Biking Back from the Dark Side

 Route descriptions courtesy of Mark Hansen Troy to Brattleboro, Vermont : The namesake of the Hudson River was the English explorer Henry Hudson. In 1609, he sailed the Halve Maen (“Half Moon”) 125 miles up the river to Kinderhook – which he named – and continued in the ship’s boat to today’s Troy, another 20 miles. He was in the employ of the Dutch East India Company, hence the name of his ship. The Dutch merchants had hired him to search for a supposed Northwest Passage to the Orient. It made a certain amount of sense for Hudson to consider the river as a possibility – the slow-flowing Hudson is tidal as far as Troy – but it did not prove to be. His voyage, however, was a basis for the Dutch claim (asserted in 1614) to the American colony it called New Netherland.  The ride route follows the river north until opposite Waterford, the origin of the New York State Canal. It turns east on Plank Rd: in the early 19th century, roads were planked – decked with wood over stringer b...

 Route descriptions courtesy of Mark Hansen Erie to Buffalo, New York : Today's route follows the road along the Lake Erie shoreline to West Seneca, a suburb of Buffalo. From Pennsylvania, it passes into Chautauqua Co, New York. Its name is said to be the only word in the language of the Erie people that is still in use. Its meaning is unknown, so thoroughly were the Erie annihilated by the Iroquois in the Beaver Wars. Chautauqua Co is the namesake of the Chautauqua Movement, an adult education and social enlightenment program that flourished in the late 18th and early 19th century. It incorporated elements of the lyceum and the camp meeting in its gatherings, called "Chautauquas," in cities and towns throughout America. The Chautauquas often had social reform themes. Among the speakers were politician William Jennings Bryan, prison reformer Maud Ballington Booth, settlement house pioneer Jane Addams, humorist Opie Reed, and Russell Conwell, a Baptist minister who deliver...

 Route descriptions courtesy of Mark Hansen Richmond to Marysville, Ohio: Today’s route angles east across west central Ohio through small towns and unincorporated communities, bypassing many of the county seats and skirting north of Dayton (home of the Wright Brothers) and Columbus (the state capital and home of the Ohio State University). The little farming town of New Paris in Preble Co was the home of the abolitionist preacher Benjamin Hanby at the time he composed the popular Christmas song "Up on the Housetop" in 1864. New Madison and Gettysburg (named for the town in Pennsylvania, long before the battle) are in Darke Co. Gettysburg was the home of Ira Petersime, who in the twenties established a company in the town to manufacture his invention, an electric incubator used in the poultry industry. His son and successor Ray was active in the resettlement of "DPs" -- "displaced persons" made refugees during and after World War II -- many of them broug...