Great & Little Miami Trails
 

My wife & I are planning a trip to the east coast in September. From what I've found on the web there is an extensive network of trails around Dayton Ohio, we are planning on stopping for a week or so to explore the area. We will be driving our car, staying in hotels, and looking for day trips between 30 & 65 miles. We are retired, riding road bikes and looking for local advice and suggestions.

I ride these trails all the time.
see Miami Valley Bike Trails | 330 Miles of Trails To Explore! also see www.ohiobikeways.net and see www.littlemiamistatepark.org which takes care of the little Miami trail. Rails to trails also has information. Yellow Springs is a quaint little town to go to. Google Peters Cartage
Company for an abandoned munitions plant on the Little Miami Trail

Are you strictly trails-only riders? Do you climb hills? Because there's some great road riding in SW Ohio, but almost any good route has hills.

A few previous threads that will interest you:

1. Xenia Ohio A thread about the trails out of Xenia.

My post is a few suggested rides on the trail.

And I added a "mostly" trail ride with some street bike lanes to the new parks along the Ohio River near downtown Cincinnati. This is a nice change of pace from the rural Little Miami Trail. And the 25 mile route could be extended--cross the 1865 Suspension Bridge to Covington KY's riverfront historic district, or even make the 300 foot climb up to the river views in Eden Park.

2. Rail Trail Bucket List

I'll second the Virginia Creeper Trail, near Damascus VA. Worth a trip to ride it. (not a good surface for road bikes, though.)

careful if this is the RM I rode with on CCC rides from KY (Kenhilly) if he says its hilly LOOK OUT

This is a great area to ride!

You can make your base Xenia, Ohio. There is a hub there where you ride to all the major cities in this part of the state on the trail system. Xenia Station Trails Map - Xenia, OH Trailhead This shows where this hub is located. You can ride to Cincinnati, Dayton, Springfiels or further north.

Depending on your time available you can even go over to Columbus and ride the trails there, including Heart of Ohio Trail.

Thank you all for you're replies and advice. This is exactly what I'm looking for. We should be getting to Ohio around Oct 1st with no real schedule. I think we're going to confine ourselves to the trail system as it is so extensive and the only reason we've picked the area. We've gone several time to Minneapolis, Phoenix, Seattle and LA area's to ride thier trails and we want to try something a little farther east and unfamiliar. I'll be checking out the websites linked above and anxious to respond to any futher advice. We only have internet access when we come to town to use the library. Our home is on another island with no roads or electricity. Going down south to ride trails is a real treat for us and we're looking forward to 2 months of bike riding. Thanks again to all for your helpful information.