If you worry about congestion, development, traffic and other manmade scourges, you owe yourself a bicycle ride on the Little Miami Scenic Trail.
Biking in the city of Cincinnati is becoming a friendlier proposition, and the city has slowly come around in giving bicyclists a share of the road. Bike lanes have been created on long stretches of Riverside Drive, Madison Road/Martin Luther King Drive and the viaducts between Price Hill and downtown. The city has more than 20 miles of bike lanes in all.
Still, too many drivers don’t get it that bicycles belong on streets, not sidewalks. Too many drivers are careless around bikes and sideswipe them off the road or cut in front of them. Some, I would swear, have it in for bikes and hit them out of sheer malice.
This is what the Little Miami Scenic Trail is for — 75 miles of biking bliss. Other than a few stretches, the paved lanes go where cars and trucks can’t, from Newtown north to Springfield. It generally runs alongside the Little Miami River, crossing it at one point north of Milford on a dedicated bike bridge. It connects often enough with a town to treat riders to hot food, and even an occasional microbrewery.
The trail passes farms, horse trails, woods, a cemetery, a quarry, a shooting range and, in Loveland, a record store, if you have a basket wide enough for vinyl. Many stretches of the trail are heavily shaded, especially the southernmost leg from Newtown to Camp Dennison. The rare encounters with traffic, at crossings, serve as reminders of the off-road solitude.
On a recent Sunday, I rode the nine-mile section from Milford to Loveland and back. Late morning temperatures below 60 degrees and a paucity of sunshine probably explained the lighter-than-usual weekend turnout on the trail. After a mile of pedaling, though, the temperature proved to be perfect. And the absence of heat spared me from bringing a water bottle. Besides, my riding partner and I were saving our thirst for a cold brew in Loveland.
Bikes were provided by Bishop’s Bicycles in Milford. We rented 21-inch Jamis Coda Sports for $20; good for all day. Bishop’s is in town, a quarter mile from the trail, but this month expects to have a refreshment and bike rental station at the nearby trail portal on U.S. 50. Business was light on that nippy Sunday morning, but store manager Jonathan Jennings said riding the trail has become “super popular.”
“A lot more families are getting out there and riding,” Jennings says. “It’s something other to do in Cincinnati. As you get farther out, a lot of the little towns that are on the trail are starting to develop more because of the popularity of it.”
The lighter turnout that Sunday allowed us to ride side-by-side farther than usual. On a hotter weekend day, faster riders will ring their bells or shout “On your left” before whizzing by. And oncoming groups of bikes ordinarily make it necessary to stay on your side of the trail. The trail is also popular with runners, Roller Bladers, three-wheeled bikes and young children on an assortment of wheeled vehicles.
Serious bike riders will go 30 or 50 miles on the Little Miami. Some will take connecting trails to Columbus and, with occasional portages on back roads, to Cleveland. Yellow Springs is a popular destination, as is the hilly, heavily wooded stretch between Morrow and Waynesville.
For us, Loveland did the job. The round-trip took about three and a half hours, counting a lunch break in Loveland. And this being my first ride of the year, 20 miles was long enough.
Loveland is a natural stopping point on the trail. It’s also a self-contained fitness course for people who live in the Loveland area. Both Montgomery Cyclery and Loveland Bike Rental are a stone’s throw from the trail, as is Bob Roncker’s Running Spot. As we approached the town, the relative isolation of the trail gave way to a bike-friendly community that clearly embraces the outdoors. Not only were there public restrooms on the town’s portion of the trail, but a free bike repair stand and air pump.
Unfortunately for us, the Narrow Path Brewing Co. was closed that Sunday afternoon. We each settled for a 17-ounce can of Schöfferhofer grapefruit beer and an excellent curried chicken salad from nearby Trailside Smokehouse, which is so reliant on Little Miami passersby that it closes from Halloween to Easter. The beer proved to be the ideal beverage to take the edge off without making us wobbling menaces on the return trip.
“I would say 90 percent of our business comes from the trail,” says Amy Staiger, Trailside’s front house manager. “I do have a lot of regulars, but I would say pretty much all of it for the most part is people passing through.”
“I’ve had people bike as far down from Columbus,” she continues. “I had someone yesterday walking across the country from California. So you see anyone and everyone.
“We love it. They’re always friendly — and they’re always thirsty, so that’s good.”
This article appears in May 3-10, 2017.
