There is a balm in Mount Gilead?

 Mt. Gilead, that is!  Today I had no more excuses.  I put my U lock and my charging cables in the panniers, and, voila! Everything else was already packed.  Oh wait, except my shoes.  Where did I leave my phone?   Let me take a bottle of sour cherry supplements to reduce inflammation.  Can I think of anything else?

I told Ed about the issues I had adjusting the seat.  I could move it up or down in front or back, or raise the whole seat, but I couldn't figure out how to move it forward or backward.  And move it backward is what I needed to do.   He observed that the rails were "stuck", probably because it had been so long since they had been adjusted.  And just like that, he fixed it.

Time to leave.  I had him take me to the top of a hill just south of the alpaca farm I visited yesterday.  Looking at my route and elevations, it seemed like that would be a good place to start going downhill.  I told him not to leave until I got to the treeline about a quarter mile ahead, in case I had trouble.  Not gonna lie, I had trouble getting on the bike over the panniers and sleeping bag on the back.  But I did it on the third attempt.  I made it to the trees with no issues, so he headed for home.   The weather was perfect.  Clear and cloudless blue sky with little humidity, sunny and warm. I was heading for My. Gilead, in Morrow County, Ohio.

I rode a couple of miles, only to find that my planned route turned into a gravel road.  I didn't count on that, since I thought that Ride with GPS software had told me that my route was 100% paved.  Yeah, right.  Paved with loose gravel.

I kept going.  What else could I do? I walked my bike through some sections and rode through others.  I was starting to get discouraged when MapMyRide reported my speed for the last mile at about two miles an hour. My mind can't help doing the math.  I might arrive before dark, at this rate. 

 At one point, I hit a pothole with a hole in the bottom of it while riding downhill, and I thanked Joy Machines in Cleveland for suggesting the Vittoria Randonneur tires they put on my bike after a two-flat day on my tour last year.  I somehow avoided having a pinch flat, which would have been a disaster.  Even when I got to a paved road, the wind was blowing and there was a headwind.

  At 11:00, I called my host for the day, Roger Cox, and reported that I would be at least an hour and maybe longer. 

The roads were quite hilly, more than I expected.  My general impression is that in Ohio, all the hills are east and south of I-71, and Roger's farm is several dozen miles west of that.  I was pleased that I was able to ride up many of them using my lowest "granny gear".   This Trek 520 has a triple chainring in front, as it is designed for touring.  Good thing, because as I listened to the turn-by-turn navigation from RidewithGPS, I rode right by their farm. I feel kind of silly about, because in the news article where I learned about the Coxes, it said his was one of the prettiest farms in the county.  As I rode past, I noticed the neatly manicured lawn, the flowers blooming in the flowerbeds, and the flag flying at half mast, the fresh white siding on the house and the bright red of the metal-sided barn.  I was impressed with how neatly the farm was kept.   I had originally created the route to go to a nearby campground, but later changed my mind and neglected to update the route.   I realized my mistake and turned around, climbing several more hills in the process than I needed to. 

For details of my visit to the Cox Plainview Farm, see my Bright Meadow Farms blog, where I discuss information about the Katahdin sheep breed and the Roger Cox family, named Charles Boyles Master Shepherd of the Year by the Ohio Sheep Improvement Association

Yarn Trek by bike kickoff

236.  That's what the scale said this morning.  I'm up six pounds this month, and ten from last month.  With all the stuff I have loaded in my panniers for this trip, I am absolutely sure that my Trek Silque carbon-fiber bike will not bear the weight of me and my stuff. 

So I got out the old, dependable Trek 520.  I haven't ridden it for some time, since my last bike-packing trip.  I loaded up the panniers and made a list of everything I need to take for two weeks on the road.  My stuff is scattered between the barn, the garage, my closet, and my office.  So  I started gathering it together.  

I'm having an internal struggle. Actually several of them. 

 I want to start this trip.  I really do.  But I also wanted to plant the six or seven flats of vegetables and flowers that I started from seed back in February.  It has been so wet that the garden had not yet been tilled as of last week.  So, we invited the grandsons over last week and they did the initial tilling of the garden and helped me pin down some of the landscape fabric. Ed helped me plant vegetables yesterday and I planted flowers this morning.  You can read more of my gardening adventures over at Bright Meadow Farms blog.  

I am also not sure about riding the Trek 520.  It's a heavier bike, and it is a "touring" bike.  The geometry is different than the Silque, and the brakes are more forward.  The top tube is longer, so it is a longer reach.  The shifters are on the bar ends, and while they are dependable, it is slightly more effort to reach for the shifters instead of just tapping the button on the electronic shifters on the Silque.  With the additional weight of myself and the panniers, it will be harder to handle. 

