Grand Tour of Ohio by Bicycle - Strasburg

Strasburg is a small German town in the Vorpommern-Greifswald district (like US county) of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (like a US state), in the Northeast corner of Germany, near the Polish border.  It is situated in the historic Uckermark region.  It is only about 48 km (about 30 miles) from the Baltic Sea, and its population is about 4600 people.  Tripadvisor advises the best "thing to do" in Strasburg is a nature preserve and associated eco-farm about 3 km away from town, the Wildtierland Gut Klepelshagen.  On their website, the German Wildlife Foundation explains that this farm is a demonstration of how well a farm can work with nature.  A film, The Meadow, produced by Jan Halft, was filmed in the area.  The movie is available to Amazon Prime members.

 The city was part of East Germany during the World War II era.  The region is mountainous and is a mecca for German cyclists.  This page has a map showing a loop through Strasburg. 

Strasbourg, France, population approximately 281,000, is a much larger city.  It is the capital and largest city of the Grand Est region of France, and is the official seat of the European Parliament. It is located at the border with Germany in the historic region of Alsace.  Strasbourg is one of the de facto four main capitals of the European Union (alongside Brussels, Luxembourg and Frankfurt), as it is the seat of several European institutions, such as the European Parliament, the Eurocorps and the European Ombudsman of the European Union.  

In 1988, Strasbourg's historic city centre, the Grande Île (Grand Island), was classified a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.  This was the first time such an honour was placed on an entire city centre.  According to TripAdvisor, you can have your choice of gourmet eating establishments and accompany your meal with the best wine from France and the best beers from Germany. 

Strasbourg is immersed in Franco-German culture and although violently disputed throughout history, has been a cultural bridge between France and Germany for centuries, especially through the University of Strasbourg, currently the second-largest in France, and the coexistence of Catholic and Protestant culture. It is also home to the largest Islamic place of worship in France, the Strasbourg Grand Mosque. 

Economically, Strasbourg is an important manufacturing and engineering center.  It is also quite a busy hub of road, rail, and river transportation. The port of Strasbourg is the second-largest on the Rhine after Duisburg in Germany, and the second-largest river port in France after Paris. 

So, which city was the Ohio city of Strasburg named after? Strasburg or Strasbourg, which is spelled Straßburg in German?   I did some internet research, and although I found information about the early settlers and when the town was laid out, I did not find any information on which city it was named after.  I forwarded the question to Tom Neel of the  Ohio Genealogical Society in Bellville.  His research was inconclusive, but he found that one early settler, Peter Hartline, did have a death record in Strasburg, Germany.  The landscape I saw around the Ohio town of Strasburg certainly might have reminded early settlers of their homeland in the small town of Strasburg. 

It took me two days to complete my planned loop starting in Strasburg. I got a late start and didn't arrive until after 1 pm.   I parked my car at the branch library and police station.  Google told me to turn left, uphill,  out of the parking lot just AFTER I turned right, downhill.  So I ungracefully executed a U-turn and miscalculated my turning radius.  I ran into the curb and fell off my bike.  I should probably have taken this as an omen, but, alas, I did not.  I passed the high school, where the doorway to the old, demolished school was left in place as a memorial in front of the new high school.   

 

You can see the doors in this old photo from the document "Early History of Strasburg" which can be found online. 

I stopped for a photo in front of the post office. 

During my research on Strasburg, I learned that there was a historical site, Garver's,  that was billed as the :world's largest country store" in Strasburg, up until 2010 when it was a victim of arson. 

The town straddles the border between urban and rural.  On the south and east end, Taco Bell and McDonalds franchisees have taken advantage of the traffic at the Interstate 77 interchange.  

 On the  north and west side, the side I arrived on, US Route 250 has wide lanes on the right side of the road for Amish bicyclists and buggies. 

There are large urns with metal flower sculptures in front of several downtown buildings. 

I turned left on Wooster Avenue and took a right on Zeltner at the Sunoco station.  I continued on Zeltner over a bridge where the name of the road changed to Strasburg-Bolivar Road.  When Strasburg-Bolivar angled off to the right, I continued right on Shetler Road.  I was about four miles into the trip and tired of (slowly) climbing hills when I decided it was getting awfully late in the short days of November, and that I would never make it all the way around my planned route of 32 miles before dark.  So I turned around and went back.  It took a little less time on the way back, being mostly downhill.  I returned home, and it was dark when I arrived. Ed and I made a homemade pizza for dinner, and after dinner I looked at my route to see if I could shortcut anything to allow for my slow riding and the limited hours of daylight available this time of year. 

The next day, I started much earlier.  I was up, dressed, and ate breakfast before 7:00 am.  The sun was just coming up.  I finalized the route changes, now down to 27 miles in google, and sent the directions as a text message to my phone.  It was  almost 10:00 before I left home.  Where does the time go?  I arrived in Strasburg a little after 11:00 and parked in the library again.  This time I turned the correct direction, and did not stop for pictures at the high school.  

I went the same way, but to my surprise, Google directed me to turn right on Zutavern Church Road.  It was very scenic, with the final fall colors still on the trees.  The weather was exceedingly warm for November. There were hills.  I rode for a while, and then ended up walking my bike for a while.

  I looked down and realized that my tracker, MapMyRide, had paused way back on Wooster Avenue and did not automatically "resume" as it usually does.   So my map shows "as the crow flies" for the first part of my trip.  

