The Amherst Spring/Old Braun Brewery

The entirety of the city of Amherst will be covered on a different post. Due to time constraints I was only able to visit one of the old structures at the edge of downtown, but it has a lot of historical significance, some of which I did not know about until this post.

12.5 Miles (Google Maps)

Huntington Reservation (Bay Village)

Today on Mike on a Bike errrr....Mike on Foot we will be exploring the Huntington Reservation in the city of Bay Village. If you are confused on why a city is called Bay Village, don't worry you are not alone. (it should be called just "Bay" now right?) Anyway my wife Sarah and I were at the Avon Lake dog park with our Wiener Dog Minnie and we decided to go exploring together! So maybe this post should be called Mike and Sarah on Foot Together with Their Wiener Dog Minnie....on second thought, that may be too long.

Anyway, we decided to take a walk through the Huntington Reservation in Bay Village, which is located on the lake in Cuyahoga County, just East of Lorain County.

The Huntington Reservation was purchased in 1927 from the original owner John Huntington. John Huntington brought over many unusual botanical specimens from Europe, many of which remain in the park today. The park is now run by the Cleveland Metroparks and features two parts, the beach area and the creek/wooded area. Today we walked through the wooded area by the creek. (Cleveland Metroparks)

Satellite Imagery of the park from Google Maps.

North Coast Inland Trail (Kipton to Elyria)

Today it was 79 degrees out, which is slightly warm for a bike ride, but I'm not going to complain. After the winter we have had I will take anything I can get. So since it was so nice out I decided to take a longer bike ride today on the North Coast Inland Trail.

The trail is 13 miles long in a straight line, so 26 miles total if you ride both ways. The trail is part of the Rails to Trails initiative, which turns old abandoned train tracks into bike paths. This trail was formerly part of the Toledo, Norwalk and Cleveland Railroad, which was constructed in 1851 to ship freight, lumber, coal, produce and passengers. Once the rail line hit Oberlin it turned into the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad (built in 1866) until it reached the city of Elyria. The tracks were abandoned in 1975 and in 1998 the Lorain County Metro Parks System, with the help of a federal grant opened the trail that now rests on these old lines. The trail actually runs from Toledo to Elyria, but some sections are still being built. (Lorain County Metro Parks)

I like to start and end my trip on this trail in the small village of Kipton.

So let us begin, shall we?

Nature Vs. Industry (Lorain Assembly Plant)

Remember when I told you that I would not post about Lorain for awhile? I lied, sorry. (Not really. It is my blog and I will do whatever I want. It's not all about you readers. So selfish.)

In 1958 the finishing touches were put on Lorain's third and final form of industrial growth, the Ford Assembly Plant. Actually, come to think of it when the plant was put into service it actually resided in Black River Township for about 6 years until it was annexed by the City of Lorain (for obvious reasons....money).

There aren't many pictures of the Lorain Assembly Plant, mainly because I imagine it isn't necessarily a historical structure, but it did play a big part in the local economy.

14.6 Miles (Google Maps)

East of the Black River (Lorain Part 2)

....and now the finale of the Black River posts. Sounds exciting, right?

In this post we will be exploring the East side of the Black River in Lorain.

The red line is the divider between West and East Lorain

So we will pick up where we left off, on the Charles Berry Bridge.

West of the Black River (Lorain Part 1)

Today I rode into the city of Lorain once again, but this time I had a few key structures and locations I wanted to take pictures of to give you some "then and now" shots. I promise that this will be the last post for a while about Lorain, even though it will be a 2 part post, and I will do my best to focus on other parts of the county in the near future. So let's start with my (now traditional) map of my route.

16.03 Miles (Lorain is divided East and West by the red line)

Today I finally managed to cross over to the East side of the Black River via the Charles Berry Bascule Bridge (which will be one of the main focuses of part 2 of this post.)

I will start posting photographs and facts from West to East so that you can see how my ride progressed.

Amherst Quarries Update

A good friend at work advised me that the building that was photographed in my Amherst Quarries ride could have possibly held a large saw that cut down the quarried sandstone into smaller pieces for transport or purchase. In fact, there was a building just to the south that used to contain one of these saws and where my friend used to pick up sandstone for masonry work.

The green circle used to be the main quarry building and where the large saw was that cut down the sandstone. The saw was about 10 feet tall.

First Ride of the Season/Amherst Quarries

The temperature was a cool 57 degrees today, but the sun was shining bright. It was time for the first official ride of the season. Today I decided to ride farther South than I usually do into the village of South Amherst, just South of (you guessed it) Amherst.

I wanted to get a few good shots of the Amherst Quarries before the leaves on the trees blocked the view. So first, as will be the norm on this blog from here on out, is the map of my route.

Ride was about an hour long with a few stops for  pictures