Day 4. The King of Detours

May 2, 2025

7 AM I figured it was enough time to be millin’ around Massillon. 54 miles today’s ride would be, but I ended up cycling 63. Read on below if you want to learn more, especially about the killer King of all detours.

Temperature was 68. It was fairly warm and the trail was still wet from yesterday’s storm

Whether built from natural stream flow or by Beaver’s? I was at a loss, but looking at this dam I would not ride across.

The trail parallels the Ohio to Erie Canal, and the scenery is very charming in this particular locale. Pretty soon I had 15 miles under my wheels with only 30 to go I can’t tell you how good that feels. I’m trying to get to my destination to be quite plain to escape the forecast of early afternoon rain.

Just a little past 8 o’clock I rode up the hill and passed this lock

At Barberton, I hit detour number 1. 1-1/2 miles out of my way was not really fun. As today’s detours go, this was the first, but I’ll tell you right now - it was not the worst.

At 10:30 AM I’m nice and dry enjoying the boardwalk, the clouds, and the blue sky.

The giant Adirondack chair is known for its obscureness but I just thought the chairs here were ginormous.

Downtown Akron with its mural walls and me in the bottom left staring at the falls.

Just north of Boston, a trail marker said, “trail is closed 1.8 miles ahead.” Did I follow its caution? Was its warning heeded? Of course not! I’m a bike tourist. I simply proceeded. Sure enough as I got there, the trail was closed. I had to turn around and find a detour on the roads. Google maps took me on a route that was fairly rugged and threw a section that was pretty much flooded. If you think that was bad that is not all for as soon as I got past that I rounded a bend and faced a wall. Directly in front of me, the road builders had made a route that took me up a 17% grade. My gears were not low enough for this hill - I did not like; I hopped off my saddle and had to push my bike. And just when I think I’ve had enough, the roadbed is washed away - man this is tough! I got back to my route and continued my headway, but the damage was done taking me 7 miles out of my way.

Between the washed away road and the 16.5% grade and pushing the bike uphill, I became somewhat dismayed

The skies grew darker, my hotel is 3 miles away. It was at that moment that it started to rain on me this day. Currently for rain days my score on this tour is I’ve experienced rain three days out of four. Looking at the forecast, it says we should get more as tomorrow’s weather says all day downpour.

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Today's ride: 63 miles (101 km)
Total: 273 miles (439 km)

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