Great Miami River Trail Part II

PIQUA, OHIO

I began the day riding part of the Great Miami River Trail in Dayton. That did not go so well as the trails next to the river in Dayton were covered with mud and/or under construction.

That led me to this tried and true route (once before). I parked in Troy and headed to Piqua. The trail in this section is in great shape. Great asphalt and no roots. There were two puddles one had to go through caused by all the rain of the last 10 days.

Towards the end of the trail I passed a watered section of the Erie – Miami Canal. Then I head out Hardin Road to Lockington.

I passed the Lockington Dam which has certainly fallen into disrepair. But I guess it lasted 80 years.

I stopped briefly and posed for a photo in front of the house where I lived 50 years ago. A teenage girl walked by with her mother or grandmother.

I almost asked the older woman if she lived in the house next door 50 years ago but they were engaged and I missed that opportunity. But it was 50 years ago on the same sidewalk that I remember my dad sitting on my bike.

The road back in to Piqua was in great shape and surprisingly little traffic. Fifty years ago I would ride my bike on this road and not even be aware of cars. I guess when you’re 10-12 years old you don’t think about that those things. You just know cars won’t hit you. Or you just don’t think about it.

In Piqua I crossed the Great Miami River on N. Main Street. This is a pretty city. A neat downtown and a beautiful old building, the “Orr-Statler Block” building.

The Great Miami Trail is a river trail that comes into the city. There is also a rail-trail, Piqua’s linear park. The old Pennsylvania Rail Road (then Conrail) ran east-west and crossed town via a high trestle. There are stairs leading up to the trestle which one can bike across.

Leaving town to the south, one passes a waste water treatment plant. Not observant enough to take a photo of sewage, I noticed what looked to be an atomic dome. This was apparently the location for the first municipal atomic plant in the 1960s. Piqua was the first atomic powered city although that didn’t last long.

The last five miles back to Troy were pleasant. On this section of the trail one can make out an area next to the trail that was the old Miami-Erie Canal.

It has been reclaimed by the forest but the unnatural depression in the earth gives it away. This section was a much better section than in the city of Dayton. This was a nice trail and great diversion to the Lockington Loop.

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