4/26/2018 0 Comments TRECYcle 2018TRECYCLE is my annual spring cycling adventure along trails and through communities in Ohio to raise awareness and support for planting native trees to replace ash trees that have been lost to the Emerald Ash Borer. TRECYCLE 2018 on April 27,28,29 is a 180 mile route through Greene, Fayette and Ross Counties along the newly renamed Paint Creek Trail. My plans are to ride 75 miles a day the first and last day and a more leisurely 30 miles on Saturday to be joined by my wife Michele and daughter Madeleine, and her fiance Luke Kraus. $2,000 has been raised this year through an online fund drive to plant 15 trees in Jamestown, Chillicothe and Washington Court House. This all began back in 2015 with a seven-day ride with trees donated to seven different parks along the Ohio Erie trail. Since then nearly $6,000 in funds have helped plant over 335 trees in cities and parks spanning from the Little Miami Trail near Loveland all the way to Cuyahoga Valley National Park and the Ohio & Erie Canal Reservation, in Cleveland. The 6-10 foot trees were delivered to the cities with the assistance of Dan Struve of QRST Nursery near Oregonia Ohio. Here's a listing of parks where trees have been planted: Avoca Park, Cincinnati, OH Battelle Darby Metro park, Columbus, OH Char Mar Park, Westerville, Delaware County, OH Cuyahoga Valley National Park, OH Indian Mound Peterson Park, Cedarville, Oh John Bryan Community Center, Yellow Springs, OH Joyce Park, Hamilton, OH Killbuck Marsh State Wildlife Preserve, Killbuck, OH Little Miami Trail, Loveland, OH Melvin Miller Park, Urbana, OH Ohio & Erie Canal Reservation, Cleveland OH Roadside Park, Sidney OH Russ Nature Reserve, Beavercreek, OH Shawnee Park, Xenia, OH Simon Kenton Trailhead, Bellefontaine, OH Smith Park, Middletown OH Southview Park, Bellefontaine, OH Treasure Island Park - Troy, OH
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4/14/2016 0 Comments TRECYCLE 2016My bags are packed and there are plans for 234 trees and 22 shrubs to be planted in response to TRECYCLE 2016. $1,066 was raised by at least 30 donors and matched with an additional $1,230 from cities and parks, and other private donations. Thank you TRECYCLE supporters! The forecast is for 0% chance of rain Friday through Monday, highs in the 70's, and low temps in the upper 40's. I'll be riding a green Trekker recumbent trike and folks are welcome to join me. I'll be crossing the Purple People bridge into Newport, KY for Warmshowers lodging Friday night (thank you Christine & Jeff!) and I have reservations at small unheated cabins in Spring Valley and Bellefontaine on nights 2 & 3. My timeline is attached, the link to the RidewithGPS route is: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/11846991 I am excited about meeting Rick Forrester who is the mastermind behind the Friends of the Little Miami State Park plan to plant some 195 trees near Loveland, OH. Janet Slater,also of the Friends will be meeting us for lunch at noon at the Train Stop near Foster, OH. And I am very excited about being part of the opening ceremonies for the Cincinnati Earth Day celebration on Saturday, thanks to Standish Fortin. Thank you also to my wife Michele, Chuck Berry and Reuben Mees who have offered to ride portions of the trail with me on Sunday. Thank you to Nathan Pilling and Danielle Coots who have gotten some articles in the local press about TRECYCLE. And thank you to tree leaders in the following towns: Doug Crabill in Urbana, Shelley Moore in Bellefontaine, Macy Reynolds & Anna Bellisari in Yellow Springs and Ken Bishwith the Russ Nature Reserve. I will be blogging to my Weebly website and posting to Facebook (see links below). “Between every two trees is a doorway to a new world.” - John Muir “Life is like riding a bicycle; we have to go ahead before we know we are right. Our knowledge is very limited, and we walk mostly by faith.” ~G.R. Dodson, 1908 3/17/2016 0 Comments TRECYCLE 2016“Reversing deforestation is complicated; planting a tree is simple.” - Martin O'Malley “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better, it’s not” – Dr. Seuss, The Lorax In just less than a month I will be embarking on TRECYCLE 2016, a journey on a trike to plant trees up and down the Little Miami River and the Simon Kenton Trails. The hope is to plant trees in Bellefontaine, Yellow Springs, Urbana, Russ Nature Reserve in Beavercreek and along the south end of the trail near Loveland. Over $850 has been raised so far. I wonder at times if it is worth it all to logistically complicate what is a beautiful ride with appointments along the way, a timeline to keep, trees to plant ... And then I think, you know I probably would not do this particular ride if there were not a cause to ride for. It comes at just the right time of year