American Discovery Trail: Ohio

Yesterday, I finished the ninth leg of the American Discovery Trail - only 59 more to go! - and made it to Ohio. I was getting a little tired of West Virginia, so Ohio is good. I have now walked just over 600 miles, and I walked across the bridge pictured here, I think, to cross the Ohio River from West Virginia.

I will be in Ohio a long time, as the ADT covers 524 miles in Ohio before it gets to Indiana, which is precisely twice the distance that Google Maps says would get me to the same endpoint if I walked a more efficient route. So the path across Ohio is very winding, running along the south of the state near the Kentucky border, and the trail actually includes a little side trip to Kentucky that is really just a walk across a bridge and back at Cincinnati.

I took a few days off and went to play bridge in Oregon over the weekend, so my progress has been slow. This year I have resolved to play in some tournaments, so there will be more of that. My partner Russ and I did really well in the Oregon tournament, our first ever, so that was fun.

To get to Ohio, the ADT website suggests that I should first take a sternwheeler to Blennerhassett Island, a long, thin island in the middle of the Ohio River between West Virginia and Ohio, though the island is considered part of West Virginia.

The mansion on Blennerhassett Island was built by Harman Blennerhassett. The original building burned to the ground in 1811, so this is a picture of a replica built in the 1980s.