River cruise

Todays ride took me south along the Muskingum River south on St Rt 60 all the way to Marietta, Ohio. From there, I took St. Rt 26 northeast up to Woodsfield, Ohio and backtracked towards Zanesville to Newark.


View Larger Map

I started at 8am today with partly cloudy skies and temperature around 63 degrees, which was warm enough and only required wearing a light sweatshirt. By the time I reached Marietta, temperature had climbed to 84 degrees. Traffic was light all the way to Marietta.

Once in Marietta, I wandered around a bit doing some sightseeing, took some pics along the Ohio River, and then stopped & had lunch at the First Settlement Restaurant at 124 Putnam St in Marietta. I figured I'd steer away from the chain restaurants and try a hometown eatery. It was an old style restaurant with barstools that lined a very long lunch counter, in addition to booth & table seating. Lunch portion & food quality on a scale of 1-10 I rated at a 4. The food portion was small for the price paid and the quality was not what I had hoped for. Not a big deal, but not someplace I'd visit again.

Once lunch was out the way I topped off the tank on the Vulcan and made my way to St. Rt 26 and proceeded to head northeast toward Woodsfield. St Rt 26 is a very pretty drive with lots of twisties. I found this ride on OhioBikers.com. Roger "Gandalf" Davis sums up this ride perfectly.

"One of the best rides I've had is Rt. 26 between Marietta, OH and Woodsfield, OH. Better get gas either in Woodsfield or Marietta because there isn't much in between. Traffic is light. It's only about 1 1/2 hours but it goes through Wayne National Forest and has some beautiful scenery. The route follows the Little Muskingum River for part of the way. There are some beautiful reflections off the water of the surrounding trees. So you have the water on one side of the road and rock walls with ferns and greenery on the other, but don't look too long, there's a curve ahead just around the bend. Seriously, you are hardly out of sight of a yellow squiggly arrow sign. Take your time around the sweeping curves and slow down for the tight bends and you'll have an exhilarating ride."

I couldn't have stated any clearer. The bonus to the ride was when I came across two beautifully restored covered bridges, one of which was still in use for normal traffic (see slideshow above). This was the highlight of the trip coming across these historical gems, in addition to carving some serious twisties on a technically challenging road. I also happened upon a cable & wood suspension bridge (see slideshow above) which crossed the Little Muskingum River near Wingett Run. This is only the 2nd suspension bridge I've ever discovered and walked upon, although I would use discretion on this bridge because the timbers used have seen better days and are suspect to cross.

After I reached Woodsfield, Ohio and meandered across country back to Zanesville and on to Newark where I finished the day enjoying a Hazelnut Latte at Twilight Coffee in downtown Newark before going to watch my daughter Paige's softball game at Mound City baseball park (they won 16-5 and are now in 1st place in the league).
A fine day of traveling on my Vulcan and putting exactly 300 miles on the bike today. Not bad for 1 day of riding.