Donate | Read all about it | Itinerary | Recap | Special thanks!

It's that time of year again and we are planning our 4th annual Towpath Expedition. Like we did in 2006, we're attempting to raise money for the Organization for Autism Research (OAR). Please use the form below to make safe and secure online donations to our fund raising efforts. We're still hashing out the details of the ride for this year so stay tuned to this page to see what we are up to.

The out-of-towners all made it into town on Thursday night without incident. We met up at the Ohio Brewing Company, had a good dinner, and caught up on old times.

On Friday, we got all of the gear and transportation set up for the weekend. Joe took all of the camping gear (except for Paul's since he decided he'd take his with him on the ride) and loaded it up in his vehicle which we left in Canal Fulton. Then it was off to Port Washington to leave the return vehicles there. We decided that the Super 8 Motel would be a better spot to leave the cars at than the McDonalds and the management gave us no problems with our plan. Jeremy's and Andy's cars were left, ensuring that we would have to finish the ride. We all loaded into Vince's van and set off to follow the planned route. We stopped at the Zoarville Station Bridge to see what the trail on the opposite side of the Tuscarawas River looked like. At a quick glance, it seemed like we'd do alright by taking it.

We met back at my house for a pre-ride cookout and enjoyed some great food. Then, it was off to bed for what would hopefully be a good night's rest.

We woke up early on Saturday morning. True to their word, Jeremy and Paul arrived at 6:30 ready to go. Dom wasn’t far behind but he accidentally brought a three bike rack instead of a four. We crammed Paul’s bike in the back (and Paul too, for that matter) and set off for Cleveland. We considered throwing Paul and his bike over the Turnpike Bridge where we would meet him later but decided against it.

Joe and Vince arrived at Settler’s Landing minutes before we did courtesy of Ivan Morber. We got the bikes and gear ready, took some photos and video, and were ready to set off by 8:15. The ride through the industrial valley was uneventful and we had no problems with construction on bridges and what not. We rode the mile long stretch of Towpath through Steelyard Commons to Jennings Road and were at the Harvard Avenue Trailhead in no time.

The ride through the Ohio & Erie Canal Reservation is always pretty and this year was no different. By the time we reached Thornburgh Station, we were ready for some breakfast at Yours Truly. It was here that we had our first pleasant surprise of the day. Our Dropkick Murphys lovin’ waitress Holly informed us that Yours Truly did indeed serve beer. So along with our various breakfasts, we also enjoyed Great Lakes Brewing Company’s Dortmunder Gold. I mixed mine with lime-aid to create a refreshing lime shandy.

We were back on the trail and into the National Park shortly and made the annual stop at the Canal Visitor’s Center for Towpath Tags. The weather continued to hold up well as we made our way past the Bald Eagle’s nest. Our next stop was a quick one at the Boston Store and new Trail Mix store. We arrived at the Lock 29 Trailhead right on time.

Our lunch company consisted of Jeremy’s parents, Paul’s wife (and Jeremy’s sister) Becky and their two kids, Denise Fitzpatrick, and Cheryl Tynes. We were joined by Dom, his wife Monica, and their new son as well as Jeff Swiger at the end of our meal. Monica became the first female to officially participate in a Towpath Expedition when she joined us for the next leg of the journey. Jeff became the second. Just kidding, Jeff. With two new riders, we set off for Akron.

We took a quick break at the Botzum Trailhead before speeding past the Akron Sewage Plant. After passing through the Merriman Valley, we encountered rain for the first time. But it was a just a light sprinkle and actually felt good in the mid-day heat. The weather had cleared by the time we stopped at Memorial Parkway for some water. We arrived at the Mustill Store and Jeff departed for home. I got in a lengthy discussion on the Towpath with the volunteers in the store and had to be pulled out by Vince so we could get on our way again.

We rode up to the future Steam Plant Trailhead and then followed the unfinished trail to the Akron Innerbelt. We rode past the future site of the bridge that will cross the Innerbelt connecting the trail to downtown Akron and found our way to Quaker Street and the continuation of the trail. We made no stops in downtown Akron and soon found ourselves on Manchester Road. I turned east on Wilbeth Road before everyone else and managed to ride out of their sight. This was a bad move since they missed the turn that would take us to Waterloo Road. I waited awhile for them and then set off figuring they must have found another route.

