The Bridge of Dreams crosses the Mohican River in Brinkhaven and at 370 feet is Ohio’s longest covered bridge. It serves as a trailhead for the 4.5 mile long Mohican Valley Trail to Danville. It also will one-day help link with the Holmes County Trail.
THE BIKE TRAIL THAT ISN’T—
Recently my cycling companions and I explored further the abandoned railroad bed that one day will connect the current end of the Holmes County Bike Trail in Killbuck with the Mohican Valley Trail that runs from Brinkhaven to Danville.
On your map this hilly, rural, Amish-flavored area lies at the intersection of Knox, Holmes and Coshocton Counties of Ohio.
Coming from Millersburg to the north, the Holmes trail now ends abruptly in Killbuck. That is a very nice, fairly level ride on pavement the entire way.
A crushed gravel trail heads the other way toward a someday-connection with Killbuck, but
, today ends in Brinkhaven. That segment called the Mohican Valley Trail begins in Danville just 4.5 miles away. (See the blog dated September 13, 2007 for a discussion on that ride.)
On the ride that led to this story we traveled that segment again then continued on to Glenmont another 8 challenging miles over this abandoned Pennsylvania RR bed that is mostly crushed cinders, somewhat hilly, virtually closed in 2 places and used almost exclusively by Amish buggies.
We certainly didn’t see any other bicycles.
After the Bridge of Dreams in Brinkhaven the buggy trail ends in a muddy quagmire before it crosses US 62 just east of Brinkhaven. To avoid that problem we hopped across that US highway near the covered bridge, wiggled through Brinkhaven’s surface streets which led us back to a short sprint on that highway followed by a quick exit left on the next township road which led to an unmarked turn back onto the abandoned RR bed—mostly visible as buggy tracks through the weeds on the right.
It is a little over 3 miles from Brinkhaven to the intersection of the trail with Holmes County Road 75. The trail’s surface elevation at the covered bridge is 870 feet MSL and you will have climbed to an elevation of 1,140 feet at the county road junction—where the second closed section occurs.
We eased west just 100 yards or so there and turned north on township road #14 which dips fairly sharply downhill with a challenging gravel surface where, within a quarter mile, you can rejoin the old RR bed, visible to the right.
From there it is a continuous downhill ride through heavy forest to Glenmont, about 4 ½ miles distant. A mountain bike with good tires is very much the correct bike for this entire adventure. Our main challenge on this segment was negotiating a logging operation as we neared Glenmont.
We also were very much aware of having to ascend this same grade going back while we began to wonder just how much further Glenmont was. That segment falls from the 1,140 elevation mentioned above to 881 feet MSL in Glenmont.
Some old timers sitting on a porch near the Glenmont Tavern told me about the railroad needing helper engines to give the trains a boost up the very grade we had just descended. That wasn’t encouraging news.
The four of us spanned the ages from the mid 60s to the early 70s and we logged about 25 miles for the round trip—Danville to Glenmont and back.
Someday this section of bicycle trail will help connect Cleveland with Cincinnati as plans currently exist.
I hope they hurry!
THE BIKE TRAIL THAT ISN’T—
Recently my cycling companions and I explored further the abandoned railroad bed that one day will connect the current end of the Holmes County Bike Trail in Killbuck with the Mohican Valley Trail that runs from Brinkhaven to Danville.
On your map this hilly, rural, Amish-flavored area lies at the intersection of Knox, Holmes and Coshocton Counties of Ohio.
Coming from Millersburg to the north, the Holmes trail now ends abruptly in Killbuck. That is a very nice, fairly level ride on pavement the entire way.
A crushed gravel trail heads the other way toward a someday-connection with Killbuck, but
, today ends in Brinkhaven. That segment called the Mohican Valley Trail begins in Danville just 4.5 miles away. (See the blog dated September 13, 2007 for a discussion on that ride.)On the ride that led to this story we traveled that segment again then continued on to Glenmont another 8 challenging miles over this abandoned Pennsylvania RR bed that is mostly crushed cinders, somewhat hilly, virtually closed in 2 places and used almost exclusively by Amish buggies.
We certainly didn’t see any other bicycles.
After the Bridge of Dreams in Brinkhaven the buggy trail ends in a muddy quagmire before it crosses US 62 just east of Brinkhaven. To avoid that problem we hopped across that US highway near the covered bridge, wiggled through Brinkhaven’s surface streets which led us back to a short sprint on that highway followed by a quick exit left on the next township road which led to an unmarked turn back onto the abandoned RR bed—mostly visible as buggy tracks through the weeds on the right.
It is a little over 3 miles from Brinkhaven to the intersection of the trail with Holmes County Road 75. The trail’s surface elevation at the covered bridge is 870 feet MSL and you will have climbed to an elevation of 1,140 feet at the county road junction—where the second closed section occurs.
We eased west just 100 yards or so there and turned north on township road #14 which dips fairly sharply downhill with a challenging gravel surface where, within a quarter mile, you can rejoin the old RR bed, visible to the right.
From there it is a continuous downhill ride through heavy forest to Glenmont, about 4 ½ miles distant. A mountain bike with good tires is very much the correct bike for this entire adventure. Our main challenge on this segment was negotiating a logging operation as we neared Glenmont.
We also were very much aware of having to ascend this same grade going back while we began to wonder just how much further Glenmont was. That segment falls from the 1,140 elevation mentioned above to 881 feet MSL in Glenmont.
Some old timers sitting on a porch near the Glenmont Tavern told me about the railroad needing helper engines to give the trains a boost up the very grade we had just descended. That wasn’t encouraging news.
The four of us spanned the ages from the mid 60s to the early 70s and we logged about 25 miles for the round trip—Danville to Glenmont and back.
Someday this section of bicycle trail will help connect Cleveland with Cincinnati as plans currently exist.
I hope they hurry!
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