Day 3: Independence to Akron 57km
Friday, May 12
Sunny and warm with cloud cover in the afternoon. 27C
Finally we are ready for heading south on the Ohio to Erie Trail! After sleeping in until 8am we slowly started getting our stuff organized. We thought that we’d be having a conversation with the manager about us leaving our car behind, but when we learned that she wouldn’t be in until almost noon we left her a note instead. Basically it said that we acknowledge that the hotel bears no responsibility for what may or may not happen to my car. Then we put the bike rack in the trunk and we were off.
It was about a mile to the trailhead and it was all downhill on a busy road. We stayed on the sidewalk, riding our brakes the whole way down and arrived safely in parking lot for Lock 39 – where we rode from yesterday. This is also the northern edge of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park which extends southwards almost all the way to Akron.
The park is beautiful, especially at this time of year when the leaves are finally unfurling from their spring buds. The understory is already bursting with greenery, but thankfully it seems that the bugs are late to the party. There were a lot of other people out on the trail including dog walkers, joggers, day-trippers and a few other long-haulers. There are many other access points along the length of the park and every parking lot we saw had people coming and going. There is even a special train – the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railway – that runs the length of the park. We didn’t ride the train today but we are trying to work it into our return trip.
We stopped in the shade for our first lunch break alongside one of the old locks near Boston. As nice as it is to have some warmer weather it was getting pretty hot in the sun. We were both slathered in sunscreen and when we are riding we create our own breeze, but stopping in the sun is a little too much when there is cool shade to be had. After lunch we browsed in the gift shop which had an attractive selection of just about everything you’d expect to find in a gift shop. We are planning to pay another visit when we have the car again so we can pick up some puzzles, books, bumper stickers, soap, chocolate and walking sticks!
In the afternoon we stopped a few more times for water and snacks while slowly getting closer and closer to Akron and there was a long climb up to the city with a summit of 600 feet. A lot of the accommodations in Akron are nowhere near the trail and in order to avoid having to pedal several more miles through town, we found an Air B&B near the trail on the south side of town. A little more scouting during a rest stop revealed an Aldi grocery store quite close to the trail too. So on the way by we stopped at the store to pick-up more food and then hopped on the trail again to get to our beds. We got slightly lost trying to find the B&B due to some confusion between Firestone Pkwy and Firestone Boulevard East, West, North and South. It seems like a lot of things in Akron are either called Firestone or Bridgestone as it is home to the latters technology centre. We did find our place in the end, nestled above a hole in the wall bar complete with solitary drinkers inside and curious imbibers out on the patio.
Once we hauled all of our stuff up the long staircase, we quickly settled in. We whipped up a delicious meal in the full kitchen although we only needed the microwave and a cutting board. Dinner was a quinoa salad with mac’n cheese and squash on the side – all things we’d been craving and talking about for hours! The apartment is nice overall although we can hear the jukebox through the floor and the TV is in the living room so we can’t watch it from bed. Other than that we are quite happy to be relaxing with our feet up on a Friday night after a fun and full day of riding.
eimajeyn 