A NOVEMBER BIKE RIDE--
Will December also be as kind?

A culvert under state route 83 near Holmesville, OH colorfully frames biking friends Nancy and Mark Meinzer as well as my lady Sue Brooks as we head north on the Holmes County Bike Trail from Millersburg to Fredericksburg.

Sue smiles (right) because the Village Car and Buggy Wash in the latter town serves another function as well.

Our ride that early and warm November day was a 20 mile round-trip on this dandy, multi-use trail where bicycles and Amish buggies share the right-of-way.  Buggies are confined to one side of the trail for obvious reasons.

Regardless, there often is gentle eye contact and a modest wave shared when "English" folks on their bicycles roll by our clip-clopping travel companions.

This trail now extends from Killbuck in Holmes County through Millersburg to Fredericksburg in Wayne Co., a distance of about 16 miles.  When finished it will extend from Killbuck through Glenmont to Brinkhaven where it will connect with the Mohican Valley Trail near Brinkhaven.

One day it will be a link in a continuous bike trail from Cincinnati to Cleveland.

Meanwhile it is unique as the first trail in the US to accommodate horse and buggies as well as more traditional trail users. That distinction happens here because Holmes County also is home to the largest Amish population in the country. 

The noise of highway traffic sometimes assaults the ears and makes Amish and English riders alike grateful for this travel route.

More often the trail is accompanied by the splashing of creeks which share its course through idyllic pastures and quiet woodlands.

My companions make a nicely timed passage on the trail (below, top left) as I compose the photo of a beaver dam which flooded a small tributary into an aquatic home for countless basking turtles who also were enjoying our sunny and warm fall day.