Detroit to Cleveland: 230 miles, 3 days

Either I can't count, or something is wrong with my maps. I made it to Cleveland after 81, 76, and 71-mile days of riding, which was a lot more than I really wanted to do. I'm amazed how three long days like this leaves you not only sore but kind of cranky. But it was a beautiful ride through three picture-perfect late summer days.

Pace Brendan's comment below, Detroit is getting a little more bike-friendly. Behold: the Dequindre Cut bike 'path', more like a highway.

The Dequindre Cut was famous in its many abandoned years as a gallery for some of the best graf pieces in the city. They've made the decision to leave them, mostly. It's a great ride, about 2 miles from Eastern Market down to the water near the Atwater Brewery. Not technically open yet, but the construction guys were literally pouring the last 3 feet of concrete as I rode by.

Southwest Detroit: Trucks and giant industrial things. Cycling hell but pretty in a Blade Runner kind of way.

Downriver is a mysterious area. You have little towns like Wyandotte here, with thought-provoking special offers, followed by cornfields studded with industrial plants that look like they might be closed, but then maybe not. Sort of metaphorical for Michigan's economy, I guess.

The above is in Trenton, a crossroads on the landward side of Grosse Isle. South of here is really country, with some nice parks/wildlife refuges. I rode out and took a break at the mouth of Lake Erie:

If you look to the right, however, you see the stacks of the Fermi 2 nuke plant. South of here, it was cornfields pretty much to the state line. Stopped in Monroe, a cute but somewhat forlorn town. George Armstrong Custer's wife was from there, apparently. That, and a nearby battle with the Canadians in the war of 1812, seem to have been the high points of civic life. The guys at the local bike shop were great, and let me stash my ride while I consumed a gigantic grinder. 

The state line is also the Toledo limit, and the farms abruptly transition into suburbs - sort of an urban growth boundary.

I finally made it, 80 weary miles later and just shy of sunset, to Maumee Bay state park, about 10 miles east of Toledo. 

I want to get out and spend a little time loafing around Cleveland, so the rest gets short shrift. 

Wednesday was an overly long cruise through empty, quiet cornfields, into the wind and slightly uphill the whole way. So quiet that I couldn't find anywhere to get food for 40 miles. Four small towns and no gas stations, diners, restaurants, nothing. (Except feed stores, perhaps.) But beautiful:

 

Thursday: 70 miles along the Lake Erie shore, through quiet beach towns and suburbs. US 6 is actually a nice cycling road! (Though as soon as you hit the Cuyahoga County line, the pavement gets all crappy.) Only major challenge was the drawbridge being up in Lorain, and an unpleasant 3 mile detour to the south.

Surprisingly, I felt stronger as the afternoon wore on, and made it to Len and Dottie's place in University Heights late but not that late. It is a cruel thing, however, for the last 5 miles of the day to be uphill.

I'm leaving you for now with just a glimpse of Cleveland. I have a whole raft of praises to sing for its waterfront bike path, but I'll leave that for next time!