Biking the Scioto Trail

I woke around 745am not quite sure if I was going to feel good or bad. After a total of 5 beers the night before I was wise enough to take three Advil just before bed. I am sure that saved me. After shaking off the cob webs, I felt fine. It was nice to see the sunshine again after a cloudy Friday, though I would have gladly accepted clouds if it would actually rain. As it was, rain wasn’t in the cards. It was expected to be mostly sunny with a high near 84 with lower humidity.

I played on the computer enjoying coffee and updating my blog with about 17 stale postings getting me current through something like Tuesday. That’s the longest I’ve gone without posting. Yikes! It was about 930am when I walked away, dressed for a run, and headed out the door.

It felt very comfortable out with slightly cooler temps and lower humidity. A few degrees and few percentage points make a big difference. I ran the usual 3 mile weekend trail. I wasn’t back at the house long before I headed out to install the new bike rack on the Pilot. I backed the Pilot into the drive then retrieved the new rack from the Accord trunk.

Assembly required, I wasn’t really expecting that. It wasn’t bad though. Had it put together pretty quickly. Mindy had already loosely discussed going biking and starting from the Whittier St Audubon park and biking the Scioto trail. She was up and joined me while I completed the assembly and mounted it on the Pilot. I wanted to go through the entire process of loading the bikes on and off before its maiden voyage, just to avoid any unexpected surprises. All seemed to go well.

After loading and then removing the bikes I added air to both of our bikes. Mine was especially low. I then reloaded the bikes and secured them with the provided strap. I showered. Mindy opted not. Said she’d shower after out bike ride. I’m thinking it was near noon or just after when we left the house for Whittier St. I was excited to do a bike ride somewhere other than our subdivision. The drive went fine. No unusual rattling or problems hauling the bikes.

Didn’take us long to get the bikes off the rack and trail ready. We secured the Pilot and headed off on the nearby trail. We were just there two weeks prior with the kids .We had a rough idea where the formal bike trail intersected with the park up along the river. We found it with ease and opted to head north towards 229, though the trail goes south along the river it appears all the way to Berliner park and past. It was a cool cruise along the river on a paved bike trail complete with a dividing lane line. Seemed too strange to look up and see skyscrapers and still be on my bike. After a quick mile were at 229 and Bicentennial park. Mindy stopped for a bathroom break. While she did that I took in the views.

From there we continued north along the river bike trail going past Santa Maria then onto North Bank park. On a bike it’s a lot closer than I imagined. We noticed lots of canoes/kayaks out on the river. On closer inspection, there was an outfit renting out the rigs all day. And on even closer inspection, it appeared that we were in the middle of a festival of sorts. Little did we realize that it was the Jazz & Rib fest. Cool! We rode slowly though but opted not to stop. Instead we biked onward up the trail along the river now heading almost due west.

The trail took us by the old Confluence park, which is one heck of a gem providing gorgeous views of the river and downtown. It’s recently changed hands. It’s now called the Boathouse. Looked like a wedding was scheduled for that afternoon. I asked Mindy if she thought it was affiliated with the new Boathouse along Griggs. Hmmm? From there we rode on to the intersect with the Olentangy River trail that runs north along Olentangy River Rd but out of sight if the traffic in amongst the river and flora. Lovely! We rode only a mile or two north before turning around and heading back to navigate more of the Scioto Trail wondering how close it might get us to home.

Turned out, the trail took us all the way to the Dublin Water plant before ending. We turned around to head back. This time we stopped at the Jazz & Rib fest taking in some jazz while walking our bikes. We ran into an old co-worker, Randy and his wife. We ran into the two of them at Barley’s a couple months ago. We chatted with the two of them for a while. Randy’s wife recommended the rails to trails bike trail in Hilliard that goes all the way into Plain City. Said it’s about 18 miles round trip and apparently mostly in amongst trees. Sounds nice.

We hung at the festival for about 30 minutes before heading back to Whittier St. However, this time we diverted to the trail on the western side of the river behind COSI or the old Central HS. That was nice too except for all the goose shit all but ruining the lovely concrete amphitheatre. We took that leg of the trail to its end at Dodge park. The last mile or so a bit unkempt as compared to the rest – some broken glass and graffiti every where. We crossed over one of the two new bridges back to the trail we started on. The bridge had a wide lane for bikes and walking, which is a very nice amenity.

Back to the car after another couple miles. What a nice ride it was. Saw the city from means and view I never imagined. My hats off to the mayor and council men and women who made this all possible. We had a blast and will certainly do it again soon. Mindy shared that she was tuckered. My legs were no worse for the wear. They might’ve felt a bit fatigued when we started but loosened up not a ¼ mile in the ride. I pushed it hard more than once towards the end.

Took only a few minutes to reload the bikes and strap them in. We headed for home, already after 330pm.

Our plan all along was to dine at CBC later that evening. However, before any of that I planned to cut the lawn and got busy with that not 20 minutes after getting back at home. I started with the push mower until one of the rear wheels fell off while I was mowing the strip between the sidewalk and curb. What the hell!

And because it's a self propelled mower, the inside of the wheel had a plastic gear that was snapped off. I tried rigging it up but quickly gave up. I left it in the garage with designs on stopping by Straders in the next couple of days to price/buy a new wheel.

In the meantime, I fetched the John Deere and cut as much as possible with it. When push comes to shove, I can cut a whole lot more with it than I typically do. It doesn't leave as clean of a line as the push mower does thanks in part to all curvy flower beds and slopes. And because I cut so much of it with the Deere, the work went a whole lot faster than usual. I was completely done by 530-6pm.

We readied for dinner out and headed to CBC near 630-7pm. We took an empty jug to have filled with Bodhi. We sat at the bar where Vince hooked Mindy up with a fruity non-alcoholic drink. Stella was in but not working. She was there with her mom and her daughter Olivia celebrating Olivia's birthday. Kate was dining with them too. We brought the Barley pig along and had Kate pose for picture with it. At the time she didn't know what or why we were having her do it. Mindy told her later that night. Her boyfriend is the manager of Barley's, where the pig came from. She found it hysterical. By the evening's end we had several photos of the Barley pig at CBC.

We ordered dinners. I had the barrel cut sirloin and it was cooked to perfection. Can't recall what Mindy had. We had Vince fill our jug with Bodhi before leaving for home. It was an early night for us, both of us tired and in much need of rest.