After cresting the top of the hill, I felt like I was flying downhill.  I was gratified when the app announced "Split speed- 17.5 miles per hour."  And I was braking for much of that!  

In short order I arrived in Bolivar at the Fort Laurens State park and  museum.  The bike path was on the far side of the  museum grounds.  I noticed a zigzag fence such as early settlers built on the museum grounds.  

The museum itself was very modern architecture, it was constructed between 1968-1972. I learned the park was the site of a Revolutionary War fort that was badly conceived and executed, and many men lost their lives there. 

Heading onto the trail, I quickly came upon a bridge over I-77, which afforded a view over the highway. I was only five miles from Strasburg!  It seemed like I had travelled further. 

The trail is the Zoar Valley Trail, it runs along the remains of the Ohio-Erie Canal.  There were several park benches in front of the locks along this trail.  The trail itself is not very wide, perhaps three feet in most places.  The trail surface is crushed limestone, but also there are many places where it is mostly clay and the leaves at this time of the year are providing deep mulch. 

The narrow trail meant that I really had to gauge the speed of other bikers coming my way and passing walkers and slow down accordingly.  The walkers on this trail seemed accustomed to getting off the trail to let cyclists pass. 

This concrete abutment had a wooden deck around it, which allowed me to avoid a short climb.   It was so narrow that I could not turn my bike around without lifting it above the railings, and as other bikers came through in the other direction we really had to squeeze past each other. 

At several places along the trail, there were scenic views of the Tuscarawus River.  The weather was so nice that at one spot there were barefoot kids splashing on the rocks in the river. In November! 

I followed the trail for approximately 6 miles.  The trail ended on highway 800, a busy road.  There were dedicated bike lanes leading across the highway bridge to an extension of the trail. I stopped to unwrap and eat an energy bar, a Simple Truth Date bar.  A couple passed me, then turned around when they saw the narrowness and gravel on the trail.  I forged ahead anyway, and soon came to the Zoar Station bridge.  A guy standing on the bridge with his kids told me that he was an ironworker, and had wanted the opportunity to work on this bridge. A couple of his friends actually did get to work on it.  This was a historic bridge that was rehabbed in 2007. 

I asked him if he knew anything about the trail.  He remarked that he had not ridden it, but had heard that it was pretty rough.   "Maybe" I could make it on the gravel of the trail, but remarked that I had the wrong tires.  I was getting worried at that point about being able to make it back to Strasburg before dark.  I went ahead, but with misgivings.  When I came to a fork in the trail and I saw a road surface above me, I checked google maps and found that there was a road, Boy Scout Road, that ran roughly parallel to the trail, although it would add a couple of miles.  I decided to abandon my original plan to take the trail, and take the paved road instead.

I can't say it was the wrong choice, but it was a HUGE hill.  There was a "party barn" called Rivercrest Farm along the road.  Here is a hint.  Anything with "crest" in the name, probably involves a hill.  It was very pretty, as I pushed my bike up the hill I had plenty of time to admire it.  I heard a tapping on my left, and looked up to see some longhorn cattle in the woods tapping their horns on the tree trunks.  As I walked, I saw long shimmering strands of spider web glinting in the sunlight and catching on my handlebar bag, and I couldn't help but think of Charlotte's Web and her daughters flying off to freedom. I loosened each one and set it free.  My calves were feeling really tight as I walked uphill in the bike shoes with the cleats rocking my heels back.  I finally reached the top of the hill.  I got back on the bike and coasted down a short hill, only to find that there was another hill the other side.  I am not sure I trust the elevation maps that MapMyRide provides, because it seems like there were a lot more hills than this! 

I noticed a lot of people with mountain bikes going in and out of the Tuscazoar park.  I learned that there are quite a few mountain bike trails in this park, which was a former Boy Scout camp.  

I noticed a lavender "she-shed" along the road as I biked up one of these hills.  A disembodied voice called out "You're better than me!" I laughed and shouted hello.  A quarter mile later, I had dismounted and walking again, when a shirtless, white-haired and pony-tailed man stepped out from behind a shrub in his yard, and asked if I was OK. I guess I must have been breathing heavily, so he heard me coming.  He said I only had a few small uphills to go before the BIG downhill.  So, encouraged, I continued on.  I ended up going downhill as I approached a stop sign at Route 800, and I got to test my brakes again.  I turned right and headed into Dover. 

I stopped to take this photo at this sign.  There was a  confederate flag and a "don't tread on me" flag flying on the front of this house.  There was an older man working on the red and white pickup truck.  He approached me, and I was afraid he was going to yell at me for trespassing, but it turns out that he was being nice enough to ask if I was OK.  He seemed to have a hard time breathing and speaking, as if he had had some surgery on his neck, so it was really exceptionally nice that he walked over to ask about me.  

 I ate a sandwich at Subway on Wooster and 10th Street and headed on back to Strasburg.  The crossing where Routes 250 and 77 converged was a little scary due to heavy traffic, but everyone was polite and I had no actual trouble getting through the intersection. 

Soon I was back at the library with plenty of time to spare before dark.  In fact, as I headed out of town, I saw several Amish buggies and kids on e-bikes riding alongside the road in the gathering twilight. I had a real sense of satisfaction that I completed this ride despite the hills.