Hocking Hills Heater

Good turnout for Saturday's COP Roving Ride out of Clearcreek Metro Park, south of Lancaster.  Including a couple from India who apparently showed up on cross bikes, maybe did or did not have helmets and never made it up the first climb at the start but always good to have new people out.  Come better prepared next time.  At the rest stop in Logan, this produced a variety of "My first organized bike ride" stories with Dennis winning the prize for a graphic portrayal of throwing up frequently.

All the usual suspects were there, Nathan (he may be opening up a west coast office for the blog later this year), Dennis, Flyin Tuna, Da Boss, Kenda Janet & Paul, Jeff S, etc..... Here, Steve H gives out warnings about which roads are marginal and where are the danger spots.

Steve O and Dustin rode down from Carroll, adding around 50 miles to the route.  Oh, George was there too but thankfully too far away for me to hear the usual, "How long you gonna hang with me today?" barbs.  Mark C and David S here too.

We depart, riding up Starner as our warm up, ouch.  We were motoring out Buena Vista, following a few people in front of us and passed Opossum Hollow on the right, continuing all the way to #33.  This produced some head scratching, blaming and then we all turned around, Dennis, Brian, Mitch O, Flyin Tuna, Nathan and Dan.  Not a bad group with whom to be lost and tanking behind the rest of the field.  We got back on the route, down O H, turning right on 374 and enduring that nice long climb up to Cantwell Cliffs, out to 180, making a right and then a quick left on Mount Olive.  This had been freshly sealed with kind of thick gravel, Mount Olive is fairly steep and then I thought I heard someone unclip so, so too did I, thinking we were going to push our bikes up this stretch. Opps, my mistake and they all quickly disappeared up the hill.  Oh well, not the first time I've pushed my bike and I'm something of an expert anyway.  

The gang was waiting for me at #678 where we turned left then a right on a freshly paved Kreashbaum, taking it to Big Pine then a right on Black Jack, left on #664, right on Savings Hollow (yes, we were way out in the boonies) eventually on to something called Goat Run Honey Fork Road, Nickel Plate and on into Logan.

Here we took a welcome break, regrouped with some other stragglers including the Kendaites, Brad & Scott and others.  The balance of the ride was a blur of climbs, climbs and more climbing on some neat roads before we entered Sugar Grove.  Being so close to the famous Chickencoop and Savage climbs, I left the group to add a few miles going up Savage, down Carpenter then up Chickencoop, and then back via Bauman  and Crawfis.  I stayed seated up both climbs to monitor the Garmin and it popped 24% on both climbs.  I got back on the route, going up Pump Station , on to Bunker Hill and finally back to the parking lot.  Great route.  Finished with 74 miles and 5600' of climbing.  I think the main route was 56 miles.