Goal Met- 500 Miles!

 I wanted to ride part of the North Coast Inland Trail that I skipped over last week, so yesterday I decided to ride from Bellevue to Fremont.

That meant driving 120 miles to ride 20 miles.  Ed thought it was crazy.    I had ridden the trail from Monroeville to Bellevue previously this summer.  It was crushed gravel and I didn't really want to ride it again.  But I had not ridden from Bellevue to Fremont, or the section from Wakeman to Monroeville. 

I never regret choosing to take a bike ride! I knew this ride would put me over   the 500 mile goal I had set for myself.   

I got started late.  The weather has been pretty cold in the mornings, so I hung around the house until after lunch. I finally got started at 3:30, meaning I would not arrive in Bellevue until 4:30.  I thought I would give myself an hour or so to ride west, then turn around and come back to my car. 

When I arrived in Bellevue, I used Trail Link app to locate the beginning of the trail.  I could not find a parking lot at the marked space, but finally found one at the Tea Kaufman homestead west of town.  

The trail is paved concrete and is "fast",  meaning very smooth and my road bike pedals easy.  Going west it may be very slightly downhill.  I soon arrived in Clyde Ohio.  Clyde seems to be a bicycle-friendly town with the path clearly defined through the main streets of town.  The town is the home of the Whirlpool factory, which I had toured when I was a business administration student in college. 

I pedaled past the parking lot for the Whirlpool factory without incident.  After leaving Clyde, a freight train passed me.  I could not keep up with it, despite the "fast" surface of the trail.  

This section of the trail is straight and broad.  It is a rail-to-trail conversion and it follows along the railroad line, straight as an arrow towards Fremont. 

When MapMyRide announced that I had reached the 10-mile mark, I turned around.  I had reached the outskirts of Fremont.  The ride back was without incident.  The sun was now behind me. 

 I pedaled along with an eastbound train on the return trip.  

When MapMyRide announced I had reached the 16-mile mark, I knew I had met my 500-mile goal.  I still had four miles left to get back to my car.   

When I got there, the sun was low in the sky, with a haze that shimmered through the smoke from the West Coast fires.  

As I drove through town on State Route 20, I noticed that the separate bike trail ran along the south side of the highway all the way up to the edge of the downtown area.  

I called Ed and asked him to put the dinner in the oven.  Pork chops, baked potatoes, salt and pepper and a splash of olive oil, put in the oven at 300 degrees for about an hour and a half.  He surprised me by cooking broccoli to go with it! 

You can support the fundraising for this effort at this link 

Biking in Michigan - 15th day of September 2020 bike trip

Biking in Muskegon, Michigan on a cold day

Ed and I travelled to the family farm.  It is unseasonably cold.  There are frost warnings.  In the morning the last two days, the temperature was at 36 -38 degrees.

I did not bring the right clothes with me.  I brought cycling jerseys and shorts, and a pair of yoga pants.  While I did bring my fleece-lined cycling bolero, which wards off a chill, I did not bring a jacket.  I do have a jeans jacket and a cotton sweater that I keep at the farm.  Yesterday afternoon, when the temperature climbed into the upper 60's,  I wore the jersey, the bolero, the sweater, my jeans jacket and set off to ride along the  Muskegon Lakeshore trail.  I was also wearing my helmet-cam.  It turned out it was mostly pointed too far down toward the ground, so I a couple of hours of video of the side of the trail.  I've included a couple of stills from the video that show something other than asphalt (but not much.)

Biking near Pere Marquette Park

I have been using the Trail Link app to read reviews of trails, so I used it to find the trailhead   Where the map indicated the trail started was a bike lane on city streets.  I had Ed drop me off at a park near Pete Marquette beach. 

  I set off on a trail through a wooded area, and soon came out at a site overlooking the water treatment plant south of Pere Marquette Beach.  I looked around the beach.  The road was under construction.  Sidewalks were filled with sand.  

 

Bike path with sand along beach

Finally I ended back at the place where I had earlier come out of the wooded area, and turned the other direction, to head for Lakeshore Drive.

  Again, the trail was a marked bike lane on city streets.  While traffic was light, I was still a little nervous.  

  Part of the trail was closed.   There was a well-marked detour through city neighborhoods, which took me a few houses away from Ed's childhood home.  

