Our OTET adventure just keeps getting better.
We just wrapped up a 51-mile ride into Columbus, Ohio’s state capital and largest city. Amazingly, we barely left a trail and had to deal with the lightest of car traffic until we turned north around the Convention Center to head to the Short North neighborhood.
This is the life!
The key to getting through Columbus was the Alum Creek Trail. It meandered along the creek, through woods, connecting to parks and neighborhoods… and the final piece is not even a decade old.
What an achievement to carve a trail through a city!
This was another day of pleasant surprises, on par with our ride into Mount Vernon the day before but with better weather.
First was Ariel-Foundation Park at the edge of Mount Vernon, once a PPG factory, now a very cool park that pays homage to the past.
Loved the River of Glass!
We climbed 224 steps up the old tower (smokestack?) and looked down at our friends.
Here’s more from the park:
A dozen or so miles down the road we hit the center of Ohio, the aptly named Centerburg. That’s a pretty modest sign along the bike trail, but it and a picnic table were reason enough to stop.
Sure enough, other thru riders came along and stopped. The solo rider intending to do a round-trip ride and stealth camp. The group of retirees who all winter in the same part of Florida, including one man who switched to a walker as soon as he got off his recumbent. (His wife drove the support vehicle that transported the walker.) A husband-and-wife pair of riders. And more.
Word about the Ohio to Erie Trail is certainly getting out.
If last year was when Ernie’s Bicycle Shop, a fantastic store on the trail in Massillon, saw a notable increase in through riders, I’m thinking the numbers will be even bigger this year.
Downhill from here:
Fun fact: the last section of the Heart of Ohio Trail only was paved in 2022.
We kept pushing south. Plenty of shade along the trail. In Sunbury we spot this. Lady Liberty needs some bike gear! (Actually, this is where we could have gotten OTET gear for real, directly from Direct Image, which handles OTET’s online gear sales and is located just off the cute downtown square.)
Soon after we’re in the suburbs of Columbus. Incredibly, we’re still on a trail!
We’re even on a trail near an interstate:
We’re in an Airbnb in the Short North neighborhood, and there’s a grocery store a block or so away. This time we don’t overshop, and we enjoy dinner in the backyard.
For those who don’t want to go all the way into Columbus, this hotel in Westerville seems to be popular with cyclists because it comes with dinner as well as breakfast.
Up next: a long bike ride to Waynesville.
Some more photos from the day…
A surprise in Centerburg. Seriously, you claim this guy?
Contrast it with this in Columbus:
Wayfinding signage (and OTET branding) is getting better:
Finally, thank you, Edward Honton, for having the vision for OTET and helping to make it a reality. What a legacy!
Exploring by bicycle 
So great to meet you all outside the Trek store in Westerville! Your group has fantastic energy and you’ve got me very inspired to finally do the full ride across the state. I see you found out why the stretch southwest of Columbus had me a little uninspired, but I trust things improve farther south. Make sure you have some Graeter’s ice cream in Cincinnati!
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Try north! Or south of Xenia.
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Frustrating though that every time you see a trail along a limited-access highway with a soundwall, that means there was a set of NIMBYs who didn’t want the trail inside of the soundwall where they would see cyclists passing behind their yards. It would be more pleasant for the trail users (quiet) and be accessible to the neighborhood as an amenity, but they let unfounded fears about privacy and crime drive their demands.
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