Back on the bike trail

Saturday,
Despite doing a lot of walking while we were away, it unfortunately was not enough to counter the increased amount of eating (and drinking!), and we both came back carrying some extra pounds (!), so this week it has been back to more careful eating and regular exercise. Given another beautiful day, we decided we should get out on our bikes again. It was a rather cool start to the day, though sunny, so we stayed home in the morning, Roger cutting the grass, while I did some jobs in the house, then we left around noon, heading further north on the bike trail than we usually do, up to Zenia, which is actually quite a cycling hub. The Little Miami trail, almost 80 miles long, runs roughly north south through it, the Creekside trail runs approximately northwest for about 15 miles to Dayton, which itself is another cycling hub, while the Prairie Grass trail runs Northeast for about 30 miles. We took the Little Miami trail north, stopping after about five miles to eat a picnic lunch we had taken with us, then continuing for a round trip distance of almost 20 miles. Whilst the trail near us is really pretty flat, there was a bit of a gradient on this segment heading north, so at least it was a bit easier coming back, but I must admit the last couple of miles were still a bit of a struggle - my body was recognising it hadn't been on a bike for six weeks! My collage shows various scenes from our ride, starting with the railway station in Xenia, several barns we passed, and a rather interesting covered bridge we came across as we were approaching Yellow Springs. The Richard P. Eastman Hyde Road Covered Bridge in Yellow Springs, which was opened in 2014, is named in honor of Dick Eastman who was the Greene County Engineer from 1974 through 1999. Dick loved covered bridges, raised his family in the area just south of the bridge, and was instrumental in the funding and design of the bikeway the bridge crosses. The new covered bridge replaced a deteriorated steel bridge that had been closed for a year. The new structure is a 77-foot span Howe Truss, which was a popular design in the mid-to-late 1800s. The project was designed by Smolen Engineering of Ashtabula in northeastern Ohio - we saw several other recent covered bridges by the same company when we up in Ashtabula County back in the summer.