OHIO HOMECOMING LOOP

The sandstone cliffs of Ash Cave dwarf their human visitors.

I do hop on U. S. 33 to escape the urban area, but just a few miles southeast I veer east on Pleasantville Road. Just past the stoplight-free town for which the road is named, I turn south on Ohio Route 664 and enter the westernmost folds of the Appalachian foothills. On summer Sundays it’ s common to meet sport riders on 664 from as far off as Cleveland who have headed south for the day to seek curves. There’ s a five-mile stretch of 664 between the little towns of Rushville and Bremen that gets me limbered up for the hills to come. First, it throws at me a few of the blind rises typical of eastern Ohio back roads( there’ s a reason the Stayin’ Safe Motorcycle Training course uses this area to teach the concept of managing sight distance) before running me through a corkscrew passage of shady woods and past an orchard.

Favorite Rides Fall 2016 | Page 67

OHIO HOMECOMING LOOP