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Assorted Bob Fitness Bob

Bike ride to Nelsonville

I took advantage of a gorgeous morning to ride up to Nelsonville and back on the Adena Hockhocking Bike Trail. This is a quick video of one of my favorite sections. The ride takes you along the Hocking River, the Ohio University Campus, Hocking College and then into Nelsonville. It ranges from sunny stretches to tree-lined stretches like this.

Rode a total of almost 38 miles at an average speed of just over 15 mph. Having a tough time getting the average higher than that.

Route for ride to Nelsonville and back

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Assorted Bob Fitness Bob

Milestone …

Bike Ride on the Adena Hockhocking Bike Trail
Bike Ride on the Adena Hockhocking Bike Trail

On Wednesday, I went for a bike ride on the Adena Hockhocking bike trail. It was about 24 miles roundtrip, but I managed to keep an average speed of 15 mph, my fastest yet. Since I started trying to get back in shape, I’ve lost four pounds and my daily step counts are averaging about 15,000. That’s a big improvement over last winter, when I often struggled to get to 10k. I’ve even clocked a 30,000 step day. Best of all, I’ve discovered several great trails and I’m exploring Ohio. Now if I can just keep it up throughout the summer …

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Fitness Bob Paddle Bob

Testing, 1, 2, 3 …

The route for my ride as recorded by the Trails app.
The route for my ride as recorded by the Trails app.

I’ve been using the Cyclemeter app to track my rides, but a recent Wall Street Journal story listed several other activity apps that are worth a look, including Trails. I like Cyclemeter, but it’s just for cycling; Trails tracks a range of activities, including hiking.

So I downloaded Trails (it costs about $5/year) and set off on my bike to check it out. Overall, I was happy with it. It gives me pretty much what I was getting with Cyclemeter and allows me to use it for hiking and kayaking, too. For the ride, I headed out toward the Eclipse Company Town at The Plains. It was a great afternoon for a ride, though some ominous clouds were circling. No rain on this parade, though.

Love this place. It's on the bike path right before a beautiful, shaded stretch starts en route to The Plains. Apparently, they're now selling greens and eggs ... though I'm not confident the eggs would make it back with me.
Love this place. It’s on the bike path right before a beautiful, shaded stretch en route to The Plains. Apparently, they’re now selling greens and eggs … though I’m not confident the eggs would make it back with me.

Highlight of the ride was north of Eclipse when a yearling doe jumped onto the bike path about 100 yards ahead of me and turned north when she saw me. I followed her for about a minute or two. I kept pace with her but didn’t want to gain on her for fear of scaring her into doing something that would result in an injury. After running along for a bit, she veered off the trail and into the woods. On the way back, I came up on a four-foot blacksnake crossing the path. He was completely unfazed as I steered into the grass to avoid running him over …

The bike ride was about 16 miles roundtrip and left me pretty happy with Trails so I decided to try it out for paddling.

My route on Dow Lake via the Trails app
My route on Dow Lake via the Trails app

I got to Stroud’s Run at about 11 a.m. just as the kayak rental place was opening. For $10/hour I got the largest non-tandem kayak I could find (an Old Town Heron XT that looked to be about 12 feet and definitely had seen better days). I put the boat in near the beach, started the Trails app and started paddling around Dow Lake, essentially circumnavigating it during the next couple of hours.

After three or four strokes I was reminded how much I miss paddling. Saw a couple of herons while I was out and a river otter, which is always a treat. The otter went under as soon as he saw me but then surfaced and hung around near the riverbank for a while as I watched from 10 or so feet away.

Pasddling up Stroud's Run, which feeds into Dow Lake.
Pasddling up Stroud’s Run, which feeds into Dow Lake.

For the most part, I had the lake to myself. A couple was out in a paddleboat and an angler was working the area near the dam, but I didn’t see anyone else on the water till I paddled back to the boat rental area, where a small navy of kayaks and canoes was heading out for an after lunch paddle. All in, I paddled 5 miles, which wasn’t bad for the first time I’ve been out in about a year.

After these two tryouts I decided to switch to Trails. While it sacrifices some of the granularity that Cyclemeter has, I really like being able to use it for multiple activities. And I’m not so hardcore that I need to go big data here. I’m mostly looking for info on distance traveled, average speed and area covered, all of which Trails provides.

Paddling Dow Lake
Paddling Dow Lake