It was an interesting ride.  Finally the detour returned me to the main trail near Heritage Landing, and through industrial back lots to a scenic route with decking over long stretches of water.  When I reached the intersection of M-120 and Lake Avenue in North Muskegon near the Rite-Aid drugstore where Ed had dropped me off a few weeks ago, I decided to call it quits, as I had become overheated in my multiple layers.  Since I was riding the carbon-fiber road bike, I didn't have any way to stow away my jacket or my sweater.  Ed was visiting relatives only a few minutes away.  I forgot to stop logging the ride at the end.  As he drove away,  the electronic voice announced another mile logged, so I edited my mileage for this ride to approximately 9.2 miles.  

Bike Trip Day 14

  I have ridden the Richland B&O Trail many times.   I thought today would be a good day to ride it, so that I could pile on some miles and Ed would not have to drop me off or pick me up. 

I had a hard time getting started.  I never have a bad day cycling, but after two days off, my muscles are tight and my knees are sore. It took me a while to talk myself into getting out the door.  I parked in Butler, Ohio.  

It takes me the first four or five miles to get my knees warmed up. 

It turned out that the new chain needed warmed up, too.  I'm not sure what "chain suck" sounds like or feels like, but that is the only explanation I had for what I was experiencing.  It seemed like I was randomly missing teeth on the sprockets, and the chain would catch and then let go every few revolutions, but not in a regular way.  After suffering for the first few miles, I got off and oiled the chain thoroughly with my Teflon oil from my toolkit.   It took a few more miles to totally go away, but eventually it did.

 I waved at my former classmate Roger at Alta Greenhouse, he probably had no clue who I was in my Spandex and helmet.  I didn't stop to take pictures until I reached the wetland along the Trail south of Millsboro.  I saw the swans before I saw the blue heron.

I snapped a few photos, then kept going.  There were three deer on the trail near Kingwood Center.  I shooed them away.  Made it to North Lake Park.

I noticed the promotional poster that was posted to advertise the B&O trail'25th anniversary.

I found that the park was a big construction zone, they are repairing or replacing the bridge on North Lake Ave.  I was counting on my helmet camera to get some shots of the construction, but found out when I got home that it had never come on when I pressed the buttons on the remote.

I turned around.  The trail is 18.5 miles long, so I figured on about 37 miles today.  The deer were back on the trail again.  Once again, I shouted some encouragement at them for them to move on.  I made it back to the wetland area, and the blue heron was gone, but the swans were sharing the submerged log he had been standing on. 

 I took a few more pictures.  I think these were trumpeter swans, as far as I could tell their beaks were all black.  They are the largest bird in North America.  As recently as twenty years ago, they were in danger of extinction,  but they have since made a comeback. I felt honored to have seen them.  I kept riding until I got to the rest stop in Bellville.  I took a picture of a guy and his kids (using his camera.)  They were riding vintage Scwinn bikes, and they looked as if they could have stepped out of the TV show "Leave it to Beaver."

There were a bunch of preteens in the parking lot in Butler.  They were impressed with my Spiderman superhero jersey, and asked me questions about the camera on my helmet  I told them I was a blogger, not a vlogger, and I can't figure out how to use the camera properly.  I told them about the Great Cycle Challenge and that they could sign up for next year.

  I made it back just about suppertime.  I did not feel like cooking, so I suggested to Ed that I take him out.  We went to Dan Lee Exchange downtown.  We sat on the patio and had a very nice dinner.  The weather was perfect.

I have only 25 miles to go to reach my goal of 500!

2020 Bike Trip - Rest and Maintenance

  I spent yesterday just chilling at home.  Did not do much except harvest tomatoes from my garden.  

Today I am chasing fruit flies out of my kitchen, processing and freezing tomatoes, and checking my bike over.

The noise I had been hearing for the last day or two was a deformed chain link.  I pointed it out to Ed, and asked if it looked right, he said absolutely not.  It was broken, and a good thing it didn't fall apart while I was riding.   Good I had a spare chain on hand.  

We replaced the chain.  The new chain was three links longer than the existing one.  The Shimano Master Link eluded us, so we just drove out the pins and replaced them without the master link.  