when trees and flowers are just about to burst out of their winter sleep. It is a ride about hope. I'm hoping we don't ruin our planet further. I'm hoping our efforts in planting trees and choosing low impact cycling as a way of transportation will make a difference for the environment. I'm hoping it is tolerable weather in mid April for enjoyable cycling. As my birthday is approaching I told my kids and family how blessed I feel. I've got a nice job, I'm in relative good health. Family members are doing well and healthy. I really don't have any great needs or wishes for my birthday so I suggested to all lets just make things simple and support TRECYCLE! That would be a nice gift and very meaningful to me. I'm promising no puns to encourage support this year. However, I think I let one slip up above... "embarking" on this year's journey. Did anyone catch that one? This year it is about inspiring quotes about planting trees and cycling. Here is one last one to leave you with today... "One who plants a tree, plants hope." - Lucy Larcom, Plant a Tree 4/26/2015 0 Comments TRECYCLE Day 7 - Sat. April 25My wife Michele met me on Friday afternoon and we stayed the evening at the historic Inn at Brandywine Falls Bed & Breakfast. This morning we hiked to the falls, not 200 yards from the Inn. After a scrumptious breakfast of fruit, eggs and oatmeal at the Inn prepared by Katie & George and the staff it was then on to the Cleveland Metroparks planting site where we met Valerie Carter-Stone and her daughter Ellie to see the trees planted earlier in the week along the Route 480 overpass. Valerie is a Natural Resources Manager for the Cleveland Metroparks and oversaw the planting at this site. I met more people on the trail on this Saturday in just a couple hours of riding than I had met in the 5 previous week days. The Ohio to Erie towpath trail is very popular on weekends. I encountered at least 4 different boy scout groups. Riding into Cleveland was interesting without a clearly marked path to Edgewater Park. Just a couple blocks off the route I swung by the house from the Christmas Story Movie complete with the leg lamp in the window. I did the ceremonial tire dipping in Lake Erie with Michele ready to haul me back to Dayton. I regret not being able to save gas and ride back to Dayton, but on the other hand I am satisfied with that amount of riding in one week. It was a frigid beginning of the day at 32 degrees. I met a park worker in Stark County at Lock Number 4 where they were preparing the park for a fishing derby for 500 kids the following day. He remarked that Ohio is one place in the country you might get all 4 seasons in a single day. Today was one of those days as it turned out to be rather pleasant and sunny for short sleeves later in the day. Much of the day was along the Ohio to Erie Towpath trail into the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. I met Chris and Grey and my wife Michele in a reforestation area along the Cuyahoga River. where we planted 7 trees. We protected them well with deer tubes, which is a must since the estimate of 100 or so deer per square mile will otherwise decimate newly planted trees with their rubbing. There was plenty of sign of wildlife throughout the day - deer tracks, beaver gnawing on trees, turtles sunning themselves on logs in the canal, and a Great Blue Heron rookery of nests high into some large sycamore trees. It was beautiful day for riding. This is an appropriate day to share a quote shared with me by TRECYCLE supporter Carol Collett of the Bellbrook Gardening club, whose motto is: "We pass this way but once......Let us beautify the path as we go, so the world may see which way we have gone." Bert the caretaker at Joy of Living Camp and wife Tana were gracious hosts. Bert saw me off at the beginning of the day at the "Bridge of Dreams" 370 foot covered bridge on the Mohican Trail. Flakes of snow lit upon the trike canopy just as I was departing. I think many adventurers will relate that it is often the amazing helpful people you meet along the way who make the adventure. Two men were very good to meet today. Let me tell you about Tom & Steve. Tom Alexander is a member of the Ohio to Erie board of directors. In just the past couple weeks Tom completed posting the directional trail signs at intersections for the Ohio to Erie Trail through Holmes County. Those "Ohio 1" signs were invaluable in getting me along the trail without any wrong turns. Tom also operates a hostel in the town of Glenmont, Ohio which will soon become part of the trail when it eventually is rerouted through his area. In recent years he attempted a through hike of the Appalachian Trail and got all but 270 miles from the end of the trail in Maine and fell and broke his collarbone. His trail name is the "raisin bran kid". Tom plans