Another day, another bike ride!

Wednesday
It hadn’t been my intention to do another long bike ride - I had originally thought of doing a shorter ride, then perhaps some hiking at Mohican State Park. However, it was another beautiful hot sunny day, so far without the characteristic humidity, and the Kokosing Gap trail is a really great, varied trail, so we just kept going, with multiple stops for photographs - hence the collage! The first part of the trail runs along the river, crossing it twice on old iron railroad bridges, at least 250 ft long. The trail then skirts the small college town of Gambier, home to Kenyon College, a well rated liberal arts college. Most of the college buildings are up on top of the hill, but the college sports facilities, the stadium, huge modern indoor sports Centre and outdoor tennis courts are alongside the trail. At this point, there is a restored locomotive and a red caboose at the side of the trail, and a nice rest stop, with toilets and water. Beyond the small village of Howard, the trail continues into more open farming land - fields of corn and soy beans. The trail is well-equipped with regularly placed benches and little wooden deck areas off the trail, where you can sit in the shade and have a drink or a sandwich - unfortunately, since we hadn’t planned on going that far, we hadn’t brought a sandwich along with us! So we ended up doing 24 1/2 miles return, making a grand total for the three days of 54 1/2 miles. I felt quite proud of myself, as I rarely cycle two days running, let alone three! I’d hoped we might find something to eat in Gambier, but it was quite dead, so instead we started our drive home and stopped for a late lunch/early dinner at North Star Cafe in Columbus. A successful few days away, and a nice change of scene.