My phone rang as I neared Waterloo Road on Nesmith Lake Boulevard and it was of course my wayward companions. After getting them back on track, I rested at Waterloo to await their arrival. We all made our way to the new underpass at Waterloo Road and picked up the unfinished trail again. It was a rough ride to the Manchester Road Trailhead but smooth sailing from there to Wolf Creek where we met up with one of Vince’s fellow Barberton Police Officers. It was the same friend who had picked Vince up last year when his pedal broke. This year, he saved us a different way – by hooking us up with some bottled water.

Vince took us through a shortcut off of Snyder Avenue that I believe may end up being the Towpath Trail section that is to be built by the end of next year. We traveled a short distance down Van Buren Avenue to where the nearly completed trail begins at Eastern Road. We were able to cross the Tuscarawas River on the new trail bridge there and followed the trail to the Vanderhoof Road Trailhead. We took another break here before starting on the last leg of the day’s ride.

A brief stop at Clinton was the only interruption on our way to Canal Fulton. We arrived at our campsite and set up our tents. The showers at the campground/canoe livery weren’t working so we improvised with a garden hose in the shower stall. After each taking our turns cleaning up, we headed over to the Canal Boat Lounge for dinner. I was pretty dehydrated and wasn’t feeling too well. I made the mistake of putting Gatorade in my hydration pack instead of water and didn’t drink enough fluids over the course of the day. The two beers consumed at breakfast and lunch probably didn’t help matters either. I was exhausted and skipped out on Oser’s Ice Cream after dinner, heading instead back to the campsite for some sleep. I ended up staying up for a bit but eventually went to bed, falling asleep to the sound of live country music wafting across the canal and river from the Canal Boat Lounge.

Despite my iPod not waking me up in the morning as Jeremy assured me it would, we were all up early and had the campsite broken down in no time. We cleaned up, loaded up the supplies, and were at the VFW for breakfast before 8:00. The usual incredible breakfast was served and we were ready for the day’s ride by 9:15. The folks at the VFW let us fill our hydration packs with ice and water which was nice because I vowed to stay much more hydrated on day two of the ride.

We set off and true to the reports we had received, there were a number of sections of the trail that had larger gravel on it, making it a bit more difficult to ride. We stopped at the Lake Avenue Trailhead and more specifically, Ernie’s Bike Shop. A few of us bought energy supplements while Paul bought some padded riding pants. Unfortunately, we were too early to enjoy anything from the Blue Heron Deli so we set off for the section of the trail that is among the least favorite for me. We rode along the levy to the section where the “official” trail ends and followed the small worn trail past the railroad tracks where others have passed before us. It’s these tracks that are holding up the effort to complete the trail in Stark County. After passing the Massillon Sewage Plant, we arrived at John Glenn Grove. We snapped a really good group photo here before heading to Navarre.

Jeremy, who opts not to use a hydration backpack, rode into Navarre for a beverage while the rest of us continued along the Towpath. I stopped to tell the others how the loading dock at the Nickles Bakery site was built on top of one of the walls of Lock 6. Jeremy met back up with us and we headed on down the trail. We found a section of the trail where a tree had fallen and was blocking at least 2/3 of the trail. As has become customary on the annual ride, we did our part to enhance others’ riding experience by clearing the trail of the fallen tree.

We continued along shortly and reached the end of the trail in Stark County before noon. It was here that we met some ladies who were out for a lengthy ride on the trail themselves. They were in awe of our plan and we ended up referring to them as our groupies. There was a also a lady there who was moving stones for a landing point for her canoe livery and the guys helped here with some of the heavy lifting.

We set back off down SR 212 with Andy bringing up the rear. While the others rode into Bolivar to get some seats at Yesterdays on the Canal for lunch, I waited for Andy to catch up so he would know where to go. And I waited. And waited. Finally, as I was just setting off to find out where the heck he was, Vince called me to say that Yesterday’s was closed for some reason and that they were at the Canal Street Diner instead. Oh, and that Andy was already there. He apparently had his own fun trying to figure out where to go from the locals and bypassed me entirely.

Lunch was quite good (I recommend the homemade root beer) and the folks let us fill up our packs again. We stopped in at Bert’s Bike Shop and I had a lengthy conversation with Valerie there about the trail development in Tuscarawas County. She donated some bottled water to our cause and we were soon on our way again. We followed the Scenic Byway to Ft. Laurens where we hopped on the new section of trail that led to the bridge over I-77. Unlike last year, we were able to ride across it without difficulty since it was actually open and completed this time. We made excellent time on the trail toward the Canal Lands Trailhead but it was a bit slower going on the unsurfaced section beyond the trailhead.

