Grand River and the Western Greenway, July 11-12

The Kenisee Lakes Thousand Trails is a smaller, older campground located just a few miles from Jefferson, Ohio.  There are several "lakes", actually there are ponds located in the park for fishing and paddling.  The park is also located close to many covered bridges, and The Western Greenway  Rails to Trails bike path, as well as several wineries.

We ended up parking next to Linda and Howard of RV Dreams fame.  They are a young couple who dropped out of corporate life to become  full time RVers.  They o put on rallies for newbies (new full time RVers or those who are considering full time RVing and Howard writes a daily blog of their full time RV life.   Check it out at www.rv-dreams.typepad.com. They also weigh rigs and toweds  as part of FMCAs educational program as well as their own convictions about having the  proper weight on your RV.   Joel has been following their blog for several years and had met them several years ago and  have been following their blog since last fall trying to learn more about their travels in Florida. Howard does a great job of sharing details about parks and "wow factors".

Monday morning Joel checked with them to see if they would like to go Kayaking and an hour later we were on the Grand River paddling a short section.   There is a beautiful section in the gorge area of the river that Howard wanted to paddle but there wasn't  enough water so we chose a section near the campground. It was only about a 6 miles float, but apparently that is about a good as it gets at this time of year unless you want to portage a lot.

I was first in the water and then Joel followed.  He had a little trouble getting situated.

Linda and Howard have a blow up Sea Eagle Kayak that took only a few minutes to blow up.

Tim and his trusty water dog Odie joined us.  Tim runs a successful business on the road called Geeks on Tour and loves to paddle.  To bad these guys are married because they would fit right in with our singles WIN group.

The river was very slow so there was not much floating but a whole lot of paddling.  These fresh water clams where huge. I wonder what critter enjoyed them recently.

Linda has a reputation for really enjoying her boat trips.  Apparently she only paddles when she has to:)

Along the river I saw this group of tiger lilies.

Oh no!  They said there was only a 20% chance of rain.  The wind came up and it poured!  We all took cover under the trees, not so much because of the torrential  rain, but because of the huge winds and lightening.

Once the wind calmed a little we headed on down the river, but it still kept raining.

 It was a fun paddle and now I can say I paddled the Grand River.  The locals say the best time to paddle is in the spring, but I bet it would be pretty cold them.


On Tuesday,  Howard knocked on our door and asked if we were up for a bike ride on the Western Greenway. We put our chores aside for another day and were ready in minutes. The Western Greenway Trail is part of the Rails to Trails system and follows a nice paved bike path beginning at Ashtabula, Ohio and ending about 43 miles south. Linda and Howard wanted  to ride  from the campground so we headed out and caught to bike trail about 2 miles from the campground and headed north to Austinburg with the intention of stopping for lunch .  The distance from the campground to Austinburg was only about a seven very easy miles so we all decided to continue on to Ashtabula another seven miles.  We stopped for lunch at the E-com cafe and then headed back to camp. Our total miles ended up being 28 miles.  So much for a short day.

The trail is paved all the way and much of it is in the shade.

The E-com cafe in downtown Ashtabula is a quaint cafe and it wasn't very busy. They do make some great panini sandwiches. There wasn't much going on in downtown Ashtabula.  We were told the action is over at the harbor, another 4 or 5 miles so we opted not to go further today.

The guys are on the home stretch now, only a few miles to go and they still have a smile on their face.

It was a fun day for all.

Linda and Howard left the next morning and  are heading for Niagara Falls which the direction we are heading, so will probably see them again on down the road.