On a recent ride this fall, heading out of the eastern side of Cincinnati through Mariemont toward (I thought) Round Bottom Rd., I stumbled upon the entrance to a mixed-use trail on Newtown Rd. I had just wrestled my way through some traffic construction hardware on Wooster Pike, and was weary of cars, so the promise of a trailway intrigued me. Frankly, so did the promise of flat pavement — my Minnesota-trained (and currently out-of-shape) legs had been suffering the relative hilliness of our lovely valleys for some time, and I was relishing some good ol’ pancake-flat straightaways.
Soon after turning onto the path, I started to see numbers painted beneath me; quickly discerning that they were 1/2 mile markers, I was astonished to realize I was at the far end of 55 miles of paved pathway! Friends and family have been telling me for some time about the great rails-to-trails path system being linked up here and there, but it wasn’t until I was on the path that I realized the magnitude of the system.
Well, in truth, it wasn’t until I returned home and did a little internet sleuthing that I realized that even now I didn’t know the magnitude of it. The Little Miami Scenic Trail currently boasts 76 miles of continuous trail between Yellow Springs and Milford (actually, the Little Miami Golf Center in Terrace Park), and plans are to connect the path to Lunken Airport and eventually downtown Cincinnati.
My ride that day was just before the recent rains; it was a beautiful autumn day, and for long straight sections of the path I had no company but the beautiful fall foliage arching over the path. It was peaceful enough that it took some effort to determine that Wooster Pike, with its heavy traffic and 50 mph speed limit, was just on the other side of those trees. And soon enough I was winding next to the Little Miami River itself, enjoying the warm sun’s reflection off the rolling waters. To cap the experience, on my way back to the trailhead on Newtown Rd., a deer — a full-grown doe — burst out of the trees on my left, ran next to me for about 100 yards, then eased ahead of me and leapt across the path (and, to my initial dismay, across Wooster Pike, serendipitously free of traffic for the moment).
The Little Miami Scenic Trail is a local treasure for outdoor recreation. It promises many things to walkers, runners, rollerbladers, and cyclists of all stripes: the ability to escape urban congestion without going way out of town; a place to exercise away from automotive traffic; an easy route out of town to less congested roads for longer rides; and a pastoral avenue for the adventurous to pedal their way to Yellow Springs, Xenia, and other points far and wide.
Connecting it to downtown, which seems inevitable now (knock on wood), could add another important promise to that list: safe, convenient bike-commuter access to the city for employees as far away as Milford. Longer-term, as Advocate Blog suggests, “[s]upporting members of city council hope this will be the first step in extending the trail to the West Side and the Mill Creek Valley.”
Finally, uniting the East and West Sides of Cincinnati.
In the past month, we’ve ridden the trail from Newtown to Xenia, and agree that it’s a great place to ride!