About 10 minutes away from West Branch State Park, you can find The Ravenna Community Playground.

Not only is it a giant playground, it has a bathroom, lots of parking, and access to The Portage Hike and Bike Trail. The main trail is nine miles from Ravenna to Kent, but the total length, with spurs and connectors, is 16.3 miles. This is more than long enough for Kate and John to ride.

WHEN 900 YEARS OLD YOU ARE, SO FAR YOU WILL NOT BIKE!

We started at the playground, and we headed west towards Kent. John takes all the high-speed selfies; Kate thinks she would wreck, if she tried.

About three miles down the trail, we saw a sign of the troubles ahead.

This was not one of those “I wonder what it means” signs; it was pretty clear. We promptly ignored it. It does say “trail closed ahead”, not “trail closed here.” Well, they cleared that up with caution tape at little further up.

Kate thought that was the finish line, so she just pedaled on through and yelled, “I won!”^* Based on the time, we thought we were pretty close to 5 miles out, so it was time to turn back any way.

When we made it back to the spur to the parking, we had only ridden for 50 minutes. We continued on to the east, and turned back about a half mile from the east end. There was nothing wrong with the trail. We ride at about 10 mph, so a hour was the 10 miles we planned.

The trail was a decent ride. It was paved with asphalt the entire way. There were a few rough spots, but they seem to be maintaining it. There were a few small wild animals roaming about, and it was green. The trail is far enough from major roads that you do not get disturbed by constant traffic sounds. The main downside is that it passes through communities, so you periodically need to stop for a crosswalk.

* That was totally made up. People broke the caution tape long before we arrived.