Grand Tour of Ohio -Dublin

I finally made it to Dublin, Ohio, for the first time in my life.  It's only an hour away.   

I found out on Saturday that it was the home of the Muirfield Memorial PGA golf tournament.   My husband and I had driven down to scope out the tour I had planned for the Mid Ohio Bikers Tuesday Social Ride.  We got involved in a lot of traffic congestion.    Today I rode the route and traffic was much lighter!

I planned the ride starting from Avery Park, heading north in a general direction, and looping around Jerome before turning to the south.

Here's the plan:

 You can access it on Ride with GPS at this link.  But be aware, I have some corrections to make. 

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/47056226 

When parking at Avery Park, I noticed this large soccer ball skeleton.  It is just one example of art in public places in Dublin.   

After parking the car and getting the bike off the car, I used the restroom and noticed this solar-powered recycling bin next to the building.   We don't have those in our little hometown.

I started out and first passed the high school.  I have an error in my planned route right about there where two control points are reversed, so my GPS was telling me to make a u-turn.  But I knew I was supposed to continue along the path, so I kept going.  

Next big landmark was a winery.   It looked like I had been transported the Mediterranean.  

RidwithGPS said this trail was unpaved, but it definitely has asphalt on it.

Beautiful lake and waterfall on the winery property.

I skirted  through the East side of Glacier Ridge Metropark on my way north towards Jerome.  I saw lots of wildlife including several deer, rabbits, and birds.   Lots of lakes and ponds, as well as grasslands and an area where elm trees are being reintroduced, according to the signage.

In Jerome, I looped through a couple of quiet residential streets before getting back on the paved trail.  On the way back through the  Metropark, I decided to loop into the challenge area (which I had not planned to ride) , and  noticed a lot of kids in blue shirts on a field trip. 

lot of 

There was also a very tame bunny, unperturbed by my passing.  I saw another deer in this area, but it quickly jumped into the woods before I could grab my camera.

I looped through the Honda wetlands Nature Center and admired more wildlife from a distance 

Then returned to the path.  More art along the trail. An mural decorating a pedestrian tunnel.

Boat in a field.  This is one of Dublin's newest installations, and it appears to only be reachable by the "walking" path.   

Everywhere were these dry-stacked stone walls, I guess trying to make us feel like we're in Dublin, Ireland.

At one point the path was edged by formal hedges, making it feel like a maze.

I was admiring the gardens at the Indian Run Meadows park as I passed through.   There was a woman with a dog coming towards me.  A faster cyclist was coming behind me.  I spied a picnic table and thought it would be an ideal place to stop for a snack.   Well, with all this happening, as I slowed down and attempted to dismount, my foot got caught and I ended up falling.   I cracked my (helmeted) head  on the path.  The woman and the dog stopped to help me get up.  She weighed about a hundred pounds and she was trying to pull up on my arm at an awkward angle, so I reverted to downward dog position and crawled my way up.  It was nice of her to stop.  The other cyclist was long gone.   I sat and ate my snack and drank some water, then kept going 

I turned the wrong way and ran into a closed sidewalk.  A pedestrian stopped to chat with me and told me that the city of Dublin is really expanding, he thinks they will reach all the way to Plain City within a few years.  This street project is taking a year.  My GPS had routed me around it, but I guess I didn't believe it.  I turned around and continued through a few city streets before returning to the path 

I took a few more wrong turns on paths that crossed streets.  The cues were hard to understand as they would tell me to turn twice at one intersection, crossing two streets and getting on to a path, so I need to clean up the cue sheets.   

Including one wrong turn almost at the end of the ride, the cues said navigation was finished, but I had turned the wrong way.   

One thing I will say is that Dublin must have spent about a billion dollars in pavement.  There are paths everywhere!   

I rode most of the ride in Eco mode on my e-bike, and after riding over 20 miles I still have 76% battery left.   There were a few small hills but nothing very extreme.   Nothing like my ride yesterday from home to Malabar Farm!