph integrated riding time, which includes the “WTF are we?” time outs.  Google Maps make promises that Ohio DOT sign hangers can’t keep.)  Nice quickie mart/Gatorade stop in Rittman, OH with positive feedback from owner. Missed turn at River Styx park and paid for it with a killer hill on north side. (about mile 34).  Quick roll after that into Medina.  Missed the ladies by about 30 minutes.  Finally caught them in Lagrange for Grand Finale into Oberlin.  Hannah and her friend Pia (?) joined us on Parson’s Road.

Checked in with Reunion headquarters. G headed up to Barrrows, D and I got Fairkid.  Both are huge dumps, but Fairkid is worse.

What followed was debauchery for about 40 hours.  Features: Feve (over and over again), Tappan square beer picnics, etc.

Map My Ride

Day 4: the brutal slog through Eastern Ohio.

Tried to leave by 8 for what we knew was to be our longest day.  Didn’t start riding until about 8:30.  crossed to south part of town.  (Mistake 1 of ??), then started to climb, and climb, and climb.  H was rewarded at end of first major climb with a rear flat.  (Same as last year in Alaska: valve delaminated on inside of tube. Something about the Marathon Plus?)  Nice to start the day covered in grease.

Continued SW and probably lost the route we were on.  Ended up in Fernwood State Forest which was pretty, but featured some unnecessary climbing.  At south end of that, we patched together a route west and a little north on a township road which was mostly gravel. (Mistakes 3-5 of ??).  FInally found 22A, which was OK, but that dumped us on 22 for a few miles.  Good news: decent shoulder and relatively low grades.  Bad news: trucks whipping by.

From Jewitt, stayed on highway hills  almost to Scio before I did a big “duh”… there is a rail trail over there!  Rode into Scio and found IGA next to soft serve place.  Had worlds’s worst Philly Cheesesteak sandwich at latter.  Lots of Amish in these parts.

Funny true story Garrett reported.  On the rail trail, there are “No Motorized Vehicles. No Horses.” signs.  Someone had scrawled on one, “That means NO AMISH!”  We were dumbfounded.  Who hates the Amish??? Don’t like their simple-life-leading, small-carbon-footprint-leaving lifestyles?

From Bowerton, back on roads headed towards Zoar. Retraced some of the grils’ hill misery around Leesville Lakes.  Found Zoar, and discussed for about 20 seconds staying there at the B&B teh girls’ had told us about.  Rather, …push on!

River was cranking, so we stuck to roads until Bolivar.  Found Canal and rode almost to Navarre before running out of dry land. Sampled the canal one more time upstream of Navarre before heading into Massillon on roads.

Found Hampton inn after close to 90 miels and being out for about 9 hours; completely wiped.  Ate an obscene amount of food at Margaritas (where Thursday is Margarita night!).  Crashed and Burned.

Map My Ride

Dravo Cemetery to Steubenville, OH with Whack-a-mole route finding on Montour Trail.

Left around 9.  Big debate about going back to Buena Vista and riding on roads to Clairton. (We had come back this way on the reverse trip from Oberlin to Ohio Pile n 2006).  In the end, felt that climbing was not the best way to stat the day and opted for trail route.  Stopped by fire house in McKeesport to say hello and then headed west again.  the GAP webpage has you looking for the Clairton connector, but really what you are doing is following the Steel Valley Trail.  It is a bit confusing, but the key is to NOT cross the  Monongahela until after Glassport.

First part of Montour is nice, but once you hit the unfinished parts, hang on.  For us, this was made easier when we foumd a map of detours/bypasses at a kiosk at end of the first finished section.  (Click here for some written descriptions of bypasses. I could not find bypass map on their webpage.)  Last part (towards McDonald) of Montour is intact and more isolated.

We rode into McDonald and ate at a Subway, then headed west again to find Panhandle Trail. This trail is sort of a cross between the C&O and GAP in terms of surface.  The best parts are the first few miles in Pennsylvania and the last few in West Virginia. The middle section is pretty rough, particularly west of Burgettstown.

The terminus of Panhandle is a parking lot just at Route 22.  We did some recon there while talking to an older couple that had been heading north along coast and then were trying to work their way towards Northern Tier.  We gave them a map and shared some ideas we had about getting to Lake Erie.  We were planning on jumping n US 22 and toughing it out all the way to Steubenville, but instead went across 22, into Weirton, and then down Route 2.  It was still a nasty crossing, but it wasn’t so much time on 22.

After we were safely in downtown Steubenville, we did some Smart Phoning looking for a place to stay. Settled on Hampton Inn. (Hint: better rates in person than on line. Negotiate!).  Ordered in some pizza, and I went to hunt for beer.  The selection at the local Quickie Mart was dismal.  After debating between a wide selection of 40s, Michelob Ultra, and the Silver Bullet, I settled on diet coke to mix with the Jack Black we had been carrying.

Map My Ride

Easy day from Confluence to Dravo.  Mexican Food in Connelsville.  Beers in West Newton.  Arrived Dravo around 4 with evening to kill.  Ran into Dave of Three Wheel Journey fame.  We talked a bit about what he was doing and what we were doing.  Seemed like he was headed the same way into Ohio, so we shared some ReCon on routes forward with him.  (Hope he doesn’t make the mistakes we made!).

The trail here was heavily used that evening by many local riders.  Talked with many of them.

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Messed around all morning getting ready. Finally left house at 12:30.  Long ways up that hill pulling all of this crap!  Kept at it all day with just some quick stops to pound Clif bars.  Confluence outflow campground around 6:30. Saw Lucky Dog Cafe was open (YES!) so headed over for bucket of sweet spud fries, four dead guys, slaw, and chips.  Best food on trail.

Map My Ride

Garrett arrived via Amtrak.  (Don’t get him started on train personnel or customers.)