This upcoming Monday will be three weeks and I haven’t gotten as far as I would have liked. But truthfully, I’m not really on the clock either.
I set out from Detroit border with high hopes of hitting up the Buckeye trail, a 600km trail from Cleveland to Cincinnati. I didn’t do much more research than reading: “trails through some of Ohio’s most scenic terrain and historic locations.”
I’m not by any means out of shape but I wasn’t ready for the 11000m of elevation and the steep grades that entailed. My rig isn’t on the light side and racing the cold wet weather to the warm south is a priority. So, after getting to the buckeye and realizing that this is the right path for me so early in my tour, I decided to back track not totally heading south and back towards Cincinnati.
I don’t think the route I chose to ‘get out of the hills’ really worked, because the grades kept coming, and I’ve pushed, pulled, and pedaled up 5/8’s of Mount Everest anyways. Makes me feel good. My legs are getting bigger, my stamina is getting higher. My main problem being smoking. Before the tour I was heavy on the cigarettes. (I’m 10 days off, today.)
Mikoto, my Dog is killing it. She’s been running consistently, 50km a day. Very rarely do I need to carry her in the trailer. On steep descents, busy highways or state roads where speed is of the essence. This is much her ride as it is mine and most days, we canter along at around 10-13km on back roads, trails and gravel.
We are currently in Chillicothe making our way to the west side of Cincinnati where we will start to head for Nashville, to hook up with the Natchez and take that to New Orleans. I’ve always wanted to get me some crawfish, po’boys and gumbo.
Opening it up for suggestion on places to go see as I make my way down to New Orleans. So far it’s mostly just riding to warmth but once I’m down there I’d like to explore a little more.
Muffin_Individual on
Hum… what about the Darian gap?
Xxmeow123 on
A great adventure! Keep us posted.
railsandtrucks on
Firstly, that sounds like an epic trip and it seems like you have an awesome companion!
As someone who has a born in dislike of Ohio because of where I was raised. Ohio does get a bad rap for being flat. While the northern half and western half of the state definitely doesn’t have much elevation, the southeastern 3rd (basically fanning out from the Ohio river) has some decent hills and curves and can be kinda nice at times (almost pains me to say that haha)
Have you looked up rail trails ? – you can go on the alltrails website- it’s a little clunky/frustrating to use (I wish it just showed all the trails in a linear fashion so you could scout ways of connecting the longer sections) .
Trying to stay on rail trails should result in a max grade of no more than about 4%, and even that is steep by RR standards, so they should mostly be 0-2%.
That said, based on where you’re at- I’m almost wondering if even heading to cinci directly at this point is your best bet ? US23 IIRC (from riding on my motorcycle) down to Portsmouth I don’t recall being too bad in terms of hills (an active Railroad (NS I think) follows it pretty close) and then you should be able to follow the Ohio river from there to start heading back west. Even if you’re going to Cinci- that’s the way I’d head, as that should get to you to the Ohio river on the flatest route from your current location.
If you’re already tired of hills, both KY, and even the trace itself are going to have some hills. I’d be a bit more worried about KY honestly, but the trace, especially the first 50 ish miles leaving Nashville, can have some buggers.
For KY, I’d be interested in what folks from KY have to say, but instinctively, even if it’s not the most “direct” I’d lean towards following the Ohio river, even past Louisville, maybe as far as Owensboro and Evansville, before turning south. Western KY should be at least slightly more flat than the eastern portion of the state. The Trace hits nashville on the southwest portion of the suburbs, so coming in from the northwest you might dodge some of the worst of “crashville”. IDK though, either way I think you’ve got some climbing ahead of you. Bonus, your quads might rival Jalen Hurts by the end of it.
If no one else chimes in with route specific info, I’d look for roads that either follow rail lines closely, or follow rivers/streams closely – those are going to give you your best chance of not having as many hills.
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This upcoming Monday will be three weeks and I haven’t gotten as far as I would have liked. But truthfully, I’m not really on the clock either.
I set out from Detroit border with high hopes of hitting up the Buckeye trail, a 600km trail from Cleveland to Cincinnati. I didn’t do much more research than reading: “trails through some of Ohio’s most scenic terrain and historic locations.”
I’m not by any means out of shape but I wasn’t ready for the 11000m of elevation and the steep grades that entailed. My rig isn’t on the light side and racing the cold wet weather to the warm south is a priority. So, after getting to the buckeye and realizing that this is the right path for me so early in my tour, I decided to back track not totally heading south and back towards Cincinnati.
I don’t think the route I chose to ‘get out of the hills’ really worked, because the grades kept coming, and I’ve pushed, pulled, and pedaled up 5/8’s of Mount Everest anyways. Makes me feel good. My legs are getting bigger, my stamina is getting higher. My main problem being smoking. Before the tour I was heavy on the cigarettes. (I’m 10 days off, today.)
Mikoto, my Dog is killing it. She’s been running consistently, 50km a day. Very rarely do I need to carry her in the trailer. On steep descents, busy highways or state roads where speed is of the essence. This is much her ride as it is mine and most days, we canter along at around 10-13km on back roads, trails and gravel.
We are currently in Chillicothe making our way to the west side of Cincinnati where we will start to head for Nashville, to hook up with the Natchez and take that to New Orleans. I’ve always wanted to get me some crawfish, po’boys and gumbo.
Opening it up for suggestion on places to go see as I make my way down to New Orleans. So far it’s mostly just riding to warmth but once I’m down there I’d like to explore a little more.
Hum… what about the Darian gap?
A great adventure! Keep us posted.
Firstly, that sounds like an epic trip and it seems like you have an awesome companion!
As someone who has a born in dislike of Ohio because of where I was raised. Ohio does get a bad rap for being flat. While the northern half and western half of the state definitely doesn’t have much elevation, the southeastern 3rd (basically fanning out from the Ohio river) has some decent hills and curves and can be kinda nice at times (almost pains me to say that haha)
Have you looked up rail trails ? – you can go on the alltrails website- it’s a little clunky/frustrating to use (I wish it just showed all the trails in a linear fashion so you could scout ways of connecting the longer sections) .
[Rail trails Kentucky](https://www.traillink.com/trailsearch/?state=KY)
Trying to stay on rail trails should result in a max grade of no more than about 4%, and even that is steep by RR standards, so they should mostly be 0-2%.
That said, based on where you’re at- I’m almost wondering if even heading to cinci directly at this point is your best bet ? US23 IIRC (from riding on my motorcycle) down to Portsmouth I don’t recall being too bad in terms of hills (an active Railroad (NS I think) follows it pretty close) and then you should be able to follow the Ohio river from there to start heading back west. Even if you’re going to Cinci- that’s the way I’d head, as that should get to you to the Ohio river on the flatest route from your current location.
If you’re already tired of hills, both KY, and even the trace itself are going to have some hills. I’d be a bit more worried about KY honestly, but the trace, especially the first 50 ish miles leaving Nashville, can have some buggers.
For KY, I’d be interested in what folks from KY have to say, but instinctively, even if it’s not the most “direct” I’d lean towards following the Ohio river, even past Louisville, maybe as far as Owensboro and Evansville, before turning south. Western KY should be at least slightly more flat than the eastern portion of the state. The Trace hits nashville on the southwest portion of the suburbs, so coming in from the northwest you might dodge some of the worst of “crashville”. IDK though, either way I think you’ve got some climbing ahead of you. Bonus, your quads might rival Jalen Hurts by the end of it.
If no one else chimes in with route specific info, I’d look for roads that either follow rail lines closely, or follow rivers/streams closely – those are going to give you your best chance of not having as many hills.
Incredible!