We are finding that the rails-to-trails are consistently pleasant! The views change and the venues vary from deeply wooded to freshly plowed fields to river fronts. The riding surface also varies between asphalt, crushed rock and dirt. But, even with all those variables we are finding them similar in so many ways. They are well maintained, well marked, have informational plaques with local and historical information and there are generally bathrooms or port-a-lets available at reasonable intervals. There are benches and/or picnic areas along the way as well. They are multi-use and so far, all have been well used. Some E-bikes, but more regular bikes and walkers and runners.
The trails pass thru or run alongside towns. Today we rode a trail near a small town named Marieta. We crossed the railroad tracks that ran parallel with the path and rode through town to find lunch. It was a quaint town and fun to explore.
This area has a deep history in iron work and the rail was critical to moving raw materials to the river for transport. There were signs of this along the trail — I was particularly drawn to the bridge and building architectures of that era.
For a moment I thought we might be riding on the moon — or a large marshmallow We think the white mounds were left behind from some aspect of the mining process, but there was no plaque confirming our suspicion.
In contrast to this quaint town — we also drove by the site of the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster . Since our group is all over 60 years old, we remember well the event and its place in history.