I am not in great physical condition this spring.  I've taken several rides, about 5, with my group of women that ride the bike trail on Tuesdays.  But spring was late, and we didn't get much riding in before the end of April.  The longest ride I've taken so far this year was about 25 miles. On top of that, my right knee has been really getting worse.  The orthopaedic surgeon in Detroit diagnosed it as "bone on bone" over 4 years ago.  Since having my left knee replaced, and still having pain, I've been putting off the right knee replacement.  I have a new doctor in Ohio, and he concurred that replacement would help.  I don't want to do that until the bicycle season is over, since I know I won't be even walking without help for several weeks. I have noticed that wearing my bicycle shoes and walking uphill causes a lot of pain this year.  Consequently, I have re-planned and shortened my daily routes, and limited most day's visits to yarn shops or fiber farms to one per day.  I've only planned the first 5 days, and have made my reservations.   I want to see how my body is holding up after the punishment.  If I need to take a rest day, I don't want to have to shift all the rest of the reservations.  Or maybe I will be feeling better after a few days on the road and can lengthen the days. 

So yesterday, according to my original plan, I was supposed to visit Alpaca Meadows in Ontario, Ohio.  I had taken a crochet class there a few months back. But I learned that Julie Petty, the owner, was at the Fiber Show in Wooster Ohio this weekend.  So I was happy to postpone my visit to her farm to the end of my trip.   That gave me another day for planting flowers.  That meant I was not camping last night, and didn't need to start from her farm.  So I decided to start from the bike trail near today's destination and see how the bike handled.   It was a beautiful day for riding, the sun was shining and there was only a light breeze.  The high temperature was approaching the 80's.  

Oh boy.  It did not handle well at all.  It seemed like the seat was too low.  It seemed like the both knees were feeling sore and stretched with each revolution of the pedals.  Then I realized I forgot to transfer my tool pack from my Silque to the 520.   I had no way to adjust the seat height.    So, I made a decision to turn around and go back to my car after only a few miles.  I then DROVE to the Shady Lane Alpaca Farm in Lexington, with my bike on the back of my car.  This farm is only a mile or two from the house where my husband and I lived before we moved to Michigan. 

Jean McClintock welcomed me to her farm.  First we visited the barn.  There were about 12 alpacas in all.  Jean has a few rescued alpacas, as well as Finn sheep, a llama, and an emu. And three dogs.  All the livestock,  except the emu, had recently been shorn.  You could still see the marks of the clippers on their coats.  

Jean described the process of shearing to me.  The alpacas are hobbled, and the first shearer removes the "blanket" of high-quality, soft wool from the main body.  Then the second shearer does the neck, tail, legs, and belly.  This lower-quality wool is called "seconds" and brings a lower price.  

The seconds can be used for needle felting, rug-making, or even for compost in the garden. 

In the backgrond is Emma the emu.  We moved into the barn to get better lighting for pictures. 

Emma the emu lost a feather, which ended up in the grain manger.  Jean showed me that emu feathers are always split into two.  They are the source of feathers for feather dusters. 

Jean displayed the Finn sheep wool.  Interesting fact about Finn sheep is that they have multiple lambs.  Up to 8 lambs at a time!   A separate shearer comes to the farm to shear the sheep.  The alpaca shearers are a husband-wife team.  

Next we visited the gift shop.  I will post pictures of the shop on Bright Meadow Knits blog.  I will also post upcoming events that her shop is hosting throughout 2022.  I was delighted to find out that she works with the Malabar Farm Fiber Arts Guild.  I am a member, but have not been participating much due to withdrawing within myself during the last Covid-19 wave.  She pointed out the building where her husband has a 16-inch telescope pointed at the dark sky.  He is writing a book on astronomy and will be publishing his photos.  

She gave no hint that she was disappointed that I did not ride my bike up the long hill on the "shady lane" up to their house, shop and barn.  Maybe I could do the whole bike tour by driving and just taking a short bike ride each day!   

Warm-ups and good neighbors

 This morning two of us rode a 23-mile section of the B&O Trail for a "warm-up" for our longer rides planned for June.  

The first thing I did, after getting out of the car, was check the pressure in my tires.  It seemed a little low, so I retrieved my pump and pumped it up.  But, the wheel shifted on me and I broke off the valve core on my back tire.  It was still holding air, but the risk was that it would stop holding somewhere in the country between Bellville and Butler.  We rode a quick quarter mile to the south to Y-Not Cycles in Lexington.   Shout-out to Eric Pederson, who very graciously changed out the valve core while he was waiting on another customer.  It took him about a minute and a half.  I was amazed!   I did not even realize that this could be done.  I definitely did not know how long it would take.  He said it would take longer to re-air the tire than to change out the valve core, and it would take longer to locate the tool on his workbench than to air the tire!   I also bought an inner tube as a just-in-case for my upcoming trip.  I really appreciated his getting us back on the trail quickly.  It's great to have a local bike shop that provides this world-class level of service! 

