Ohio River to Lake Erie routes?
 

We are thinking of taking a tour from the Ohio River to Lake Erie (South to North) this summer. This would be within the state of Ohio. We'd like to stick, roughly, to the middle 1/3 of the state (too flat to the West and hillier and busier [near Canton, Akron, Cleveland] in the East. A rough idea would be from Ripley to Huron.

If anyone here has any route suggestions or experience - we'd appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks,
Steve A.

The Adventure Cycling Association has a mapped route following the historic underground railroad that ruan through Ohio from roughly Cincinnati to Lake Erie. I've never biked this particular route, but I've found the ACA maps and routes to be generally very good on other routes I've followed.

http://www.adventurecycling.org/routes/images/ugrr4.gif

You could look for a route NNW from Ripley and hook up around Xenia or head more NW to Milford and get on from there. At the other end, Oberlin is pretty close to Huron. I'd ride N to Vermillion to stop at the Main St. Soda Grill (photo below) for a root beer float before heading back west along Rt. 6 to Huron. I've ridden Rt. 6 along Lake Erie before and it's a good route.

http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/p...m/22940093.jpg

The ACA route appears to follow the Little Miami Trail to Xenia, then more trails to London.

This map starts at Cincinnati and connects to the south end of the trail. I haven't done the NW part past Xenia, but I think it's flat farmland out there. The trail up to Xenia is very nice.

Cincinnati to London on the trails map


If you want to avoid flat lands, east of Hillsboro is very rural, and starts getting hilly. See the "Terrain" map option on google maps.

Thanks ..
 

Thanks!

I believe that these are good suggestions. I had purchased the next (more southerly section) of the ACA Underground Railroad route (through Land-Between-The-Lakes) a few years ago. We didn't end up riding that section though. I had forgotten that the Ohio section goes through Oberlin. I'll order the map(s) for Ohio and see how their route looks.

Greetings xyzzy834,

For our tour logistics we are looking to rent a vehicle - to drive home from near Huron. I looked in google but didn't get a great bead on car-rental agencies in that area. Can you recommend any (maybe not a firsthand quality recommendation, but at least anything that you know might be available near Huron)?

Any help is certainly appreciated!

Thanks,
Steve & Linda

I wish I could help you with a pointer to a rental car agency. I'm in Columbus, not Huron, so I don't have any good recommendations. Maybe someone else with more local knowledge of that area will chime in.