Today was a day for little Ohio roads. If it weren’t for Strava recording the twists and turns, I wouldn’t remember them. A lot of short micro-hills, just long enough to take extra energy but not more. I expected this afternoon to be warm, so was out on the road early.

The plan was to follow this road, OH 5 for ~12 miles starting out. The shoulder was about to go away, but otherwise a reasonable road. Unfortunately, just as I crossed the county line into Portage County, the sign said “Grooved Pavement” followed by a “Road Construction 10.6 miles”.

I could do the grooved pavement for a while, but it is obnoxious riding and at first side street, I got out the map and re-routed a detour and loaded it onto my GPS. My GPS has started acting funny and it sometimes loses the ability to tell me the next turn. It can tell me how far until the finish and show a map – but that turn indicator was very helpful. I’ve done a reset of the device after the ride, so hopefully that fixes things though it meant riding today I was stopping more often to check on the GPS.

Here is an example of the small roads I found myself cycling. Some were bumpy or put the Texas chip seal to shame, though most were fine. I wasn’t on any single road for long, but more a progression with a turn every mile or two. It brought me through rural residential areas, farm areas and along a conservation park. All sort of fun. I also saw at least four groups of Saturday morning cyclists out riding.

An example of an open country road.

If this corn needs to be knee high by the 4th of July, it has some growing to do.

Chocolate factory near Hartsville. From here I tried following OH 43 for a while. This is not a particularly large road, but I was looking for fewer quick up/down bumps. Unfortunately, this and most other mid-sized Ohio roads I’ve tried don’t have shoulders. I got two honks, one “get off the road” and one “jackass” in this next section. There were also many polite Ohio drivers but I remember the jerks. In any case, I continue to be unimpressed with Ohio roads and the lack of shoulders compared with similar roads in New York or Pennsylvania.

Stopped for lunch and the last few miles through more residential neighborhood areas. It was getting warm and the roads were getting me grumpy, so it was a good time to stop riding. Tomorrow I expect to follow some of the Ohio to Erie Trail (OTET) headed to Columbus.

Strava says: 46.38 miles in 4:56:33 for 9.4 miles/hour. A total of 1424 feet climbed and 3483 calories burned.

Update: Something else I’ve noticed where I’ve landed is no pedestrian facilities, e.g. sidewalks or pedestrian lights at intersections. In afternoons after arrival, I will often walk to nearby supermarket to get some food for breakfast (e.g. yogurt or things that don’t keep) and dinner (e.g. I got some steam microwave bags and so can do tilapia or vegetables) and keep myself stocked up on fruits (e.g. apples, avocados, citrus) and protein bars. Trying to walk from the hotel to nearby Aldi is a mess without some basic support. A few of the drivers also seemed to behave similar to pedestrians trying to cross the road as cyclists trying to use the road. Consider me not a fan of Canton, Ohio. Just for fun, I typed “Canton Ohio Pedestrian” into Google and got the following top results in order:

• Injury report form from Canton Police
• Facebook post about a pedestrian killed in North Canton
• Driver wanted in hit-run crash involving Canton pedestrian
• Semi truck hits/kills pedestrian in Canton
• Pedestrian killed on I-77
• Police: Man reported being shot while walking in Canton
• (Lawyer advertisement) Top 10 Most Dangerous intersections in Canton, Ohio

Trying either Fort Collins or Austin also brings up similar pedestrian killed and hit-run incidents but at least in both cases the top item is the city pedestrian plan. Picking “Amsterdam Netherlands Pedestrian” brings up the following:

• Trouble in cyclists paradise: Amsterdam accused of favoring pedestrians
• Being a pedestrian in Amsterdam – Amsterdam forum
• Policy: Pedestrians – City of Amsterdam
• Bike-Dominated Amsterdam is not a Walker’s paradise
• The perils or walking and biking in Amsterdam
• How Amsterdam’s future is car-free and bike-friendly
• How does a Dutch environment work for pedestrians