But then south of Bellville, we saw a fallen tree on the trail, just north of the 4-mile marker.   This was a definite safety hazard if there is someone not paying attention.  It appeared that other trail users had broken off the ends of the limbs blocking the trail,  where they could,  and tossed them into the brush alongside the trail.  These two limbs were attached to a section of the trunk, and there was no way the two of us senior citizens would have been able to lift the branches off the road.  When we arrived in Butler, I called the Parks department and reported it, asking that someone with a chain saw cut off those protruding branches.  We chatted with a couple of fellow trail users during our rest in Butler, and when we headed north for the return trip, the branches were already sawn up and tossed off the edge of the trail.  I'm not sure if it was the Parks department or perhaps just a good citizen, but I must not have been the first to report the situation.   

I am re-planning my fiber trip, since I have realized that I am very out of condition after our frigid winter and the cold and rainy spring.  The 70-mile days at the beginning of the trip have been cut in half - I'll do about 35 miles a day for the first few days.  That means if I give up after four days of riding, my husband can still come and get me while driving less than a couple of hours.  

Knitting Tour by bicycle - Ohio and Indiana

 

Above is a map of the trip plan at the moment. It's a bit like playing "Connect the Dots."  The map is in Google.  I created an Access database table with the locations I was interested in, then exported it to Excel.  (I could have just started with Excel) Then I imported the spreadsheet into a layer on Google MyMaps.  Campsites and hotels are another layer. Each link between stopping points for approximately a day is another layer.   I've run out of layers, so Google won't let me draw the line to get home.  

 I was disappointed to learn, through Google,  that two of my planned destinations are permanently closed.  One of them, just last weekend.  The Makery in Mt. Vernon and Fiberworks in Dayton (actually Beavercreek) are labelled "permanently closed".  

This plan is too long.  Using the google map as input, I mapped it out, leg by leg, in RideWithGPS and limited it to no more than 60 miles per day.  I am currently on Day 18.   There are a couple of days in the early stage where the mileage is about 30.   I thought it would be good to "warm up".  Also, there are currently no rest days planned.  This is not a good idea.  

It needs to come down to 14 days or fewer.  One obvious way to cut it shorter would be to skip the leg to the northwest.  

Currently there are some issues.  There is not much to see or do between Richmond, Indiana and Anderson, Indiana, including a dearth of places to stop for lunch.  Same between Fort Wayne and Defiance. And also between Marblehead and home. 

I don't think we'll start at Black Locust Farm in Lodi.  Where would we park?  and it's a long ride to Mansfield.  Maybe I'll drive up to see what they have in store, one of these days, to satisfy my curiosity.  And starting in Wooster at the Great Lakes Fiber Festival could also be an issue, for the same reason.   

I need to come up with a catchy name for the tour.  

"Midwest Yarn Trek" only includes bicycles if you remember my bike is a Trek.  "Fiber Expedition" sounds pretentious.  "Wool Cycle Circle Tour"?    I could just go for "Knit Two, Bike Two States" 

Any ideas for a catchy name? 

Knitting/biking tour through Ohio and Indiana

 I just wrote about my plans for a knitting/biking tour through Indiana and Ohio.  I meant to publish it here, but accidently published it on my knitting blog.   I plan to visit local yarn stores, alpaca farms, sheep farms and other fiber-oriented businesses.  

It will be approximately two weeks.  Maybe it will start on Memorial Day if I can get everything firmed up by then.  That would give me the opportunity to leave from the Great Lakes Fiber Expo in Wooster. And it will get me back in time to go to Michigan for the Pedal Across Lower Michigan ride in late June. 

So, if I have knitting readers who are cyclists, they will see it first. 

But you can see it too, by checking it out at this link. 

2021 Miles

 1683.25.  

That's how many miles I rode in 2021.  

Crestline Ohio ride

 For my birthday ride, I started by giving my drive chain a good once-over.  I used my new Ecosheep cleaning kit and brushed some grunge off the derailleur and chain, then lubed the chain.  I used some purple nail polish to cover a couple of light scratches.  It's not a perfect match, but it helps. 

