022: Day 29: May 7: Westerville to London OH. 46 miles today and 883 in total. (m285.1)

After a great night with the Fouries we reluctantly got out of bed this morning. A longer rest would have been appropriate. But, we decided to move on.

We were almost immedaitely on the Alum Creek Trail. This trail runs for more than 20 miles straight into downtown Columbus. And it is a beautiful trail as well.

We were treated to many bridge designs, some are very pleasing to the eye as well. Great job, City of Columbus.

We passed many smaller marshy areas. With the sunlight filtering through the leaves, some of them had lovely reflections. And Christine greatly enhanced the bottom photo. 

Closer to Columbus we took a different and more direct trail, the I-670 Trail. This was more noisy, but it soon treated us

with our first view of the Cloumbus skyline.

Columbus has a beautiful river front where we cycled along the Scioto River Trail. We were a bit early for a cup of coffee and Apfel Strudel in the German District, but I promised myself that I shall bring Christine back for such a date. 

The Scioto Trail took us out of the city and after some miles along roads

we plunged into the trees along the Scioto River. 

We passed the Dublin Water Works

Christine was enjoying the modelling as much as the photographer did. 🤩😍😍

The next trail was the Camp Chase Trail, starting after a very short ride through Valley View. This trail was completed in sections along a railway line that used to carry passenger trains from Los Angeles to New York. Over the years, the traffic reduced and ownership of the rail line changed. Today it is still an active rail line that the Chase Valley Company owns and uses to transport mostly corn and grains from a couple of silos along the line.

We were very happy to see three of the Company's locomotives on the line.

We passed these murals in an industrial area.

We soon passed one of the grain silos still in use.

This is a very straight rail line and the trail is running in parallel. We made good time along this section.

Following this section of new trail, the rail line runs down the embankment and on the other side of the fence, we entered the Indian Ridge Picnic Area along the Darby River. 

The rail trail is well designed and a great ride, many curves, culverts and high embankments from which to enjoy the forest included in this Area.

The path dropped down to the Darby River where we passed below the rail bridge. 

We also had a good look at the confluence of the Little and Big Darby Rivers, just upstream of the road bridge in the distance.

On leaving the Picnic Area we crossed the Darby River on this wide separated path next to the road bridge. 

We soon joined the active railway line again. The path regularly crosses the rail line at well-designed level crossings. They are very cycle-friendly with almost no bump.

The Trail runs through beautiful farm land.

Towards the end of the active rail line, we noted the track condition also changed. Many sleepers are missing/badly deteriorated and the track seems to be quite uneven.

At Lily Chapel we passed the last silo that is still in use along this stretch of line.  

There were still some rail cars parked on the line beyond the silos. The surrounding area is quite flat, but with pleasing Spring colors.

At the crossing with State Road 103, we joined the next section of trail, the Roberts Pass Trail, named for two gentlemen who were deeply involved in guiding the initial community actions to promote and agree on the trail's construction. 

Beautiful flowers - Spiderwort.

Beautiful trail views

and views of the open farm land next to the trail.

We also saw this interesting sight showing how long this part of the rail line was not in use. 

Soon we were at the end of the Roberts Pass Trail and joined the paved Prairie Grass Trail. We have made good time, but the head winds were picking up in strength and there was rain forecast for the evening. London OH was still some ways off and that is where we wanted to pitch our tent for the evening.

We soon reached the Prairie Grass Primitive Camp site at London OH. We wanted to see the Queen, but Dave, a Trail Ambassador who came to visit us later that night, said neither she nor the Bridge are here in Ohio.

It is still early in the season and we had the camp site to ourselves. With the incoming rain, we pitched the tent under the roof. So, we had no problem with the wet, but it became very cold and windy overnight. So, we were in bed early.

Some notes on this camp site, it has the best Restroom by far. It has running water (hot and cold) with a flush toilet. AND it is kept immaculately clean. 

It also has a shower in the woods. We were too cold, but this must be great in the warmer months after a long day on the bicycle.

The town has wonderful "Trail Angels."

We were busy preparing a cold dinner when Clark Marshall (please would you correct the name if I have it wrong) and his daughter stopped for a chat. He was soon back with a tub of snacks for the road. And he was back within 10 minutes with a big bag of food, including slices of fresh bread, lovely warm sliced ham, sliced tomatoes, apples, pepper and onions. Christine and I are still in awe because of this generosity. Thanks so much!!!

We, of course, also had a visitor who wanted to join in the fun. However, when he saw that we were not going to share a thing, he moved on. This was the second night the trailer slept in the tent  - we did not see him again.

At around 8pm, Dave came to say, Hi. We had so much to talk about, we were listening to stories about the first days of the trail, the current maintenance and funding arrangements and general London-town talk while he was listening to our experiences. In the end we said goodbye at past 09:00. What a wonderful ambassador you are, Dave.