September 15-23-The ROAD TRIP to Xenia, Ohio for Recumbent Cycle-Con and to ride 2 of the 5 major trail systems in the area.
We have wanted to go to the yearly Recumbent Cycle-Conk, Tradeshow and Convention for YEARS! Finally decided, "No Time like the Present"! So, we rented a Mini-Van packed the trikes and gear inside, packed the snacks and drinks and headed EAST toward Ohio! We drove through 4 States and yes, I-70 was a bit of a disaster, but we managed to get through 4 major cities without a lot of problems!
We arrived on Thursday, and headed to Springboro, OH. to visit my youngest brother and his wife Linda. It's been a lot of years, so we had a lot to catch up on. Had a great overnight stay and after a great breakfast, we headed to Xenia and our motel on a beautiful back country highway. Arrived at the motel, a bit lower end that expected but it turned out quite and easy access to the trails. Being, late afternoon, we headed out to eat and just kicked back. The next morning, we headed out to try to figure out the trails but, LOL, we got our directions crossed up and couldn't find Xenia Station Trail Hub! No biggie, we headed up what we found out later was the Creekside Trail (#2) but missed the fairgrounds as there was no signage directions off the trail?? We stopped and asked a local rider as there were lots of folks on the trail. We found the way to the fairgrounds but getting lost made us a bit late for the 9AM entry on Saturday.
Locked up the trikes and headed inside Recumbent Cycle-Con, all the major trike mfg'ers. were set up and the demo rides in full swing! We rode lots of different trikes and even a couple of recumbent side by side tandems too!!
Recumbent Cycle-Con was a full Sat.-Sun. show but we felt like we did all we wanted to and decided we drove 1500 miles to get to ride NEW TRAILS! We finally figured out our directions and headed to the Xenia Station Trail Hub:
Sept 20, Sunday: We decided to ride to Yellow Springs, OH. and hopefully beyond to Springfield, OH. and figured out we needed to use the "Little Miami Trail (#3)" (it runs along the Little Miami River) and headed out to find Yellow Springs and it's Trail Station! Saturday night had the wildest Rainstorm we have seen in years! The trails were still a bit wet but the fenders kept us dry as the sun came out. This trail is beautiful, has lot's of "tree cover" and shade and is very FLAT, making for easy riding!
Lot's of pull overs and benches along the trail, we came upon a railway style bridge and then, WOW, we went under a "Covered Bridge", it's been a "Bucket List" item to ride thru a Covered Bridge but since it was over the trail we figured no way to access it, RATS!
From here we kept on riding up the trail and having an excellent time! It's been a while since we have gotten to ride a totally new trail for the first time!! Alas, all good things end, we made our way into Yellow Springs and Stopped at the Yellow Springs Station.
Just across the trail was a great diner called Peaches Grill, so it was lunch time! Had an excellent sandwich and a cold iced tea! We walked around the town a bit but lot's of traffic made us head back to the trail, we continued up for several miles but as it was getting late afternoon, we didn't get all the way to Springfield, OH. We headed back down and then got to the motel. Being tried, we decided to jump in the Mini-Van and head to a local Italian Restaurant, we found just off the Creekside Trail and had an excellent dinner to finish our time in Ohio. Monday morning, early with the wind howling and the rain pouring down, we packed up the mini-van and started our 3-day road trip back to Colorado Springs, CO.
It was totally worth the looooong drive and a lot of gray, cloudy and rainy weather and somehow, we want to return and spend 2-3 weeks getting to check out many more of the Trail Systems out of Xenia, OH. Station Trail Hub!
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