I put the old chain in a kerosene bath.  It was really dirty.  

Tomorrow I will ride.

Bike Trip 2020- Day 13

 I am ever so slowly inching toward my goal of 500 miles in September! After today's ride, I have 62 miles to go.  Today I started in Maumee, Ohio.  The hotel packed me a to-go breakfast including an orange, a bottle of water, a cupcake, and a granola bar. I put that in my pannier and headed across the street (Dussell Drive in Maumee - crossing the street is a several-lane proposition) to Scramblers.  This is evidently a franchise I am not familiar with, but they filled my need for scrambled eggs, coffee, and toast perfectly. 

I started to head across the bridge over the I-475 highway, but when I realized I would have to cross on and off-ramps, I decided to find another way.  I backtracked the way I had come down Ford Road and up 20-A (Alternate 20.)  I rode over a bridge and then found a bike path along what seemed to be an industrial park. 

I followed the trail which led to the Wabash Cannonball Trail.  I followed it southward for a while.  

Fall is coming.  There are brilliant red sumac leaves, the buckeye hulls are starting to split, and the goldenrod is in full bloom. The birds are flocking. 

I arrived in Waterville, which is a quaint town I had never heard of before today.  

 I had been intending to take the trail south for 9 miles and cross over the river in Grand Rapids, Ohio.   When I got to the northern end,  I found a beautiful view of the river.

 I learned that this was the location of Indian camps and near the battle of "Mad" Anthony Wayne from a historical marker at the site. 

 I also learned that the first several miles of the trail were chipped stone.  I was not interested in getting another flat tire on sharp gravel, so I looked for an alternate route.  There was another bridge, if I backtracked the way I had just come, on Highway 64 over the Maumee River. I asked a couple who just got out of their car if they were familiar with the area.  The young man said that Highway 64 was quite busy, but 65 was less traffic and more picturesque.

 

I crossed the bridge and was delighted to find "embellishments" on the bridge columns.  No one crossing by car would ever see them. This makes me unexplainably happy.

The bridge had an iron railing which bookis more decorative than most highway bridges. I was glad I came this way.

After crossing the bridge, I soon came to the fork in the road and had to choose a route.  I saw a marker for Bicycle Route 5 pointing down a country road, which was the same numbered route I had noticed along the Wabash Cannonball route.

  I can't find Bicycle Route 5 on the Ohio Bicycle Route map I downloaded, so I will need to do some more research.  I was dithering over which way to go when a jogger ran up.  She told me that I would be crazy to take either 64 or 65, as drivers do not slow down for bicyclists, and do all the bad things they do like texting while driving and speed around curves.  She also mentioned that 65 was a lot of curves and uphill/downhills.  She told me the country road would be the safest.  

So I took the safe way and boring way into Bowling Green.  Northwest Ohio is flat.  I saw amber waves of grain, and horses. 

I called Ed and asked him to get ready to pick me up.  He was already on the way.  He had left early because he wanted to visit the Fish cemetary in Pemberville, but because I called, he came directly to pick me up. I was only a few blocks from the Slippery Elm trailhead when I had to reroute.

  I made it as far as a few miles into the Slippery Elm trail, which seemed to be a beautifully surfaced and shaded trail, before Ed arrived.  The map says the trail is straight.  Someday I will return and ride the whole thing. 

We ate dinner at a family restaurant in Bowling Green and headed home.  Tomorrow is our wedding anniversary.  Ed says all he wants is for me to stay home for a day.  I think I am ready for a rest day.

2020 Bike Trip - Day 12

 Weather forecast for Richland county says chances for rain are increasing after 3:00 pm. So I debated the merits of carrying full rain gear.  But the forecast for Maumee, Ohio says clear all day.  I settled on taking a poncho as well as a change of clothes.

I decided to start from Fremont today.  It is 38 miles total to my destination from there, that theoretically should be achievable although the last few days I have been averaging only about 25 miles per day.

Ed drove through Bucyrus and I noticed that the old Pickwick Stud stables on Route 4  has been converted to a farmer's market.  Would like to go there one of these days.

The North Coast Inland Trail parking in Fremont was easy to find, and a pleasant, tree-lined flat asphalt trail, crossing under I-80.  

