Days 1-4: Cleveland to Ann Arbor
Friends and family met us at Lakewood Park on Sunday to send us off—two days later than we originally planned.
We finally hit the road a little after 3pm, but stopped at Century Cycles in Rocky River for some last minute supplies.
The ride to Oberlin was slow, but we made it. It took us quite a few miles to get used to the weight of the bikes—each carrying about 50 pounds.
There weren’t many people on campus at the time, so we just picked up some Chinese food and started scouting out a good spot to set up for the night. We settled on a hidden clearing next to a chapel and unloaded our gear.
That turned out to be a terrible idea. For one thing, the bells tolled every hour—even at 2am. And the benches around the corner turned out to be a popular late-night hangout for students looking to drink on the down-low. After the second rowdy group left, I gave in and looked up the closest motel. At 3am, we quickly packed it up and rode to the motel in the dark of the night. This turned out to be my favorite few miles of riding so far. The air was cool, there was absolutely nobody on the road, and we could only see as far as the reach of our headlights.
After showers and breakfast at the motel on Monday, we left for Fremont, Ohio.
Unfortunately, we didn’t discover the North Coast Inland Trail until we arrived in Fremont, so the ride could have been faster and easier than it was. While looking for a place to camp, we found the trail and met a new friend: John, a 26-year-old mechanical engineer contracting on a project in Fremont. After sending us off with suggested camping locations, he caught up to us and offered his place for the night. We gladly accepted and ended up having a great time.
The next morning we hopped on the trail and enjoyed another day of perfect weather. We ran into Elmore Cycle & Fitness along the trail and stopped in for some tune-ups on Erin’s bike. The head mechanic, Mike, was interested in the gear we chose to pack and eagerly offered some helpful advice (such as picking up 12oz of heat antifreeze at a gas station to replace the 32oz of denatured alcohol we’re carrying for cooking). Mike posts photos of passing tourers and his ultralight setups on his Flickr stream (photos of us coming soon).
We eventually reached and promptly exited Toledo, which had terrible roads for cycling and the worst drivers. Everyone had some stupid comment for us—none of them demonstrating any knowledge of the actual rules of the road, of course. So we rode until we reached Temperance, Michigan, and found the perfect stealth camping spot behind some trees.
This morning was the earliest we’ve started yet, waking up at 7:00 to make breakfast and pack up, and hitting the road by 9:00. After 15 miles, we took a short break in Dundee, which was home to every imaginable fast-food chain on just a half-mile stretch, but also a cute and clean downtown area.
The remainder of the trip was spent riding directly north on some very sparsely populated roads, singing songs and taking pictures along the way to cure our boredom.
We rolled into Ann Arbor a little after 1pm and met up with our friends, Erin and Bryan (funny, right?) at their apartment. We’re about to leave for the bar to see their band Lake Folk perform. We’ll be taking advantage of these comfy couches tonight and leaving for Kalamazoo after lunch tomorrow!
