OHIO HOMECOMING LOOP

Above: Hidden away just off U. S. 33 is the Pickerington Ponds State Nature Preserve, a good spot to take a break and get a drink of cool water.

Homemade goods and produce are often for sale at local Amish farms. Just look for the homemade signs.

After slowing for the farming town of Bremen, I can turn right to stay on Ohio 664 or I can continue straight, which actually puts me on Ohio Route 312. Today, I choose 312 with the consolation of promising myself to return via 664 the next day. The farm surrounding this T-shaped intersection is owned by an Amish family, and if my timing is lucky, in the spring I get a view of the farmer driving his team of workhorses across the field, plowing the earth the old-fashioned way.

Route 312 offers sweepers through more farm country, but by itself it doesn’ t get me where I need to go. That’ s where years of experimentation pay off. I’ ve pieced together a series of curvy sections that take me through part of the Wayne National Forest. Where Route 312 ends, I ride Route 93 a few miles to the little crossroads of Gore, where Gore-Greendale Road leads me to Route 595 south and then Route 278 south into Nelsonville through the back door. All these roads are lightly traveled, nicely coiled and heavily wooded.

For years, when I lived in other parts of the world, any trip

Favorite Rides Fall 2016 | Page 68

OHIO HOMECOMING LOOP