August 2022 – Page 3 – Ever Eastward

Day 54. Sandusky to Perry, 64 miles

I said goodbye to Andrew until Maine today, which was hard. I also said goodbye to all the amenities that Andrew conveyed: extra dresses and underwear, my electric toothbrush, Doritos and Diet Coke on arrival. It was, as you might imagine, a difficult parting.

He dropped me at a park in Avon Lake, 30+ miles from Sandusky; this would save me from a 95-mile day that included navigating Cleveland, my last truly large city of the trip. It’s actually very well routed and signed, but getting through a city always takes more time: more turns, more traffic, more people.

The bitterness of parting was sweetened somewhat by my proximity to Lake Erie, which I’ll be following for the next few days.

The trail through Cleveland was well marked and also familiar; I’m now on a route Joyce and I have taken twice before, once when we rode to NY and once on Infinity Tour around Erie and Ontario.

Returning to the ACA route was also a significant lifestyle upgrade; I’m back to getting turn-by-turn directions, which made Cleveland a lot smoother than I expected.

I had been struggling to remember how Joyce and I had dealt with Cleveland on past tours—it’s hard to get through it and far enough east of it to find camping options. While Andrew and I were pondering this and noodling around on Googlemaps, we ran across Perry Township Park, about 35 miles east of Cleveland, and a lightbulb went off: this was where we’d stayed both previous times. I love Perry Township Park—it has beautiful, lake-overlooking campsites, free for cyclists, and it’s quiet and friendly. I just hadn’t remembered where it was.

I made my way there, aided by a bit of tailwind (YASSSSS!) out of the south. I’d forgotten how steeply Erie curves north—that and Ontario are much of how I get back toward the north after my sharp drop south through Michigan.

It was very quiet at the park. I’d called earlier to verify they had sites, and the park manager said to just go ahead and set up if I didn’t see her when I arrived; she had a funeral in the evening and wouldn’t be around. I went ahead and got myself parked at the same site we’d had in prior years and took a shower. There were maybe 20 RVs in the place, but only one car (truck); I could see its owner inside the camper watching TV. After a while, he came out and asked if I wanted firewood, and shortly after he left. I’m pretty sure I was the only overnight camper at Perry Township Park Monday night.

I talked on the phone with mom while it rained out over the water and then got into the tent right as it started to rain over me. We chatted until the rain let up, then I went to brush my teeth and headed to bed to the whoosh of wind and waves.

Day 53. Toledo to Sandusky, 61 miles

I spent so much time on trail today, and it was glorious.

I was reconnecting with the ACA route sometime today or tomorrow, but still mapping myself for today, and I grumbled a little that Andrew got to drive along the coast—water on both sides at one point!—and I had to drop south into a headwind just to ride north again to Sandusky; both the ACA route and Googlemaps routed south. But the trail was the reason, and it was worth it.

To get there I departed through the southern outskirts of Toledo, with the same dispiritingly neglected and worn-down feel as every other city’s far reaches. Even Rogers Park, the vibrant neighborhood where I live, gets poorer and dingier as you approach the border with Evanston.

Despite the headwind, I moved at a good pace. It’s still very flat; other than an unexpected 1600+ feet of elevation between Flint and Ann Arbor (of course), the climbing has been minimal and unremarkable.

And then the trail! I had 25 or so miles on beautifully well marked, paved trail—the Inland Coastal trail, which appears to run 70+ miles—running through farmland and trees. There were ample sit spots and bike repair stations and lots of folks out using the trail on a lovely Sunday afternoon. Even when it went through Fremont, a city of 16k, the bike route was well enough marked that I didn’t have to stop for map checks. ❤️

And then a tailwind as I cut back north to Sandusky, which, Andrew texted to say, had an unexpectedly charming downtown. And it did!

I arrived early afternoon, and we headed out for a walk along Sandusky’s waterfront.

We took a break for beers at Daly’s Pub.

Then we headed back to the motel for showers before another foray into Sandusky for dinner and cocktails overlooking the water.

With an early morning departure ahead of us—Andrew is taking me about 30 miles down the road to avoid a long day through Cleveland—we went back to the motel and hit the hay.

Day 52. Ann Arbor to Toledo, OH, 54 miles

We took our time in the morning, getting a breakfast of eggs and bacon and my first bagel with cream cheese in an awfully long time. It tasted better than it was.

I got my bike ready to go while Andrew loaded the car, and with a last longing look at our cozy room I headed out with a plan to meet Andrew at our hotel in Toledo mid to late afternoon. Like I said before, riding with people at the end of the day is so lovely and also a harder ride, one that can feel like it’s just in the way of me getting there. A headwind doesn’t help, and I did have that as well, though a fairly mild one.

It was pretty nice riding out of Ann Arbor, of course, after I got myself untangled from the campus and the abundance of available bike routes; there was one rough stretch, but mainly I was in bike lanes or on bike trails. One roadside trail lasted far longer than I’d anticipated, and I thought to myself “maybe getting to Toledo won’t be so bad!” And then, as is so often the case when I slip and let myself have such thoughts, this happened.

I jumped back on the road, which was fine, nothing to write home about. I was away from water until Toledo, when I’d hit Lake Erie (but probably not see it), or really Sandusky, when I’d get on the coast for real.

Googlemaps tried its crap again with a major road that turned into gravel, but I was ready for it this time and quickly rerouted to paved roads; there are more roads and more paved roads as I get farther south and east, so I can more easily zig and zag.

I stopped for a snack in a cute little park in Dundee on the River Raisin.

At some point I was in Ohio, with no fanfare or signage. It felt a little strange after being in Michigan for so long (15+ days!). I’d stopped really considering other states and what they might be like; they were too far away and hypothetical. And now Ohio.

I was riding without panniers on a Saturday afternoon, which made me look like I was just out for a ride; I was bemused to realize this bothered me a bit—I’d lost the cachet of being an apparent through-traveler.

And then I was in Toledo! I met Andrew at our hotel downtown after making my way through the ugly outskirts of the city, as they always are. After a shower, we had dinner at the hotel restaurant, which was fine.