 I started in Lexington and rode north on the Richland B&O trail, stopping to take a photo at the mural where the trail crosses under West Fourth Street.  This mural is approximately five years old.  It's been treated with a graffiti-resistant surface coat.  The morning light was dappled and gives it a completely different appearance than on a winter afternoon. 

I continued on to North Lake Park.  There were a few other people in the park, but it was uncrowded. Except for the geese.  They honk, but they aren't seemingly aggressive.  

From there,  I left the trail and ventured out across Fourth Street to Middle Park.  I understand that there is a plan called "Mansfield Rising" and that joining the city parks with a mixed-use path is part of that plan.  Right now, Middle Park between Park Avenue and Fourth Street is closed to car traffic.  I rode through and noticed the reason why - a bridge over a culvert has significant erosion.  There was still plenty of room to get by on my bike, but I stayed away from the edge. I continued to cross Park Avenue into South Park.  This park has a number of historical markers, a community garden, a log cabin, restrooms, and the Parks office.  

I rode through the park and over into the neighborhood south of Maple Street.  I wanted to go to the bakery "Share ‘N Dipity" on Taylor Road, but found it was closed on Sundays.   The Mansfield bike loop runs through that area on Arlington Ave.  I followed this route back north on Linden past Kingwood Center and the Mansfield High school.  I turned left on Fourth Street.  I had some trepidation, knowing it is a busy road, but on Sunday morning traffic was relatively light and drivers were courteous. I continued into Ontario, and ate lunch at Rooster's. I chained my bike to the fencing at the outdoor seating area, but went inside to eat.  I made sure to get a table where I could keep my bike in sight.   I'd never been to this restaurant before, and was pleasantly surprised by the menu.  

 I kept going past the site of the former GM stamping plant, where the shoulder became fairly wide, as wide as the bike trail.  I continued on to Crestline, about six miles away. The shoulder narrowed a little as I came into town, but I still had plenty of room. I turned left on County Line Road and right on South Street.   I love the brick-lined streets.  It is amazing to me that they are still intact, and haven't all been paved over. 

I meandered through Crestline a bit, crossing the underpass on Scott Street and the overpass on Thoman.  Crestline was a railroad town in the 1800's and railroads crisscross it from it seems like every direction. I crossed the railroad and travelled over to Wiley Street, where I headed north.    I stopped at 7-11 and got a drink and used the restroom, then continued out of town on County Line Road.  In old times, you could go straight from Crestline to Blooming Grove on the unsurprisingly named "Crestline-Blooming Grove Road".  But, the Galion airport runway was extended and the road was routed around it and it became "Galion Airport Road".  I noted that now that US Route 30 bypass was built (20 years ago?) the road is now named "Ulmer Road" for the farmstead that is the only destination on this now-dead-end road.  I continued east on "County Line Road", which is also named State Route 181, to Horning Road.  I know there are a few families named Horning that lived on this road.  I headed south, then crossed over SR 309 and turned right on Lime Road.  This short road is about a mile and a half in length.  At the end I continued south on Blooming Grove Road, which takes a little jog as it crosses Harding Way East, also known as Millsboro Road.  The weather was beautiful, it was a perfect sunny day, if a bit windy.  I was heading south into a southwest breeze.  

I continued into Blooming Grove and turned on SR 97, passing the birthplace of President Harding, which is marked with a historical marker. 

 At this point, I was regretting eating lunch inside the restaurant and stopping at the 7-11 in Crestline, because the time was getting late, and I needed to be home in time to collect a birthday dinner from my husband.  Due to the headwind, my speed was not great.  As I approached Lexington on SR97, traffic got a little heavier, and I decided to take a country road approach into Lexington.  I checked the map and found that Steam Corners Road went straight east-west, crossing SR 314, and going right into town.  It was a little over a mile south of where I was on SR97. 

There were a few hills on Steam Corners, but not too terrible, I was able to ride all of them, past the Mid-Ohio Race Way,  without walking the bike up.  The overall route had been somewhat downhill since Crestline.  This is not surprising, since Crestline was named after the "crest line" that runs through Ohio.  North of Crestline, water runs to Lake Erie, and south of Crestline, water runs to the Olentangy through Columbus, then on to the Ohio River.   My uphill climbs were rewarded with longer downhills.  As I approached Lexington, I was starting to worry about whether my brakes would hold as I approached SR97.  They did.  I was able to cross and wend my way through a development back to the spot on the B&O trailhead where I parked my car. 

My original plan had been to ride south to Butler on the trail, and return, to complete my 65-mile ride on my 65th birthday.  But, I didn't want to miss dinner, so I resolved to ride the remaining 25 miles in the morning, still within 24 hours of the start of my ride. 

Happy birthday to me!