Jewet Ohio

I was packed up by 5:30. Today’s riding was going to be mostly on roads and its is supposed to get hot. I wanted an early start to do the majority of the miles while it was still cool. I needed to cross the ohio River but I wasn’t allowed on route 22. It was a limited access highway. Route 2 is where I needed to be and that was 2 exits away on route 22. I put Market Street Bridge into Google maps and followed for over 3 miles with 400 feet of elevation gain. The road was a dead end in a land fill. So 6.8 miles later I was back to where started. So much for my early start. I thought it was going to be difficult. I had asked 5 or 6 local cyclist at the trail head and none of them knew how to get there either.This time I used a paper map. It was a lot more miles but finaly I got to and then crossed the bridge into Steubenville.

I bummed around the city for a couple hours. At the park I cooked some oatmeal and eggs. Its advertised as the city of murals and each one was numbered. I saw a few of them but none were easy to take pictures of due to buildings or parked vehicles

By the time I left Steubenville it was in the 80s. Leaving town was a long uphill that I had to push a lot of. Near the top was a laundromat that looked pretty new. The hope of A.C. had me wheeling in. When I opened the door it was like walking into a refrigerator. It felt so nice. I refilled my bottles at the water fountain and sat there for a half hour. I guess I walked more then I should have wearing my cycling shoes. I had some hot spots and knew blisters were forming.

I was on rt 43. For a most the way there was no shoulder and traffic was pretty bad so I rode the sidewalk. I wasn’t going much faster then a walk anyways. The walkway was in real bad shape. Some sections were heaved up creating a 2″ or 3″ inch lip I had to ride over. I was worried about breaking a spoke or bending a rim so at first I would almost stop and gently roll over them. After the first several dozen of these lips and drop offs I quit trying to be gentle and would hit them at whatever speed I was going. It was hard on my bike and hard on me. Every one would send a jolt to my wrist and elbows.This went on for nearly 5 miles but no damage was done to my bike. I can’t say the same about me lol my wrist are swollen and elbows hurt but im sure a good night’s sleep will fix that. I stopped at a Goodwill to use the restroom and refill my water bottles. It was just a single room that had a locking door. When I took my bottles out to my bike I grabbed my soap and washcloth went back in, locked the door got undressed and took a “bath”. I even remembered a zip lock to put the washcloth in so I didn’t have a wet pocket.

I got into Jewet around 7 pm and got on the Conotton Creek trail. I rode a few more miles and stopped for the night. I was beat and ready for bed. Not so much from the mileage but from the elevation. A little over 2000 feet according to my garmin bike computer. I know that really isn’t very much but I’m out of shape. The rail trails I usually ride have spoiled me! I was too tired to cook so I just spread peanut butter on whole wheat tortillas and ate that. The view from my dinner table more then made up for the spartan meal!

There was lots of wildflowers along the trail. Emerson once said “Many eyes go through the meadow, but few see the flowers in it”. And Mac Davis even sang a song titled Stop and Smell the Roses. I know these aren’t roses but I stopped and smelled them anyway. Actually I just took a picture. There was so many the air already smelled of them.