Day 10, Mesopotamia to Ashtabula, Thursday June 17

 40.5 miles :: trip total 376.5 miles

Michael Cahill B&B, 1106 Walnut

Sitting on the front porch of the Michael Cahill's B and B,  the oranges and reds of a spectacular sunset over Lake Erie in Ashtabula are a gift at the end of another day of enjoying the byways of Ohio. We will be here for two nights.

We started today's ride on the Western Reserve Greenway, a, 40 miles paved well-used bike trail that heads south from Ashtabula. It is shaded, wooded with occasional "windows" to the farmlands on either side.

To our surprise, the trail became a "museum"  every few miles with Underground Railway displays, depicting history of Ashtabula County's participation in the abolitionist movement and in hiding escaped slaves. 

Many were assisted by the residents of Ashtabula to cross Lake Erie to safety. 

 We left the trail to bike into Jefferson, the town with the nicest entrance of all the towns we have seen: smooth, wide streets, yellow wildflowers on both sides. Lunch at the J cafe was the best of home cooking and here we began to meet people who had known our friend Anne's family. Her father Burt Laird owned the local lumber yard and has a street named after him where the lumber yard previously was located. The family's former home is 5 blocks from where we are staying and sits on a high bluff above the lake.

 

 

We walked our bikes through the Smolen-Gulf covered bridge, the longest covered bridge in the US (618 ft) just outside of Ashtabula.

This one was dedicated in 2008 and is one of many covered bridges in northeast Ohio. We crossed a lift bridge over the Ashtabula River to reach our lodging and at dinner on a restaurant patio, watched the bridge rise every half hour to allow the boats into and out of the harbor. The river has been reclaimed from its contaminated condition and the lake front is being developed. 

 

So happy to have arrived at Lake Erie ! 

 

 

 

 

Route Notes: We left the Greenway Trail at the exact the point Adventure Cycling's Underground Railroad Route joins it. We left it to get lunch in Jefferson and to line ourselves up to go through the Smollen Gulf covered bridge on our way into Ashtabula. We are pleased with our entire route from Meopotamia.