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June 26—New Martinsville

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 thru a river lock to get around a dam.

 

Unfortunately, the second half of our ride was on the highway.  While we enjoyed wide shoulders for most of it, the last 10 miles into New Martinsville were down to 2 lanes, no shoulders, and lots of trucks.  There is extensive industrial development along this stretch, thus the trucks. When we got into town we found that most hotel lots were packed with pickup trucks and construction vehicles and the hotels charged a premium for their rooms.
 
Pictures
 
Map for today

 

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