GOBA Day 4: New Philadelphia to Bolivar


Dan drove us back to New Philly for our longest ride of the week, 56 miles. If you are familiar with this part of Ohio, you know that Bolivar, the day's destination, is only 14 miles north of New Philly! So we started out riding south to Stone Creek, then northwest to Sugar Creek all before lunch.

The hill shown below was the most challenging of several that day, but turned out to be only the warmup for the following day's hills! Nearly all the people you see in this photo are walking their bikes, but Nancy, Bob and I rode completely up this and every other hill throughout the week!

Long steep hill outside Sugar Creek
Hill outside Sugar Creek starts at left then turns sharp right continuing upward!


The Sugar Creek lunch stop featured fresh Mennonite-made ice cream. Not to mention Troyer's Trail Bologna and local swiss cheese, which became a staple of our lunch fare.

Homemade ice cream in Sugar Creek
Ice cream turned by old gas engine in Sugar Creek


Piles of bikes at Sugar Creek lunch stop
Piles of bikes at Sugar Creek lunch stop


Amish farm outside Sugar Creek
Amish farm near Sugar Creek


The last leg of the route to Bolivar brought us to Zoar village. Zoar was a community of German Separatists, so called because they separated from the state church. They were great believers in equality and shared all cummunity resources. They became prosperous from the nearby Ohio and Erie canal and eventually dissolved the society. Many buildings and homes in the village have been restored. Julie's (from Wooster) great-grandfather was a Zoarite and his baseball uniform and bed are included in the village museum.

Zoar is the current southern end of the Towpath biking/hiking trail that starts in Cleveland. The trail itself is packed crushed limestone and is more suitable to hybrid or mountain bikes. Before leaving Zoar we enjoyed a cold Warsteiner in the village beer garden.

Nancy, Pete and Bob in Zoar
Nancy, Pete and Bob enjoying Warsteiner at the beer garden in Zoar


We finally arrived in Bolivar after 56 miles of riding, then set up camp for the bikes. Our host for the evening was Nancy's cousin Mark (Martha's oldest), who lives on a rural hillside between Bolivar and Zoar. Since Bolivar is pretty small and particularly crowded this night, we drove down to New Philly for dinner. A highlight was our pre-dinner ride in Mark's restored 1914 Model-T Ford.

Nancy gets her turn at the wheel
Cousin Mark supervises as Nancy gets her turn at the wheel of his Model-T


On to Day 5 >>
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