I arrived in Elmont in short order.  I stopped in at the trailside bicycle shop "Spoke Life Cycles" and asked if they did walk-in service.  Ever since I threw the chain yesterday, and it wrapped around the crank and I had to yank on it hard to pull it out,  I've been hearing a clicking noise from the rear of the bike as if it wants to shift, but I am not shifting.  They took it in and put it on the rack, make a very slight adjustment to the rear derailleur, checked the front derailleur, checked my tire pressure, and would not charge me a cent!   Extremely nice people.  I will look them up, the next time I need parts or supplies.  There is an ice cream shop next door.  Too bad I don't eat ice cream.

Riding past the restored railway station,  I saw a trailside sign advertising Christy's Corner Cafe.  I decided it would be best to stop for lunch where I knew there was food, instead of heading off into the unknown.  I pedaled into town up the quaint main street. 

There was a group of three people in line in front of me.  They took a long time to decide what they wanted, and the young man behind the counter fussed over their drink order for a long time before taking my order for a chicken quesadilla and a Gator-Ade.  He forgot to ring up my Gator-Ade. So after we got that straightened out, I went outside to wait and watch my bike, which I had not locked.   I think he lost my order, because I waited and waited and waited.  Finally he brought me a free cookie to apologize.  I just wanted my food!  Finally it came, and it was delicious!   I was attacked by hornets before I could finish it. I put on insect repellent spray, but that seemed to draw more hornets. I dumped what was left in the garbage can and got back on my bike.

The North Coast Inland Trail ended at a detour sign just west of Elmont.  I plotted a course to Maumee with Google maps, and it took me the shortest way, which includes busy highways like US-20 and US-23 and Ohio-795 that I had no intention of riding on.  So I followed the directions, sort of, turning right onto a country road when they wanted me to turn left several times. 

 I went down several country roads that were not much wider than the trails, that had minimal traffic.  A couple of Doberman pincers barked at me when I stopped in the shade to take a drink.  Their owner said they would not leave the yard.  Then a couple of Samoyeds across the street took up the chorus, so I decided to move on.

 I was still getting "chatter" from the chain that was not there before I threw the chain yesterday.  I think that either a tooth on the sprocket is bent or broken, or the chain is deformed.  But didn't want to stop in the middle of the road to check it.  Just west of Elmore a couple on a motorcycle stopped to ask if I was ok and to offer me water.  They asked how to contribute to my cause (I'm wearing a GCC jersey) and I gave them a card.  They said they were from Stony Ridge, which I later pedaled through. (That intersection with Libby Road and the freeway was a little scary, but I made it through.) 

The sky was threatening rain, but it held off.

At one point I saw a pickup truck in my rear-view mirror with two big American flags mounted in the bed, it was following behind me slowly.  Two other vehicles passed him and then me.  I picked up the pace and pedaled faster, he turned around and went the other way.   He probably just wanted to make sure I was OK.

I started noticing that I had a headache.  It could be from the DEET in the insect repellent I used, or possibly the extra weight of the action-cam mounted on my helmet.  

Eventually I arrived at Perrysburg.  First I rounded a corner and saw a beautiful view of Maumee River. There were people waterskiing.

 A few minutes later when I saw the colorful umbrellas of a sidewalk cafe, Stella's, I realized how hungry I was.  

I had two appetizers, salmon bites and roasted brussels sprouts, both delicious.  Service was excellent.

I tried to call Uber after dinner for those last five miles, but they said they had no vehicles available.  So I rode the distance.  Actually, I partly rode it and I partly walked it.   I walked over the bridge across Maumee River, 

and up the hill to downtown Maumee.  The rest of the ride was easy-peasy, either flat or downhill, and lighter traffic than I expected.

The good news is that I made it before dark, and that it did not rain!

Before I forget, I want to include a note of thanks to the park workers and the volunteers who work so diligently to clear the trails after a storm, and to mark the little dips and potholes and roots that have lifted the surface of the trails with day-glow spray paint to help others navigate accident-free.  I salute you!

2020 Great Cycle Challenge Bike Trip - Day 11- Steel Mill Trail

  September 11

Watching the news this morning, it suddenly dawned on me what all the flags in Edgewater Park yesterday were for- one flag for each of the lives lost on September 11, 2001.

