O-H!

I-O!

That's right, kids, we're headed back to Ohio! Southeast Ohio, to be exact - home of some of the most phenomenally twisty asphalt in a state that otherwise only serves to separate the fine Commonwealth of Pennsylvania from all-the-delicious-grilled-cat-you-can-eat in Michigan!

ACCOMMODATIONS
Our "home base" for the weekend will be the Microtel Inn & Suites by Wyndham in Marietta, OH, located at 506 Pike Street. Our group rate - secured under my name (Beth Clark) - is $85.00/night and includes free breakfast each morning. All beds at the Microtel are queens; rooms vary between one or two beds. All rooms are non-smoking. Check-in time is 3 PM; check-out time is 12 noon.


For those traveling greater distances or wanting to make a longer stay of the event, the hotel is aware that some folks may choose to arrive earlier than Friday and/or depart later than Sunday.

Room Block – A total of 20 rooms have been reserved for our group, with the option to exceed that block. Our block of rooms will be held until Wednesday, July 23, 2014. After that date, any remaining inventory in the block will be released to the general public.

Cancellation Policy – You will have until 4 PM on the date of your arrival to cancel your reservation without penalty. Since the room block and rate expire 30 days prior to arrival, if you even think you will attend this, BOOK NOW. You can always cancel later...but really...why would you want to? If you've done the roads in SE OH already, you KNOW you want to go back. And if you haven't...what the hell are you waiting for?!? BOOK NOW!!!

Deposit – Not required. Reservations are secured with a credit card, but no charges will be incurred.


FOOD
There are several eating establishments within walking distance of the Microtel, including Bob Evans, Shoney's, Pizza Hut, Applebee's, and - where you'll find me sipping a margarita at least one of the nights - Las Trancas Mexican Restaurant. 


SOCIALIZING
Shouldn't be a problem...it's a big parking lot. 


PETROL
There is a huge Marathon on the same side of the road as the hotel and a BP across the street.


ROUTES
Look at a map. Talk to your friends. Post 'em up here! There's plenty of fun to be had in SE OH!

Cablebandit and I were through SE OH in September 2012 on our way back from ESTN in Sparta. Here's what I had to say back then:

Monday morning, we helped ourselves to the complimentary breakfast at the Microtel before heading to the nearby gas station to fuel up so we could spend the entire morning "playing" in southeast Ohio. The roads in SE Ohio are spectacular! Last year's ESTN was based in Marietta and a number of ST.Ners have extolled the glories of SE Ohio. Chris had been on the roads before; he hit SE Ohio in August 2011 with Jerry, Jeff, David, and Kurt. He'd told me that riding in that part of the state was like riding one gigantic roller coaster. He was not lying! If the roads weren't twisty, they were chock full of elevation changes; most of the time they were both! Some had rises in the road where you couldn't see what was beyond...always interesting! Thankfully, Chris had the benefit of experience and GPS!

The route that Chris had planned for Monday morning began with OH 26 and included OH 800 and OH 255 among others. It was a gorgeous morning to play in SE Ohio!

http://pineappleponderings.blogspot.com/2012/10/estn-day-5-ending-super-times-nicely.html


WHAT YOU NEED TO DO
1. Put in your vacation requests at work and at home!

2. Call 740-373-7373, and ask for reservations in the “Beth Clark” room block.

3. Talk it up with other ST.Oers and start plotting/planning your rides!

We may have a conflict here. The MSTA Mail Pouch Fly By is the same weekend in Marietta Just down the street.

What to do. What to do. 


http://ridemsta.com/mstaforums/index.php/topic,157.0.html

We may have a conflict here. The MSTA Mail Pouch Fly By is the same weekend in Marietta Just down the street.

Let's all practice our finger snapping.

visitors can't see pics , please register or login

IN! Need to make a reservation tomorrow. I'm going to try to recruit some guys from work (C14, Multistrada). The twisties in southeast Ohio will seriously blow their minds (and yours if you've never ridden them). Makes WV seem tame.

And for anyone that needs a break from the uber-twistiness of southeast Ohio, there is always the awesome WV16 just across the river... 60 miles of unrelenting tight sweepers between Harrisville and I-79. And the pavement is even in decent shape (compared to the sad state of much of WV this spring). You can do a great loop of southeast Ohio and WV16. Ask Jimmy about his ride home from the Spring Meet...

There's gotta be a pencil around here somewhere...

Pencils? They still make those things.

I'm a maybe. 

Tentatively in. Seems a whole lot in my life is in limbo at the moment, so I can't say for sure, but... do put me on the "hell yes, I think" list. 

Reservation made. I will dig up my routes from the ESTN there and do some tweaking. Should be an awesome three days of twisty strafing and socializing.

Will try for a vacation day for that friday, if not I may have to be cough cough Ill. 

I made mine today!
 

Thanks Beth!

