Overview

The topography of Southwestern Ohio is dominated by two rivers, the Great Miami to the west, and the Little Miami to the east, both of which flow from north to south, emptying into the Ohio River near Cincinnati.

Though in the current geologic era the meandering and usually docile Great Miami is not nearly as impressive as its name might suggest, the valley that it has carved is quite broad, and features appreciable grades on either side.  At one time it was a navigable watercourse, and numerous commercial and industrial settlements, including Dayton, Middletown, and Hamilton, sprang up along its banks.  For a time, water traffic shifted to the Miami-Erie Canal.  Later, it gravitated to the faster modes of railroad, trucking, and aviation.  The canal fell into disuse, and flood control effectively closed the Great Miami for transportation purposes.  Moreover, current fluctuation and pollution have often necessitated restrictions on swimming and food-fishing.  However, dammed sections of the river are still well used for recreational boating.

The Little Miami is the less utilitarian, but by far the more scenic, of the two streams. It winds between steep, wooded hills, encountering the industrialized world only at isolated points. Being a relatively small stream draining a large area, of course, it exhibits rather drastic mood swings, from the angry torrents of spring to the lazy flow of late summer.  The Little Miami kisses communities like Spring Valley, Waynesville, Morrow, Kings Mills, Loveland, and Milford.  It brushes by Fort Ancient, mysterious and ancient home of the mound-building Hopewell, who vanished long before European settlers arrived.  And just south of Oregonia, the stream passes under the highest bridge in the state of Ohio, the spidery twin steel spans of Interstate 71.

The Miami Valley is a wonderfully varied place to ride a bicycle.  Even in the heat and humidity of summer, there is usually restful shade to be found.  While there are no mountains in this area, the river valley grades are challenging enough.  If you love hills, you ride east-west; if you hate hills, you ride north-south; it's as simple as that.

Following is a cyclist's-eye view of some of the communities within easy biking distance of my home port of Middletown.

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Boldface indicates population of 25,000 or more.
Italics indicate direct access to intercity bikeways.

Middletown is so named for its location, the town roughly midway between Dayton and Cincinnati, Ohio.  Its main industries are steel (AK, formerly Armco), paper (several companies), and (until recently) aviation (Aeronca).  Middletown boasts an impressive airport (if only private and corporate traffic) for a town its size, with a remarkable fleet of classic DC-3s still in private service.

But while industry is thriving, the downtown area has been in protracted crisis for several decades.  Bus and railroad passenger traffic, which helped build and sustain the downtown district, shriveled and died in the 1960s.  Though still served by three state highways, the bulk of the city's motor (and hence consumer) traffic has also evaporated, sucked out by Interstate 75, five miles to the east.  Most of the major stores in town have either moved out to where the traffic is, or closed down altogether, leaving the city fathers scratching their heads in bewildered despair.  One ambitious plan of the 1970s was to turn the city center into an enclosed shopping mall.  But while it afforded a heated and air-conditioned shelter for social derelicts, City Centre Mall was an aesthetic disaster, a dreary and unpleasant place to be.  Simply putting a roof over a street and sticking a fountain in what used to be its main intersection, it turned out, was not sufficient to attract business away from the area's new main transportation artery.

Now this exercise in futility has finally been pulled down.  It remains to be seen what effects, if any, that "daylighting" the district will have on business and ambience.  Perhaps someday, downtown Middletown could become viable as a historical district, with the cosmetic restoration of a portion of the canal and the old horse-drawn streetcar operation, and a nostalgic sprucing up of stores.  But, boom town or ghost town, now that the rubble has been cleared and the pavement restored, at least Central Avenue is once again be a nice, straight shot through the city for cyclists—if we can tolerate all the traffic lights.

• EMERGENCY: Middletown Police on Reinartz between Verity and Main; Middletown Hospital on Sherman Av.
• FOOD: several restaurants along N. Verity and S. Breiel
• CYCLERY: S. Verity at Second
• PHONE: front of Ameritech bldg, 1505 Central

I don't know much about Camden, except that it's a farm town located along Seven Mile Creek and US-127, where SR-725 intersects.  There is also a secondary road to get there; it's long, virtually flat, and decently shaded in spots, with light traffic – which is to say, a super biking road, as long as the wind isn't too stiff.  That it happens to lie parallel to Norfolk Southern tracks for several miles is an added attraction to this railfan.

