Today was a day of rest, of sorts.  We had no trail miles planned, but we did have a long drive ahead of us to get to Columbus, OH.  As we left Pittsburgh it began to rain.  Interestingly it was the remnants of Hurricane Ian we were dealing with.  As we drove, the rain became much more intense and the drive was a little nerve racking.  About half way to Columbus the rain let up and the drive became a little more relaxing and we could enjoy some of the fall colors.

Once we settled into the hotel in Columbus Jimmy, Dr. B, and I went out for a short ride to a brewery.  We found a nice trail that got us almost all the way to the brewery before we had to use sidewalks for the last quarter mile.  After some bad sushi and less than stellar beer we returned to the hotel.  The ride there and back was a little over five miles.  This isn’t anywhere near what we have been doing each day, but at least we can now say we’ve ridden our bikes and wheelchair in Ohio.  Tomorrow will be a more impressive day on the trial for us.

While at the brewery we discussed our highlights from this trip and talked about future adventures we’d like to embark on.  One highlight we all had was the C & O Trail which was built on top of what used to be the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Towpath.  While riding and talking about the C & O our interest was piqued to say the least, which has led us to research other towpaths we could visit and ride in the future.

In our research we found that most documents support the idea that towpaths originated in Britain in the 1700s.  However, we dug deep, real deep, maybe too deep and came across evidence to support the idea that towpaths may have originated in ancient Egypt.  Hieroglyphic carvings recently unearthed within the pyramids show images of animals pulling boats along a canal.  The weathering and aging of the images has led to some debate regarding the identification of these beasts of burden, but the consensus is they were camels.

In our pursuit to ride the towpaths of the world, we are hoping to visit Egypt, perhaps for Ian’s Ride 2024.  This would be the holy grail of towpaths.  If it doesn’t happen in 2024 we will continue our pursuit of the Egyptian camel tow path*. 

Over the past two weeks Dr. B, Jimmy, and I have spent a lot of time and logged a lot of miles on the trails on these eastern states.  Riding side by side with each other over 400 miles provides the opportunity for bonding you just don’t experience in other settings.  Throughout this journey we were inspired to give one another trail names.  We encourage our readers (that’s you!) to participate in a little game.  I will tell you our three trail names, and you try to determine which name belongs to Dr. B, Jimmy, and myself.  Please provide your best guess in the comment section.  Our trail names are Meadowlark, Quinoa, and Ringo.  

*Please note, due to poor judgment and too much beer there may be a few historic inaccuracies in the writing of this blog

Proud Partner of