Ohio River Ride 2019

Because today was a short mileage day, we had to decide whether we would hang out in Point Pleasant or Huntington .  Since we saw all that Point Pleasant had to offer, we left early to enjoy the cooler morning temperatures.  Our first stop was at a roadside historical sign that noted a Native American burial mound.  The sign was interesting but as far as we could see, the terrain was flat.  Our next historical marker was for a Civil War General’s house called Green Bottom. The house did come along with the marker.  About 30 miles into our day we came to Hillbilly Hot Dogs.  This restaurant was featured on the TV show”Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, but did not open until noon on Sundays.  Another historical marker led us to Madie Carroll House.  The original section of the house was built prior to 1810, and is believed to have arrived in by flatboat from Gallipolis, Ohio.  We arrived in Huntington too early to check into our hotel but ...

Leaving Ripley , WV was a lot easier than getting there.  While getting there in yesterday’s heat involved lots of climbing, this morning’s departure took advantage of the cool morning temperatures and reversing the climb as we dropped to the river.  We had alternative routes to choose from; a shorter route away from the river or a longer route along the river.  We took the longer one and were mostly on deserted country roads.  Being away from the highway noise, we enjoyed the silence of nature.  We listened to the birds, frogs, toads, and crickets make music and heard a deer leap through the underbrush as it ran from us.  We didn’t miss those highway humming tires, or the noisy and smelly exhausts.  Most small towns that we traveled thru didn’t have any diners or cafés.  However, they all seemed to have funeral parlors.  You can draw your own conclusion as to what that means but we wondered if the local folks just starved to death.  ...

After we left Parkersburg , WV we cycled for about 15 miles on rural roads, with NO traffic.  We had lots of hills and rough roads but the lack of traffic and the benefit of the shade from overhanging trees made it all worth while. We cycled thru farm lands and along a mountain road.  After dropping back down to the highway, we were again along the river.  Unlike earlier days, we saw lots of barges moving on the river.  It is amazing that a “little” tugboat can gracefully push a pack of barges 3 wide and 6 long. Most of the rest of the ride was on low traffic roads until we got to Washington, VW.  Yes, George did own land here and it was farmed.  (He did get around.)  From Washington to Ripley, we had lots of hills, traffic and road construction.  So, believe it or not, we did arrive safely in Ripley. Pictures Map

We left New Martinsville, WV early and encountered fog as we cycled west.  In Sistersville , WV we had planned to take the ferry across the river to cycle on the Ohio side.  When we got to the ferry it was “beached” and no one was around.  We cycled back into town where we were told that the ferry was no longer running—they could not find a licensed pilot.  We continued west on the West Virginia side to St. Marys where we were able to cross the Ohio River on a bridge.  Cycling in Ohio was flat and on mostly a 4 lane road with wide shoulders.  Our next stop was Marietta , Ohio .  During 1788, pioneers to the Ohio Country established Marietta as the first permanent settlement of the new United States in the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio. Marietta is located in southeastern Ohio at the mouth of the Muskingum River at its confluence with the Ohio River .  After cycling an endless commercial strip to reach the town, we visited a...

Before leaving Steubenville , we visited Fort Steuben .   The soldiers of the 1st American Regiment built Fort Steuben to protect the government surveyors mapping the land west of the Ohio River , and named the fort in honor of Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben. When the surveyors completed their task a few years later, the fort was abandoned.   (Thus the fort was likely a reproduction.) Steubenville is also known as the "City of Murals", because of its more than 25 downtown murals.   One of them can be seen in our photo link.     After crossing the river back into WV we were blessed with flat terrain and a trail that carried us for most of the first half of our ride.   The trail kept us along the river and through the older parts of many towns.   We enjoyed looking at the architecture and marquee signs painted on the buildings.   We saw many coal barges being pushed up the river by sturdy tug boats and watched one of them going th...

  In summary, we anticipated a tough day and were not disappointed. We had lots of climbing, some missing shoulders, some flooded shoulders, and some heavy traffic.   However, we did have reasonable temperatures, a cooling head wind, several nice down hill runs.   So don’t expect much from today’s blog.   We departed from our Pittsburgh hotel around 6 a.m. and hit the first of our continuous climbs.   While there were lots of them, they weren’t steep or long.   A server storm dumped lots of rain last night bringing down debris and flooding the low spots.   Besides impacting our riding, the rain dampened our first stop at Raccoon Creek State Park Wildflower Center.   The trails were swampy and there were no blooming wildflowers visible from the parking lot so we decided to keep climbing the never ending hills.   Our one really nice down hill occurred as we headed down the mountain to the Ohio River .   Not only was it long, it pr...