to finish the trek this July. Tom bought our lunch today at the Millersburg Hotel. We had only an hour together and I did not find out the origin of his nickname. Here's a link to Tom's facebook page Steve Upperman is equally interesting - a photographer, naturalist and avid cyclist. He even races his bicycle. As a certified naturalist with the Department of Natural Resources he volunteers his work, including today's project to help me plant trees at Killbuck Marsh Preserve. We rode together from Killbuck, Ohio on the Holmesville Trail and spotted, a dozen deer bounding across the trail in front of us, many birds, and a rare sighting of a mink crossing our path. Without Steve to guide me I would not have been able to get up and down all the hills to get to the planting site at Killbuck marsh at 2 o'clock. There we planted seven swamp white oak trees. Pam Gum (OCVN, Ohio Certified Volunteer Naturalist) met us there with the trees in a pick up and assisted with the planting. Thank you Pam & Steve. "Don't hug a tree on Earth Day. Trees are rough and they don't hug back. Go hug another person, then go out and plant a tree!" TRECYCLE Day 4 - Seven trees planted at Char-Mar Ridge Preserve in Delaware County. Craig and Patrick, natural resource technicians for the Preservation Parks provided me with a shovel and encouragement. Tom, a volunteer at the park showed me where the bluebirds nest and I spotted a female entering the nesting box. Females are not as bright blue as the males. Other interesting and beautiful sights along the way, included the Kokosing Gap Trail between Mount Vernon and Gambier was spectacular with hillsides covered in Trillium and Dutchman's Breeches. It was also a wild day for weather, chilly with sunshine and high winds and even, for two very brief moments in the morning and afternoon, it snowed! Staying the night down a long 2 mile gravel lane along the Mohican River at the non-denominational Joy of Living Camp. Thank you caretaker Bert for setting me up with my own little lodge. 4/23/2015 0 Comments Trecycle - day 3 , april 21, 2015TRECYCLE Day 3 - Tree planting at Battelle Darby Creek Metro Park with Natural Resource Managers Andrew Boose and James Jones. We planted a variety of Oak trees in a reforestation area near an oak savannah not far from where the bison roam in the 7,000 acre park. A celebrity sighting along the way - Luke Kraus of the 2013 Bowling Green Falcons basketball team (also my daughter Madeleine's boyfriend) met me along the trail at Galloway OH, which is less than a mile from where he works. The day went went well, even the tire blow out with about 6 miles from the end of the ride could not have happened at a better time. My sister Teresa was just about to meet me and bailed me out by driving to a bike shop in Gahanna, which was the nearest we could find a 20" replacement tire. Celebrated the day with dinner with Teresa and husband Ben and daughter Maria, my daughter Madeleine, her friend Sarah Puchala, and the Murray family, my hosts for the evening. Sorry no pictures of the feast at the Thai Grille. Graeters ice cream topped it off. It was a wonderful day 3. 4/21/2015 2 Comments TRECyCLe - DAY 2, april 20, 2015Day 2 of TRECYCLE. Rain showers this morning as I was riding but the sun came out this afternoon with westerly winds helping power me along at over 20 miles an hour at times. Highlight was seeing 14 trees and shrubs planted in Shawnee Park in the City of Xenia and Peterson Indian Mound Park in Cedarville. Gretchen Rives of Greene County Parks and Trails took the photos at Indian Mound Park. Earlier today I passed the Travertine Fen north of Spring Valley on the Little Miami River Trail where cattails and skunk cabbage were taking off. Also got some pics of the little flower known as Dutchmans Breeches. Lunch at Beans & Cream in Cedarville and afternoon ice cream at the Purple Monkey in South Charleston. I enjoyed spaghetti dinner at Ronettis in downtown London and lodging tonight is at Alexandra's bed-and-breakfast.
Panorama view of Shawnee Park in Xenia where 7 trees were planted along the Little Miami Trail. 4/19/2015 1 Comment TRECYCLE - day 1, april 19, 2015First day of TRECYCLE starting from the Ohio River guided by biking escort Bill Hopple, director of the Cincinnati Nature Center. We met Tom Borgman, Natural Resource Manager at Avoca Park, one of the Great Parks of Hamilton County for the first tree planting of the trek. Enjoyed the rain throughout the day and seeing spring blossom in front of my very eyes - trillium, phlox and the Buckeye state tree nearly fully leafed out. Thank you to my wife Michele for her support on the first day. I'll rely on the good will of others the rest of the way to Lake Erie! Thank you to all supporters of TRECYCLE.
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