There was a mist hanging over the fields this morning as the sun rose. I drank my home-brewed cafe latte (special recipe) and ate my normal scrambled eggs in my own kitchen. I decided that since today's ride began and ended at home (with Ed delivering me to my route and also picking me up) that I would ride my Trek Madone and leave the saddle bags and extra luggage at home. Just take a couple of bottles of water, an apple, an energy/protein bar, and my phone and extra batteries.
The Madone is a racing bike. It has a carbon fiber frame, so it is very light weight. Ed drove me to the same place he picked me up last night (we could see the tire tracks in the grass at the side of the road.)
I asked him to take a picture of me holding the bike over my head like all the other riders always do. I can't lift the touring bike at all! But I don't think I have it posed quite right. Need to practice this.
While he was dropping me off, a heavily-laden bike with front and rear panniers passed by. The guy stopped and said he was heading for Cleveland. He is camping along the way with no fixed stopping points, just wherever he gets to during the day. He started up the hill and I took several more minutes adjusting my small front packs and putting the tool kit under the seat. Finally it was time to say goodbye to Ed.
This bike frame has a different geometry than my touring bike. It is stiffer. My riding position is forward, and the pedals are to the rear. The seat is higher. I could tell right away that it would take some getting used to after five days in a row riding the other bike. Also this bike has the shifters integrated with the brakes, so it is different than the Trek 520 that has bar-end Shimano gear shifters.
I knew today's ride would be hilly because I had done a couple of trial runs earlier this summer. I remember I missed a turn going towards Killbuck. I also remembered getting mad at climbing hills north of Fredericksburg and turning around and riding back to my car.
So, what did I do this morning? I missed the turn into Killbuck. The road was going downhill, I was going fast, I was looking at the uphill coming up, and I totally missed the sign. I started out today by riding a couple of miles out of my way. And I didn't see a goldfinch all day long.
The route passes through the Killbuck Marsh Wildlife Area. This is the largest inland marsh area remaining in Ohio. After I rode through the town of Killbuck, the Holmes County Bike trail begins and runs through the marsh also. Some of the marshy area looked dried out, and some was shallow water covered in pond scum. It was all green.
I pulled off the trail to a wooden deck which looked like an observation area. I observed a lot of turtles napping in the sun on the logs that rose above the water. I stood and watched long enough to see some turtles coming up from underwater like submaries, covered with pond scum. There must have been hundreds of them. The pond scum looked solid enough to walk on, but I'm sure it was not.
While I was still standing on the deck, a couple about my age stopped on the trail at the edge of the deck. I put on my mask, actually, pulled up my gaiter, because they seemed hesitant to join me on the deck. They said they were from Orrville, so I said Smuckers. The woman smiled and said yes, she worked there. The man said I'd probably heard of Smith's Ice Cream which is also in Orrville, he works there. I mentioned that Ed was so disappointed when we moved to Michigan and we could not find the toasted almond fudge flavor of Smith's ice cream, and the man said that was probably a discontinued flavor. He advised me to look on the web site and see what the current flavors were. I told them that I had retired two years ago from GM and had been enjoying it immensely, they said that will be next year for them!
The Holmes County trail continues into Millersburg. The entire Holmes country trail is almost as wide as a country road. It is open to horse traffic as well as for biking and foot travel. There are a few places where the buggy wheels have worn ruts in the road, but they are easily avoided due to the width of the trail.
There are two "exit ramps" into Millersburg. Coming from the south, the first is into the commercial area where there is a WalMart and a MacDonalds.
Then there is another trailhead on the north side, where there is an old train station.
The pile of bikes and E-Bikes here belonged to an Amish family. I tried to avoid being rude and taking their pictures.
I stopped and bought a GatorAde Zero from the machine. The station was not open but at least there was a Porta-John in the parking lot.
North of Millersburg, I caught up with the bikepacker and we rode together for a while. His name was Mike and he was a commercial airline pilot. Because the airline industry has been impacted by Covid-19, he decided to take the whole month of September off to do this trip. His wife does not ride on trips with him. He said he used to fly in to Mansfield-Lahm airport to deliver people to and from training in Richmond, Virginia for the AMF corporation. American Machine and Foundry. I had to look this up when I got home and found that AMF was a big deal here. I think it might be the company I knew as the "Tuby" in Shelby where bicycles were manufactured! They also made bowling balls and equipment. Look them up on Wikipedia for more information.
He rode with me to Fredericksburg, where we stopped at the Pizza place on the corner. He got a drink (having eaten at MacDonalds) and I ordered my lunch. I got a cod sandwich that really hit the spot. We sat outside at a picnic table. I will have to research whether there is some kind of Monster Truck attraction near Fredericksburg, because almost every vehicle that went by either was a Harley Davidson, a big truck with Hollywood mufflers, or an old junker painted two different colors with a bad muffler. It was impossible to carry on a conversation at times with all the noise from the traffic. There were several other groups of bikers eating lunch there, as well as some Amish girls. I saw a two-horse buggy go by and I snuck a picture, this was the first time I had seen one of these wagons.
I said goodbye to Mike as he was riding on to Akron tonight and I had a nearer destination, and I wanted to rest up for the hills that were coming. The Holmes County Trail ends in Fredericksburg. From that point up to Dalton the trail is on the country roads. There is amazing scenery and lots and lots of buggies passed me by. There are also a lot of hills. I confess that I walked my bike up many of them, while Amish kids on E-Bikes passed me by and stopped at the top of the hill where I heard them laughing.
At one point an older man in a buggy stopped to ask if I was OK. I told him, just tired, but thanks for asking. He had been watching me standing to catch my breath while he and his buggy climbed up the hill from a long way off. If you zoom into the photo below, you can see his buggy way, way off at the bottom of the hill.
I called Ed to see if he was ready to come and get me. He said he was already on the way. I was still a few miles away from Dalton, but I was starting to watch the spiders make their egg sacs on the side of the road. This reminded me of Charlotte's web.
I love spying into other people's gardens. Mine is so weed-ridden it always amazes me when people have neat and tidy gardens. I liked this one with the windmill in the background. 
Ed came up behind me and caught me coasting down a hill. I was really glad to see him!
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