Day 13, Saturday, May 3: The day it rained

Westerville, OH to London, OH

The morning coffee in the lobby of the Red Roof Inn never materialized, so we had a cup at Tim Horton's (thanks, Canada) and were on our way.

I think it rained most of the night, and the forecast along our route was 50% chance of rain all day, but we were rewarded with an hour of no rain as we pedalled down the Alum Creek Trail. It is a beautiful urban bike trail that winds along the the Alum Creek on the east side of Columbus, crossing and rececrossing it multiple times.

The temperature was in the low 50s and I felt better than I had in a few days. There were few people on the trail and riding on a winding  trail was just fun, much more so than the mostly straight, flat rail trails we've been on.

But it could not last. We left the Alum after ten or eleven miles and turned westward. This put us on an unpleasant bike path on the side of I -670, quite a shock after the tranquility of Alum Creek. It was only a couple of miles though, before we got onto the streets of downtown Columbus, riding through the Arena District. 

It was starting to rain lightly as we left the city on the Scioto Trail, along the Scioto River. Southwest of the city we picked up the Camp Chase Trail. This trail runs along railroad tracks that appear to be in use, though we never saw a train. It passes through some suburbs that have seen better days, and we saw a handful of tents and even a few people coming and going out of the woodsy areas along the track, presumably from other hidden camps.

At some point the trail became Roberts Pass Trail. The relentless rain picked up as we headed due west, and the temperature seemed to drop. We took a brief break in a town park, under a pavilion, where I was quite tempted to throw my sleeping bag on a picnic table for a nap 

It was a miserable ride all the way to London, Ohio, where there is a free campsite at the beginning of the Prairie Grass Trail, our original destination for the night. But as we sat in a local cafe, shivering and  dripping buckets of water onto the floor under the booth, we knew we could not camp. We are lucky to have the means for an alternative.

We had to backtrack a couple of miles along the trail, then head north, off-route, a few more miles to a hotel. The rain never let up, but with a roof and a warm shower in our near future there was a renewed energy to our riding.

It was a hard day, and with no end to the rain in sight, tomorrow will be no better.