I made a scouting run to Marietta yesterday to hit a bunch of the "unusual suspects" I haven't been on in while. It was a long day: 80 miles to Bellaire, 300 mile loop, 80 miles back home. My Bellaire loop was:

147 - read a rumor it is getting re-paved. No sign of anything. It's in good shape. Fun road.
9 - same as 147. Twisty, fun, good condition
148 - a bit more open than 147 and 9, parts were re-paved a couple years ago. The goodness continues
26 - rode it all the way to Marietta. 148-to-145 is in very good shape. Must do. The rest is generally in good shape.
Stopped in Marietta for lunch. Note to self: Tampico opens at 11:30 on Sat, not 11am.
676 - rumored re-paving not found. Still a great road.
555 - rode it south to the river, turned around then rode it all the way north to jct 78 (Ringhold). It's in good shape. North of Chesterhill seemed dirty/dusty. The last few miles before 78 are nuts :-)
78 - to Caldwell. Really nice sweepers with good views. A welcome break from the roller coaster but there are still plenty to curves.
564 - starts off straight-ish then gets decent.
145 north - mixed bag on pavement. The part north of 78 was pretty beat. Otherwise a decent road
800 north - short stretch of nice sweepers
148 east - did the rest of 148 to jct 26. More sweeping goodness.
CR-26  north to Belmont - bombed out goat path that was closed on the edge of town. Did a few miles of gravel to re-connect with my route. AVOID
149 - back to Bellaire. Too many little towns. It's just not that interesting. AVOID. Use 147 instead, even if it's a repeat.

So I'm thinking that perhaps the twistiest day ride loop out of Marietta would be::

26 north to 148
148 east to jct 145 (short)
145 to Beallsville
556 to river
7 south to 78 (short)
78 to jct 536 (just east of Woodsfield)
536 back to river
7 south to jct 255
255 to jct 800
800 north to jct 26 (short)
26 south (repeat for 10 miles) to jct 537
537 to jct 260
260 to New Matamoras / river
7 south to Archers Fork Rd
Archers Fork to jct 26.
26 back to Marietta (repeat).

If you really want to include 555 in the mix, do an out and back on 676 and the south half of 555.

In,


And in honor of this momentous occasion, I finally updated my profile.

I would like to request that someone (probably from the Columbus area) cobble up a day route that is a grand tour of the Hocking Hills area (west of Athens, bounded by 33 to the north and 50 to the south). I know there are bunch of nice roads out that way (374, 664, 278, parts of 56, etc). It will probably look a lot like an accordian with lots of north/south twisty bits with east/west connectors.

That area is just a bit too far away for me to explore on a day ride or I would have a go at it. Hopefully the best twisty roads are in good shape for 2014.

With all this talk about routes have you included "Big Musky" ?

I drew out Garry's route above in RideWithGPS—and agree, this is an epic route!  Click the link below to check it out (I tried embedding it, but either we can't do that here on STO...or their embed code doesn't work.)
http://ridewithgps.com/routes/5030388

Too short to be epic. Needs to have a short loop to the west added on that includes:

60 to the south end of 555 (slab, but short)
555 to 78 (Ringhold)
78 to 377
377 to 676
676 back to Marietta.

THEN hit the main loop north on 26.

I tried talking this up with the Region 4 crew that we saw this weekend at Clay-B-Que. I do hope some/any/all of them can make it!

I tried talking this up with the Region 4 crew that we saw this weekend at Clay-B-Que. I do hope some/any/all of them can make it!

call it a ride to eat and they will be there. 

Have always wanted to ride that area. Finances permitting, I'll be there.

You will not be disappointed.

Since I missed the spring meet, the National AND the cat-b-q, I guess I had better get my ass to this one, since it's right in my backyard....

Spent the day down in Hocking Hills last weekend. It was glorious, and the roads only get better as you go SE.

jim

I love perusing GPX files.

I love perusing GPX files.

Is that something you learned or ranting about.

FJR SE Ohio Ramble Route files (GPX) from our May Meet.

These were scouted and created by DRC-32 out of Zanesville. They include all the freshly paved goodness and, avoid all the craptacular rough roads.

Routes removed.

Oh ya, one of the roads on the West route was flooded after a few days of rain prior to the meet. Who knew FJR's could float.

Chris, when are you leaving for Ohio trip, and any interest in me meeting you near your place to continue on?

Right now, the plan is for both of us to take off that Friday and worm our way over. We're definitely open to the idea of the usual eastern PA suspects heading in our direction and continuing on with us.

WoW, what a challenge that was to reserve the room.  Two people couldn't get the dates correct, then couldn't understand the words "BETH" or
"CLARK" finally got it taken care of but wow that was weird.  All twenty rooms have been booked but she gave me the room rate anyway.  For two queens beds 

Well, it IS Ohio... 

At any rate, glad you're in!