I decided to start my ride today at the Steel Mill Trail.  It leads to the bridgewater trail, which leads to the North Coast Inland Trail.  This trail was recommended to me by a fellow riders as being very scenic. I will ride as far as I can go today before getting tired.  I'm getting a late start because it was so good to be home and I was reluctant to leave. 

I have Google maps set to avoid toll roads, so when Ed drove me to the drop-off point at the north terminus of the Steel Mill Trail, we drove up State Route 301, passing an Amish 3-horse wagon carrying watermelons, and passing through the quaint little country village of Spencer. I'd like to come back for a visit some day.  There were lots of Amish farms along the way advertising vegetables for sale with hand-lettered signs. We also noted a huge produce market in a steel building, and a smaller one in a tent in the village of LaGrange. 

I almost took today off. Ed thought I should.  I was a little overtired yesterday because of the additional stress of traffic, riding on streets instead of trails, and having to navigate and check the map frequently to make sure I am still on track.   The only limitation is the non-refundable  hotel night I already paid for through Priceline, so I will work around it.  I rode a section of the North Coast Inland Trail earlier this summer, and it was chipped limestone, flat, with spectacular views of lots of farmland.  I want to ride the parts I have not yet ridden, but I will be ok with avoiding the sections I have already ridden. I think most of the parts I haven't ridden yet are paved.  Well, the other limitation is that I committed to 500 miles during September.  Only 150 to go.

It is a gray, overcast day.  The fields of golden wildflowers along the highway stand out as a cheerful accent.  I've seen goldenrod, black-eyed Susans, and many for which I don't know the names.

The trailhead for the Steel Mill Trail was difficult to find.  The signage indicated  both the Black River Trail and Lorain County Metroparks.  Eventually we found a place to park on Old Colorado Road that was not the actual beginning of the trail, but it was close.  There was a short gravel footpath leading to the paved trail.  I rode on the grass at the side because riding on loose gravel with a touring bike is asking for a fall.  I found the trail and started riding.  I forgot to start MapMyRide and Google tracking for the first mile or so, but I eventually remembered and stopped to turn them on.  

I saw a steel mill in the distance when I first started, but assumed there would be more to take pictures later.  Then I remembered I had all the accessories for my Vivitar movie action cam mounted on my helmet, so I turned it on. At least  I think I did.  The camera controls are two buttons on top.  One to power it on, and one to start recording.  I've used it before, but on that experience I had it aimed too far down, so I had an hour-long movie of the side of the trail.  If there are any good shots resulting from today, I will come back and edit this post later and insert them.

I saw my goldfinches as I ascended a path up to the Ohio turnpike.   It was as if they were encouraging me.  But then, when I shifted into a lower gear, my bike threw the chain.  It wasn't a simple fix, I had to turn the bike upside down and wrestle with the chain to get it out of the space between the sprockets and the frame, and keep it from binding up. After I finally succeeded in freeing it, I gave it a good oiling with the bottle of oil I bought at Joy Machinery.  I also oiled the key for my  bike lock, as it has been working stiffly.

The steel mill trail is only two miles long, so I was soon on the Bridgewater trail. The trail is well marked.  The falls at Cascade park were interesting. 

There was a winding descent into a park in Elyria that was scary, then a long climb out of the park, which I ended up walking.

   I again saw cement retaining walls that would seem ideal for planting flowers to spill out.  

A short ride on neighborhood streets and over yet another scary bridge.  Then I was on the North Coast Inland Trail.

  A smooth trail and very straight.  Mindless.  Just pedal.   I went through Oberlin and made a pit stop at the ??? building,

and called Ed to arrange for a pickup in an hour and a half.  I kept riding through Kipton.  

Google Maps indicates the paved trail ends a mile or so outside of Kipton, but I was pleasantly surprised to find a paved trail next to US Route 20.  The trail surface was smooth, the road was flat, and I shifted into a higher gear and was able to make better time than I had all day.  I arrived at the east side of Wakeman,

and I was thinking about dinner and Ed arriving to pick me up.  I googled and found the Wakeman Elevator.  When Ed did pull into the veterinary business parking lot and flashed his lights at me, I suggested dinner to him. he took me up on the suggestion and a good time was had by all.