We passed the spot where Joe had wrecked last year and were bragging about our good fortune when not more than a half mile later, Joe wiped out again. It was a minor accident, more comical than harmful, and we finally made it to the end of the trail. We had heard at Ernie’s Bike Shop that the portion of the trail on the other side of the Tuscarawas River from SR 800 still had railroad ties sticking up on the surface. Andy’s bad back was causing a bit of pain and we decided to skip the trail for SR 800 because it would be a much smoother ride. Aside from a large amount of road kill, the ride past the Dover Dam and into Dover was uneventful.

We arrived at the Broadway Brewhouse in New Philadelphia and despite being a bit behind schedule, we stopped in for some beer and shandies. Again, the folks were nice enough to let us fill our backpacks with water and we were off on the section of the ride that we had never been on before, at least by bike. We had already ridden 100 miles and the rest of the ride would be all road-riding in broad daylight (for the most part).

We had just gotten out of New Philadelphia when we stopped outside of (no joke) A******’s Garage. Andy was feeling immense amounts of pain and decided he would not be able to finish the ride. We decided that he would leisurely make his way to Upper Trenton Lock Park in Tuscarawas while the rest of us continued on the planned route. The man and dog that lived at the aforementioned location came out to suggest that we move off of the bridge and onto his property for safety reasons. Though we were ready to continue, we thanked him for his concern and hospitality and went on our way.

We left Andy and arrived at Upper Trenton Lock Park where we took a short break to check out the site and then were on our way again. It was actually a rather enjoyable ride down SR 416 and the day’s heat did not seem to affect us much. The low humidity was definitely a plus. We turned west on US 36 and passed the mill at Lock 17 (the lock no longer exists). From there, it was pretty much a straight shot to Port Washington. We made another stop there and then set off on the final portion of our ride. Of course, the longest hill going up was within the last mile of our ride. Paul had ridden on ahead and was waiting for us at the hotel where our cars were parked. The distance was almost 120 miles exactly and would have been exact if we could have crossed the highway to the motel instead of travelling a bit further to the crossing and then back to the hotel.

We were loading up the cars so we could drive back to Upper Trenton Lock Park and were preparing for a group photo when only 15 minutes after arriving, Andy came riding in on his bike! He had gotten a second wind and told himself that he didn’t come all the way in from California to not finish the entire trip. It was a moving moment, at least for me. All six of us had started the ride and all six of us ended it. It probably couldn’t have been any more successful of a ride.

We would like to recognize those individuals and organizations who made donations to our fundraising efforts but did not do so online (in no particular order):

Terry & Rosanne Woods, Louis & Angeline Lajeunesse, Ivan & Rita Morber, Barbara, Elizabeth, & Catherine Herold, Danton Adair, Mike Kallai, Stacy Colgan, Bob Lyn, Betty Racco-Bailey, Michelle Gerak, Laura & Brett Black, Jamie Becht, Steve Coburn, Raymond Todd, and Rick Babcock.

Steve Tomcsik, Dave-O Nosse, Cecilia Van Horn, Cheryl Tynes, Denise Fitzpatrick, Boone & Stephanie Triplett, Jack & Victoria Gieck, Bruce & Susie Basom, John Timoch, Jeff Zifchak, Becky Grischow, Denise Orndorf, Faithe Beach, Sue W., Pete & Nancy Pappas, Roberta Schall, Kathy Cern, Jen & Linda, Ryan Wells, Bob Macak, and Larry Turner.

We'd also like to thank Valerie at Bert's Bike Shop and Bob Russell for the bottled water to keep us hydrated on our journey. Thanks to the good people at Yours Truly, the Winking Lizard, the Canal Fulton Canoe Livery, the Canal Boat Lounge, the Canal Fulton VFW Hall, Ernie's Bike Shop, the Canal Street Diner in Bolivar, the Broadway Brewhouse, and the Super 8 Motel for their contributions to our weekend. Finally, thanks to Jeff Swiger for taking time out to check over our bikes and making sure they were trail ready.

Finally, I'd like to thank my fellow riders for their participation, enthusiasm, friendship, and donations. There is absolutely no way I could ever pull this off without you guys. I love you all.