OTET day 6: We’ve done it!

After 326+ miles on the Ohio to Erie Trail, we are in Cincinnati!

We dip our front tires in the Ohio River, then head for happy hour and rather large celebratory margaritas.

Hey, what happens in Newport, Kentucky, stays in Newport, Kentucky.

Wait, we don’t have to load up our bikes in the morning and do this again? We just get to keep trying to impress people with our accomplishment? (The front-desk woman at our hotel is suitably impressed. And she is way nicer than the one on duty a week earlier.)

Time to be a tourist.

The swing by Great American Ballpark on the riverfront. No game; our timing is off by a day. But I found reminders of the Great Eight and the glory days of the Big Red Machine.

Leading off:

No Griffey. Batting third:

In the clean-up spot:

And fifth, except for when he was fourth:

Then Foster, Concepcion and Geronimo, followed by the pitcher.

Yeah, that was my team way back when.

OK, back to the ride.

We spent much of the day on the Little Miami Scenic Trail. Ah, shade. Beautifully maintained, thanks to the many volunteers. I chatted with one, who tells me the stretch from Loveland to Xenia gets over 1 million visits a year. It’s busy on a sunny Thursday; we can only imagine how packed it must be on the weekends.

The Little Miami Scenic Trail is deservedly in Rails to Trails Conservancy’s Rail-Trail Hall of Fame. But honestly, the entire Ohio to Erie Trail should be there as a package.

Loveland is small but hopping. Access to the Little Miami for those wanting to canoe, plenty of food options. Even a bookstore.

And a new bridge to make our ride even easier. As wonderful as OTET already is, it’s still a work in progress.

Yes, we are in Reds Country:

We get to the Lunken Airport Loop. Garmin says go right. The Ohio 1 (OTET) sign says go straight. We decide to obey the Garmin and the route we downloaded from OTET.

While we generally benefit from trails all the way to downtown Cincinnati, we do end up on a bike lane for maybe 3 miles. And sorry Cincinnati, but your route is not as interesting as Cleveland’s.

But thank you for the “tire dipping spot” sign that directed us to the right place!

Oh, and is there a state line photo? The Purple People Bridge (which I think should be the Purple People Eater Bridge) is closed to thru traffic, but we generally found it open on the Kentucky side and blocked off right after this:

The Taylor-Southgate Bridge will get you across the Ohio. There’s a separated, protected bike-ped path in each direction.

More photos from the day:

And a final stat: just one flat tire among the five of us over six days. One mechanical worry, dealt with before it became a crisis.

To read about the entire ride, start here.