LAKE ERIE, CLEVELAND, HEADWINDS
I spent a very comfortable night with Lance and Pam at their home by the river. I woke to get an early start - hark - is that the pitter patter of falling rain? Yup, raining hard. So here is my dilemma, leave now and ride in the rain or wait a few hours for it to stop. But other considerations kick in, local flooding and arrival time. I decided to wait a bit and watch the forecast for both weather and river stage. Neither were looking particularly encouraging.
The first part of my ride was on a quiet trail in the woods then on the roads to Huron. Lance & Pam recommended I stop at the “Donut Shop”. Good call!! Great folk, much like Fournil in Seattle, a bunch of kick-ass retired folk drinking coffee and solving the world’s problems. I could have spent the morning there.
From Huron to Cleveland I was on Adventure Cycle’s Northern Tier Route, Ohio Rt 6. Road signs designated it as a bike route and the North Coastal Trail. I thought at last, a bike friendly stretch of road - not! Parts of the ride were delightful, but most of it was on busy road with horrible pavement and limited to no shoulder. To add to the difficulty there was a 15 -20 mph cross headwind. Views of Lake Erie were limited to park access points.
Ordinarily I would jump in the lake but not this day, too many whitecaps!
The headwind was as strong as any I have had this trip; grit your teeth, downshift, get into the drop handlebars and try to maintain 10 mph. It made for a long day.
Some of the suburbs west of Cleveland were beautiful, and with nice side roads and designated bike trails. Lakewood and Clifton Park appeared to be quite affluent with some spectacular homes.
Eventually I arrived in Cleveland and biked right through downtown. This certainly isn’t the prairies of North Dakota!
As I continued on I passed the (Case Western) University hospital complex. Nancy went to medical school at Case. I started climbing the hill behind the hospital (Murray Hill) and memory bells started to ring. Nancy would walk this route to school, with me when I was visiting, a walk down memory lane. Google Maps routed me this way, fortuitously. Finally, the apartment building we first lived in (1985).
Another 15 miles and I arrived at Aaron & Donna’s home around 6:15. Aaron is a friend from Seattle who moved here in 1998. Great to be here!
Sunday, is a lay day. I get back in the saddle Monday.
By the numbers:
Dist - 71.7 miles
Elev Gain - 1,801 ft
Elev Loss - 1,544 ft
Moving Time 6:44
i grew up in Painesville, 30mi east of Cleveland, just a couple miles off of I-90 which was build during my youth. Spent many a day watching earth movers and bulldozers. Lots of rolling hills, river valleys and deep woods in this area made for interesting bicycling when I was a kid.
ReplyDeletePerk. Hope you are having a good day off! I am impressed with how well you are using technology and apps to make good decisions on your journey. Maybe it’s time to start showing a “miles to go” stat on your daily “By the numbers “ listings.? Safe travels. Tim
ReplyDeletePredictions are hard, particularly when they include the future. Yogi Berra
DeleteHi Warren ... sounds like a tough day-- rain and headwinds, but fortunately you left the rain behind. The flooding sounds ominous, but I am glad you weren't inundated.
ReplyDeleteI am sure we took route 6 into Cleveland, because we stayed on the river at Huron, but don't have any awful memories. As I said earlier, Cleveland was full due to the GOP convention, so to find a room, we went off route to Willoughby. I think the houses west of Cleveland are beautiful. I remember riding through some graceful old neighborhoods. There is a lot of money east of Cleveland, too, but not the elegance. You would know better, having spent more time in the area.
Highland Heights sounds redundant, but better than Lowland Heights. I can't find it on my Adv. Cycle map, but we stayed next night in Conneaut. It is known for its annual D-Day reenactment. We heard that people from Europe and well as the US come for that. Conneaut's beach and inland terrain on Lake Eire apparently replicates Omaha Beach in France. It wasn't happening when we were there or we wouldn't have ever found a room. From there for us it was into PA, turning south at a town called Fairview. I hope tomorrow brings you a dry tailwind. Following on Tim's comment, could you do a miles to go?