Centerville features some respectable bike shops and eateries.  Nowadays, it also features stupendous traffic, thanks to end-to-end shopping malls and the I-675 Dayton bypass.  Moreover, to get there from Middletown, there is no avoiding the need for a little hill-climbing.  However, I've found Crain's Run Road to be one of the least taxing routes winding up the eastern side of the Great Miami Valley.  This narrow, curvy lane discourages fast motor traffic, and has the added benefit that much of the uphill side is shaded during the summer.  From Social Row Road between Austin Pike and SR-48, most any two-lane road intersecting on the north will, in about 1½ miles, lead you to the pleasures and perils of the bustling Miamisburg - Centerville strip mall with a minimum of traffic.

Last time I checked, Schoolhouse Park was outside Centerville proper, but it is sure to be engulfed in the sprawl presently.  It has water, restrooms, parking, and (if I'm not mistaken) a snack bar – not to mention hot-and-cold running yuppies.

• WATER, RESTROOMS: Schoolhouse Park
• FOOD: in town at several restaurants
• CYCLERY: in town: K&G on W. Franklin; Bike Source at Cross Pointe Center

(Direct access to Centerville downtown from Schoolhouse Park via Nutt Rd. and SR-48.)

Dayton, Ohio:  home of the Wright Brothers, Wright-Patterson Air Force Museum, Wright State University, and the Wright Wride Weekend.

The Wright place to be, quite evidently.
The gods be thanked, not Dayton, Tennessee!*

*Site of the infamous Scopes "monkey" trial in 1925.
[Okay, I admit I ain't no poet.  So let's see what you can do with anapestic tetrameter!]

Located near the source of Seven Mile Creek, Eaton is the Preble County seat, and home of Fort Saint Clair Park.  Considering its relatively small size, Eaton is a bustling community, situated as it is at the junction of US-35, US-127, SR-122, SR-355, and SR-732, as well as the Norfolk Southern Railway.

There isn't a great deal of interest in Farmersville, unless you're seriously into grain and feed, or finding places to get lost.  But it's a pleasant enough little town to bike through, lying in the midst of a fairly broad expanse of flat-to-gently-rolling terrain with low-traffic roads.

• FOOD: Gerrard's Bakery & Cafe on Center St.

This state park is the site of an ancient mound-building civilization designated the Hopewell.  Fort Ancient overlooks the Little Miami River from the east.  While some cyclists are brave enough to attempt the fearsome switchbacks and grades into and out of the valley along SR-350, the majority prefer to breeze through on the Little Miami Scenic Trail.

In one way, Franklin could almost be regarded as a natural feature of the Great Miami River.  Due to its location on one of the meandering waterway's many bends, most of the city's streets run at near 45-degree angles to the more common north-south, east-west orientation.  Perhaps Franklin's most notable landmark (from the cyclist's standpoint, at least) is the Second Street bridge, a two-lane concrete structure with a pair of life-size lions guarding each end.  When the bridge's condition was approaching critical some years ago, there were plans to demolish and replace it.  Happily, an alternative plan was devised, to divert the heaviest through traffic to a new bridge upstream, while the historic lions' home was carefully restored.

Although Franklin is not overtly bicycle-oriented, it is fairly bike-friendly, in that the bulk of through traffic is nowadays channeled along Riley Boulevard and East Second Street. This leaves the rest of the city, including the four-block-long downtown area, relatively free of heavy traffic.  One bicycle hazard, however, is the railroad track running along the center of Sixth Street between Main and River.  Crossing this track on a bicycle requires jogging perpendicular to normal traffic, to avoid catching tires in the flangeways.  It is therefore best to allow other traffic (which is usually light) to clear before attempting the maneuver.

Franklin is home to a paper mill, a recycling plant, and a couple of roofing companies.  All very prosperous, but it used to be that, when the wind was wrong, we could smell it five miles away in Middletown.  Fortunately, a higher power finally prevailed upon the abusers to clean up their act for the benefit of those who live in the area.  It would seem that, contrary to populist dogma, Free Enterprise isn't entirely perfect, and Big Government isn't completely evil.

• EMERGENCY: Franklin Police & Fire, Riley at Fourth
• SNACK: near depot on Sixth St.
• BIKEWAY ACCESS: River Corridor Bikeway at Crain's Run Park, about 1 mi. north on Dixie.

