Another day of riding along the Ohio To Erie Trail (OTET). More good weather. There were some relics of the railroad days preserved beside the rail-trail, including
an old caboose, preserved train stations, and what looked like ancient telegraph poles standing beside the former tracks. Since we were on former railroads all day, the ride was flat. There was one
brief stretch of about a mile after lunch that was on hard-packed dirt, the trail did a U-turn down to Big Darby Creek and then split in several directions. We consulted with the mapping app on the phone
and found the correct way through. (The mapping tool worked great, the only issue was that is seemed to use up my battery quickly such that I couldn't leave my phone on.)
Our hotel for the night was in the heart of Columbus. I thought we might skirt such a major city, but apparently Columbus, being a university city, has a big network of
bike trails that lead from the city to all directions.
I always thought that Columbus was at the center of Ohio. Yet here we were, in Columbus after just two days of riding and another four days to go before we reached
Cleveland. How to explain this? Leaving Columbus, we would be riding east, not north directly toward Cleveland. We were heading toward the tow-path, the canal route that connected the Ohio River with Lake Erie.
The next two days were our shortest distances. We finished early and had time to explore the small towns.
