| Places
to ride around Athens & Southeastern Ohio
They’re everywhere! (Places to ride around Athens and Southeastern
Ohio, that is.) Some of us choose to live here, in part, because inside
of a half-hour we can get home from work and be out on the road or in
the woods. Proximity isn’t the only lure — it’s incredibly
good riding, too.
The following descriptions and links will introduce you to some of our
favorite places to ride. We know you’ll have fun exploring them
for yourselves. Of course, feel free to pick our brains about the trails
and roads you don’t want to miss.
Lake Hope
State Park
-(map
and trail notes)
Back in 1998, several members of Athens
Bicycle Club (a local cycling organization), including Athens Bicycle
owner Pete Kotses, stopped complaining about the fact that
Ohio has few legal mountain bike trails and did something about it.
With the blessing of officials at Lake Hope State Park near Zaleski,
Ohio (about 20 min. from Athens), the group began to build single-track
mountain bike trails. They started with a spur off of the only existing
mountain bike trail at the park, Little Sandy (approx. 2 miles long).
Today, there are more than 23 miles of dedicated mountain bike trails.
ABC member Malcolm Idleman has headed up the majority of these trailbuilding
efforts, and we are grateful to him for spearheading the work.
Check out this map
of the Lake Hope trails as well as these trail
notes, then hit the trails! Check in at Athens Bicycle for updates
and information on new trails, trail conditions and upcoming trailbuilding
and maintenance days. It’s an ongoing project and we're always
looking for volunteers.
Sells
Park & Strouds Run State Park (Athens Trail Network)
Thanks to the Athens Trail Network, from Sells Park at the city's
center you can now ride trails all the way to, through and beyond
Strouds
Run
State
Park. Although just a few years ago it was illegal to ride at both
Sells
and
Strouds, bikes are
now
allowed on many of the trails in both parks. People who used to
live and mountain bike in Athens are always shocked
to
hear this, but it's true and it's GREAT! Strouds Run park management
has even allowed Athens Bicycle Club to build new trails at
the park. Local cyclist Kaleb
McCutcheon, who died of cancer on July
3, 2006, headed up that effort and left us with the fantastic trails
Thunderbunny and Sundown. Work will continue to complete his vision
for trails at the park. Thank him while you're out there by having
a good time on the trails. In Sells Park, the
city
of
Athens
is
heading
up
improvement
of trails -- including maintenance of existing trails and construction
of new trails. Visit ABC's
site for a map
of the Athens
Trail Network (you'll find it under the heading for Strouds Run).
Hockhocking
Adena Bikeway
Athens County is proud of its 16-mile, paved bikeway. Running between
Athens and Nelsonville, the shaded path offers a break from hills,
traffic
and the sun.
Our Fabulous
Roads
If you like road riding, Southeastern Ohio is a great place
to be. Our staff has pedaled into every nook and cranny of Athens and
its surrounding counties. Stop in if you want some road riding suggestions.
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