LOCAL

Happy trails to you

Missy Rosenberry
Webster

I'm not a very big bike rider, but in the last several weeks I've had occasion to ride along three separate trail systems.

One was a few weeks ago when my husband and I traveled to Dayton, Ohio for a smart-person conference he'd been invited to. I took advantage of my free time to check out downtown Dayton's section of the Great Miami River bike trail. Then last week, as part of some research I was doing for an upcoming Our Towns column, I rode a few miles along the Erie Canal Trail through Fairport. Finally, on Sunday my husband and I took one of our regular excursions to Webster village along the Route 104 bike trail.

As I was cruising along that morning, I got to thinking about how Webster's bike trail stacks up against those other two trails.

Dayton's Great Miami River Trail was disappointing. It was obvious the city's tried to make their waterfront a destination. There's a concert pavilion, picnic tables and an ice cream shop, and they've tried to integrate the river trail into that plan. But once you get down to the river, it's not very scenic -- at least the downtown section which I road.  The primary vegetation was grass, with very little if any tree cover.  Much of the trail is also overrun by Canada geese. When I wasn't physically riding through a large gaggle of them, I was dodging a minefield of droppings.  It also didn't help that a large section of the trail was closed due to highway construction.

On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give it a 4.

ID=13300635

Fairport is so much nicer. Not only is it clean and very scenic, there are a lot of places to stop and do actual things, like play at a playground, grab lunch or ice cream, or just sit and watch the boats.  This is a trail I'd like to ride much more.

On a scale of 1 to 10, I'll give it a 9.

Webster lands somewhere in between.  If you can ignore the traffic zooming by at high speed and the need to stop every mile to cross a street, it's a rather enjoyable ride. There are wildflowers in abundance, and lots of trees, so it's pretty cool even on a hot day.  You can take a side trip through North Ponds Park if you're so inclined, and when you hit the village, there's plenty to do, even on a Sunday morning.  I like grabbing a cup of coffee at Barry's Old School Irish or on The Mad Hatter's shaded back patio.  The one knock I have against the Webster bike path is that it's pretty bumpy.

Still, I'd give it a score of 6.

Hubby and I are headed to Montreal soon for another smart-person conference. I'll have my bike with me again, so we'll see what adventures I can find up in the north country.

* * *

email me at missyblog@gmail.com

"Like" this blog on Facebook and follow me on Twitter