As its name implies, Germantown was founded by a German settler.  It features numerous historical sites, including covered bridges and a grist mill.  Germantown is also the site of a large earthen dam on Twin Creek.  The dam is a component of the Miami Conservancy District's flood control, and it also serves as a focus for a pleasantly wooded park.

Often, our cycling tours do not take us into Germantown itself.  We usually skirt the southern edge of the town along Astoria and Mudlick Roads, making a compulsory stop at the five-way intersection in Sunbury.

• WATER, RESTROOM: Germantown Dam Reserve Park
• SHELTER: Astoria Rd. athletic field
• SNACK: in town on Market St.

Located in Preble County, Gratis is a small farming community at the intersection of SR-122, SR-503, and SR-725.  Cyclists generally prefer nearby lower-traffic byways, such as Auckerman Creek, Gratis, and Kinsey Roads.  Unfortunately, Gratis's small maze of streets, with red and yellow flashing lights, seems deliberately arranged so as to confuse inexperienced passers-through.  Fortunately, there is at least one service station where you can pick up a snack and ask directions—if you can find it.

Situated on the eastern bank of the Great Miami River, Hamilton is the Butler County seat.  Like Middletown, Hamilton has constructed a section of bikeway along the riverbank, in the hope that these isolated stretches will eventually be linked into an expanded River Bikeway leading all the way from Dayton to Cincinnati.

There isn't much to Jacksonburg.  It's mainly just a name to identify an intersection, a few farms, a store, and a church.  But it's a different place to bike to, when you get tired of the same old scenery and feel like climbing a few hills.

An out-of-the-way village clinging to the western bank of the scenic Little Miami River, Kings Mills' erstwhile claim to fame was the now abandoned munitions factory just across the stream.  During the first half of the 20th century, the factory was served by the Cincinnati-Columbus branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad, now long since converted to the Little Miami Scenic Trail and Bikeway.

Nowadays, Kings Mills is more famous for nearby Kings Island amusement park.  However, to its credit, the still secluded community has managed to maintain a certain degree of quiet isolation from the surrounding tourist traffic.

The quintessential Midwestern town, Lebanon served as a set for the film Harper Valley PTA.  Lebanon is one of the oldest settlements in the area, and the Warren County seat.  Its main north-south thoroughfare, Broadway, has a look that proclaims "Main Street America" with unmistakable mid-20th-century flavor.  Every day in Lebanon somehow has a subtle "Fourth of July" feel to it.

Oddly for its size, Lebanon is not located on a navigable waterway.  However, there are no less than four highways passing through it at various angles.  At the main intersection of US-42, SR-63, SR-123, and old SR-48 stands a post-card perfect City Hall.  Across the street is "The Golden Lamb," a historical restaurant and one of the town's defining institutions.

Lebanon is a terminus of the Indiana & Ohio Railroad, a workaday short-line freight-hauler, which nevertheless has the class and charm to offer weekend passenger excursions during warm weather.  The line's South St. depot is also a welcome water stop for the thirsty cyclist on a warm day.

• WATER, RESTROOM: at depot
• FOOD: Golden Lamb Restaurant, several fast-food places on E. Main

Mason is a modest-sized community on US-42.  Though it may be only a matter of time before it is absorbed by Cincinnati's northward sprawl, it has nevertheless managed to retain an agreeable aura of Midwestern hominess, while avoiding the seedily rustic character that pervades some nearby towns.  Mason is near Kings Island and the Little Miami Scenic Trail.  It is also the southeastern terminus of the Indiana & Ohio Railroad, which runs tourist excursions on summer weekends and hauls freight the rest of the time.

• FOOD, SNACK: several establishments along Reading Rd. (US-42)

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Miamisburg is nestled, appropriately enough, in the Great Miami Valley, with appreciable grades upward to the east and west.  From north and south, however, access to Miamisburg follows the river, and is about as close to flat as the terrain gets south of Dayton.  The River Corridor Bikeway passes through town along the east bank.  This is usually the easiest way to enter Dayton from the south by bicycle – except during those excessively rainy times, when the pavement is temporarily reclaimed by a swollen stream reasserting its dubious claim to greatness.

Miamisburg features a bike shop and numerous eateries.  It is also the site of the former Mound Laboratories – just in case you're looking to spike your Gatorade™ with a little errant plutonium.

