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Traverse City Adventure: North Coastal Inland Trail

We jumped on the North Coastal Inland Trail at the old train station in Oberlin. It’s built on and alongside railroad beds so it’s straight and flat and has good surfaces. Near the towns the trail is paved, Out in the countryside a hard-packed fine gravel surface. Ohio has a great system of trails and this is among the best.
Dennis Forney
August 30, 2017
We met John on the trail. He said he’s been bicycling around the country for the past 12 years. He talked about medical marijuana in Michigan, spiritual matters, the loss of his Bear coat sometime in the last couple days, and the fact that metal cans picked up from the side of the road in Michigan fetch 10 cents each.
In Norwalk, Joe at Excel bikes cleared up a couple of gear and break issues I was having. He’s been in business on Main Street in Norwalk for the past 28 years, his father for the 35 years before that, and another man had a bicycle shop in the same location for 40 some years before that. “It’s been a bicycle shop for 105 years,” said Joe. That’s impressive. The Wright brothers, famous for flight, started out as bicycle manufacturers in Ohio before they started experimenting with airplanes. They trained their first plane to Kitty Hawk in North Carolina for their first flights. Ohio and North Carolina both claim status as first in flight. In Oberlin, one of the science buildings is named for Orville and Wilbur Wright. Their sister graduated from Oberlin.
If you’re ever in Oberlin, eat at least once at The Feve on south Main. Its burgers are the best. A farmer outside of town provides the ground beef. The Feve folks send their own special spices to him to grind right in with the meat. The restaurant started as a coffee shop. Feve means bean.

DAY 19 • 30 AUGUST 2017 • OBERLIN

We grabbed coffee and a ham and cheese croissant this morning at the Slow Train coffee house.  We listened to straight-ahead jazz while we waited for the ham and cheese to melt. At 0830 we were underway toward Fremont following two days in Oberlin.  A good visit.

We rode 56 miles today, almost all of it on the North Coastal Inland Trail that starts several miles east of Oberlin and goes almost all of the 70 miles or so to Toledo.  Parts paved, parts rough gravel, all nice.  Mostly flat so we made good time.  Ate lunch at a picnic table beside a lake on the east side of Bellevue which has an amazing collection of old locomotives and railroad cars.  Plus, several railroad line converge in Bellevue so it’s a very active modern era railroad town as well.

We’ll ride through Toledo on Thursday.  Don’t know what to expect but the Google bicycle maps which we’re fans of take its preferred route right through the heart of the city.

Then we’ll set our destination for Kalamazoo, Michigan.  We may cross the Ohio-Michigan border Thursday.

Our total miles are now up to 660.  About 340 to go.  The air’s drier now, and leaves are just starting to change and fall.  North winds blew today and we felt a tinge of coolness in them.

Tra la.

 

 

 

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