Start:  Cleveland, OH

Finish: Geneva, OH

Weather:  70 degrees, sun with clouds

Miles:  64

Distance to date: 2,324

Today was gentle riding along small roads as I followed the Coastal Erie Scenic Trail from Cleveland east.  Using US 20 as a base, the route goes up and along the lake, then retreats back where marshes or inlets interfere.  I rode 64 miles and probably advanced half that much, but it was a very pleasant ride.

Lake Erie is tremendous in size, with surf three to four feet high that
comes crashing against the rocky shore.  There was only one place of sandy beach, Headlands State Park, where I put my feet in the water. Not as cold as the ocean in New England, but refreshing nonetheless.  The coast is well developed but not affluent like the New England coastline.  Modest ranches right up to the water, as if it were immaterial whether people had the view or not.  It smelled like the ocean, except for the lack of salt, and reminded me of the inlets I grew up around in New Jersey.  I loved the town of Fairport Harbor, which
stuck out on a peninsula in the lake, and Madison as well, where I had
lunch.  I was hoping for some fish, but the only restaurant was Mexican.

I was happy to come upon Betty’s motel, a sweet place with four rooms lined up behind a house along the highway; much more upstanding than the permissive Cleveland Motel.  I had the end room, and the night was so clear I went to sleep with the curtains open, communing with the stars.

Lighthouse at Headlands State Park, Ohio