• WATER, RESTROOM: (Port-O-Let) at Rice Field
• BIKEWAY: access to Dayton at Rice Field
• FOOD, CYCLERY: in town

The village of Monroe is situated at the junction of old US-25 (Cincinnati - Dayton Road) and SR-63, and was for many years little more than a bedroom community.  Since the construction of Interstate 75, Monroe has seen the erection of an industrial park east of town.  There is a horse ranch on Gallagher Road, and what might be called a "hillbilly heaven"—a sod farm, a flea market, and a church—on Union Road.

As far as most bicyclists are concerned, Monroe is just a stop on the way to somewhere else.  For this reason, Monroe itineraries have Miller's Creek as the terminus, since entering Monroe itself entails riding some miles out of one's way, unless Monroe happens to be the destination.

• EMERGENCY: Monroe Police at village hall on S. Main

Located on Dayton's southern border, Moraine City straddles the Great Miami River.  The western bank features a small airport and an impressive recreation center.  The eastern bank is devoted mostly to manufacturing (particularly auto parts) and transportation (highway and railroad).  Despite its busy central corridor, Moraine offers a number of pleasant roads to the west, and the Great Miami Bikeway hugs the eastern river bank.

If you've ever heard the Kingston Trio song, "The Train to Morrow," you might have wondered whether there really was such a place.  Indeed there is:  Not only is Morrow, Ohio the very town which inspired that song, but there really was a train that went there!  Alas, the train no longer runs, the old rail line having been abandoned in the 1960s.  Yet when you go to Morrow today, it may seem almost like yesterday, for the wooden depot and the steel truss bridge are still standing, faithfully continuing to serve both residents and those passing through.  Thanks to the Rails-to-Trails effort, you can now pedal noiselessly along the now paved-over roadbed—where the Pennsylvania Railroad's steel giants once chuffed and clanked and growled through the "green tunnel" of overhanging foliage alongside the Little Miami River, not so many years ago.

Incidentally, if you're from out of state, you might not be aware that Ohio is the third largest wine-producing state (after California and New York) in the U.S.  Morrow is a noted wine center, and some local wineries offer tours and tasting.  The village also features a canoe livery, for those inclined to take a break from cycling and exercise a different set of muscles.

• EMERGENCY: Morrow Police on Pike St. (US-22 / SR-3)
• WATER, RESTROOM, SHELTER: at bike stop
• FOOD / SNACK: at depot and Capricorn's

Oregonia is a rustic community shoehorned into a narrow spot in the valley on the east side of the Little Miami River.  Until it collapsed recently, one of Oregonia's quaint attractions was an iron bridge with a unique combination of arch and truss construction.  Nowadays, the most spectacular feature in the area is the twin-span I-71 bridge—tallest bridge in the state of Ohio—spanning the river and the parallel bikeway just south of Oregonia's neighbor, Mathers Mills.  Oregonia also hosts a couple of canoe liveries.

Though not in the Miami Valley, Oxford is a place I occasionally visit when I'm feeling ambitious.  Oxford is a dual-service city.  It is an important commercial and cultural center for the surrounding agricultural community.  But more notably it is a college town, home of Miami University, long distinguished as a true "ivy-league" school for those on a budget.  Downtown Oxford is actually uptown; its main business district is perched on the crest of a hill amid brick-paved streets.  Here is where you'll find the all-important fast food and drink, to replenish your reserves after negotiating the surrounding hills and dales.

Understandably, the entire town is bike-friendly, and the surrounding countryside is delightfully scenic.  September is the time of the Oxford Honey Festival, and a major bike tour is a part of the festivities.  Nearby to the north is Hueston Woods Park, with facilities for hiking, picnicking, camping, and boating.  This is the overnight stop on the Dayton Cycling Club's annual two-day Dayton-Oxford ride.

• EMERGENCY: Oxford Police on High St.; McCullough-Hyde Hospital
• FOOD: at various restaurants on High St.
• CYCLERY: The Bike Center on Church St.
• CAMPING: at Hueston Woods Park

South Lebanon is a rustic community, seemingly transplanted here from Appalachia.  Years ago, the village was known in the area as the home of Kash Amburgey's Bargain Barn and Tabernacle.  Nowadays, South Lebanon is just another of those curiously backward little places pervaded by the belief that the Confederacy won the Civil War.  As far as most cyclists are concerned, it's simply a place to cross the river to the bikeway.

