Again it was a beautiful day for riding. Blue skies, moderate temperatures, and Northwesterly winds.

Today Michigan and Apple Maps messed with me again. Seems like everywhere I went, the pavement turned to gravel. At one point I even turned around and went back about a half mile to take a chance with a paved road that didn’t seem too busy. It worked out pretty well. A couple of other roads turned to gravel about a mile after I got on them. Now I have done some gravel riding for pleasure, but it’s a lot more strenuous than most pavement riding. The result is slower speeds and fewer hours in the saddle before you become fatigued. It’s also much harder on your equipment. For the distances I’m trying to cover, gravel really isn’t optimal. If safe paved roads are available, I’ll try to use them.

Toledo was kind of a bear to get through, as there were few bike lanes or paths and the shoulders on the busier roads were nonexistent or very narrow. I resorted to a lot of side streets which requires a lot of stopping to check directions.

The town itself seems pretty run down with a lot of litter and decrepit buildings. However, compared to Portland, Oregon, the majority of homeless people didn’t appear to be living on the streets. Based on the state of the streets, I would say the city of Toledo was hurting financially, like a lot of the residents. In contrast, Portland has a big problem with the homeless, but the city itself seems to be in reasonable repair.

Once I got through the immediate Toledo area, the side roads were excellent (and paved) but the main roads were too dangerous to use.

About 71 miles crossed today, makes for a total of 2776. The blue line on this screen shot of the Google Maps app gives you a rough idea of my track. As I had hoped, I am now on the ABA Northern Tier route again.