A word of caution:  A few years ago, a couple of cyclists on the Little Miami Scenic Trail were shot at and wounded by one of the locals.  When apprehended, the culprit claimed to have been shooting at goundhogs.  Although this incident is highly atypical, it serves to remind those biking or hiking in rural areas to be wary of careless hunters.  Be visible enough to be distinguished from game—but not so conspicuous as to invite target practice.

• BIKEWAY: access to Xenia, Morrow, Loveland, and Milford

For a long time, Trenton, Ohio has served as a blue-collar bedroom community for steel-producing Middletown.  Its social institutions consist of roughly equal parts saloons and churches.*  Although Trenton has a couple of small industries, it didn't show signs of serious industrialization until the Miller Company built a large brewery on the outskirts in the 1970s – and then mothballed the plant before it even got into production.

I can't think of much to say about Trenton, except that I sometimes go by it on my way to somewhere else.  Ditto for Miltonville, which is about a mile north of Trenton.  Miltonville is much smaller – just a few houses, a bridge, and a fire station.  However, the surrounding hills are beautiful, and the adjacent Elk Creek is home to blue herons, so I make it a point to ride through regularly.  Woodsdale is a small riverbank community; it would be fairly quiet, were it not for truck traffic from local quarries and the Miller brewery.

*Most of Trenton's churches are of the perfunctory religion-mill variety – cinder-block eyesores, some sporting nailed-on plywood "steeples."  However, as if to redeem the seediness of its lowly brethren, a venerable brick Lutheran edifice, complete with a real bell tower and surrounding graveyard, exudes multiple auras of archaic charm and gothic grotesquerie, humble worship and dignified decay.

• EMERGENCY: Trenton Police, Miltonville Fire Dept.

Situated on the rather steep west bank of the Little Miami River, Waynesville features a quaint downtown district enticing to strollers.  Unfortunately, the attraction is such that the streets are often congested on weekends.  Waynesville and neighboring communities host a number of popular festivals, with themes ranging from Renaissance to Harleys, so you might want to weigh inclusion of the area in your itinerary, depending upon the season, your tastes, and your tolerance for noise and traffic.

Just across the river lies Corwin, its ambience quieter and distinctly rustic.  The major components of its business hub are an agricultural supplier and a fundamentalist church.  Both the Little Miami Scenic Trail and the old "C" bike route pass through Corwin on their respective courses between Xenia and Milford.  For ice cream fans, the bike stop is adjacent to the Corwin Peddler, a junior partner of the renowned Young's Dairy of Springfield.

• EMERGENCY: Waynesville Police
• WATER, RESTROOM: Corwin bike stop (also roadside spring water at residence on Corwin Rd, approx. 1 mi. S of Corwin)
• SNACK: Corwin Peddler
• FOOD: Waynesville, across river via Harveysburg Hill Rd.

Sandwiched between Moraine and Miamisburg, West Carrollton serves as a kind of funnel for road and rail traffic into Dayton from the south. But though its main function is as a traffic artery, it also has its own industries, a modest business district, and a large bedroom community.

• EMERGENCY: West Carrollton Police
• BIKEWAY: River Corridor Bikeway, north to Dayton, south to Miamisburg
• WATER, RESTROOM: K Station, at end of Marina Dr. adjacent to River Corridor Bikeway
• SHELTER: VFW picnic shelter on Marina Dr.
• FOOD: West Carrollton business district

Formerly an unremarkable little community located at a bend in Cincinnati-Dayton Road, West Chester has since the 1970s undergone explosive growth as a yuppie bedroom community.  Its major roads are lined with strip malls, and the new Union Center Boulevard provides access from Interstate-75 to a developing commercial area.  West Chester's expansion has effectively engulfed the nearby communities of Tylersville, Gano, and Maud, as well as many of the neighboring farms, meadows, and woodlands.

Years ago, Maud was just the sleepy little crossroads of old US-25 and Tylersville Road, adjacent to the New York Central's Cincinnati-Dayton mainline.  With the opening of Kings Island amusement park to the east, and the sprawling of West Chester to the south, however, Maud became badly congested, and its roads and signals have been upgraded to accommodate the traffic.  Whether biking between Maud and West Chester is advisable is a question that the individual cyclist may wish to decide in light of his or her own tolerance for traffic.  However, the ride from Middletown to Maud, particularly the five-mile rolling meander along Maud-Hughes Road, is scenic, well shaded, usually quiet, and extraordinarily pleasant.

• SNACK: mini-mart on Cincinnati-Dayton Rd. 0.5 mi. S of Tylersville Rd.