Joe Krocker completes solo bike trip

Joe Krocker of Tuscarawas recently completed a solo ride on the Ohio to Erie Trail from Millersburg to Cincinnati. The full trail is a multiuse trail, sometimes following former railroad corridors and canal paths, that connects Cleveland to Cincinnati.

Over the five days of his trip, Krocker was in good company as he pedaled his Trek bicycle. Figures from 2022 placed OTET visits at nearly 3 million.

“Everybody does the trail differently, and they do it for different reasons. Some people do it for speed; some people do it for sightseeing,” Krocker said. “And people come from all over.”

Krocker met people from Canada. He saw an Amish family biking for recreation. Another time he met e-bike riders who were charging their bicycles each night at hotels. He saw a father and a son making the trip and another older man riding a four-wheel bike. Of course, there were people walking the trail too.

“There's people of all ages and different capabilities,” Krocker said. “You can tell when you're getting closer to trail heads because you see lots of walkers.”

Krocker has ridden the northern part of the OTET, which also follows the same path as the Ohio & Erie Towpath Trail, dozens of times. He maintains a Facebook page, Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail/Ohio to Erie Trail Enthusiasts group, and wanted to see the trail he hadn’t yet covered. The difficulty in scheduling such a trip with work and other responsibilities led him to go by himself when the opportunity arose.

For the trip Krocker took only two changes of clothing, sometimes washing them out in the sink and drying with a hair dryer or using the hotel coin-operated washer and dryer. Most used quarters, and the hotels don’t have cash anymore, so planning ahead is vital.

Other items he had on his bike were an extra tire tube and a small multi-tool designed just for bikes.

“I took a big bag of trail mix and pepperoni sticks and usually four bottles of drinks total. I would have drank a lot more had it been warmer because it wasn't extremely warm when I was on the trip,” Krocker said.

He also planned some of his evening stops because they were close to a restaurant. It was a strategy that didn’t always work out. One restaurant was closed each week on the day he stopped, and he ended up ordering delivery from another restaurant to the hotel.

He kept his bike in his room and liked to tell his friends he was camping at hotels during the trip.

“Lots of people use bed-and-breakfasts, but because of everything that goes on, I'm more comfortable booking something that I can cancel the day before if I have to. If life happens, I'm not out completely,” Krocker said.

This worked well at the end of his trip. He had a 70-mile day planned but decided to go only 50 and not stay overnight in Cincinnati. On the last day of the trip, he biked only 20 miles and then crossed the Ohio River into Kentucky to rent a car for the 3 ½-hour drive home.

Krocker was surprised the trail is almost 100% asphalt from Millersburg to Cincinnati.

“There's only like a half- or quarter-mile section at the Big Darby Creek area south of Columbus that’s crushed stone because it's an environmentally sensitive area,” Krocker said. “You are on the road very little, but there's some cases where you have no choice. There’s just no trail. And sometimes I think small towns want you going through the downtown.”

The scenery was diverse beginning with Amish country, the larger cities, nature preserves, regional parks and farmland. One time he followed the same vehicle for miles.

“I was right behind an Amish horse-drawn sulky, and I followed them for miles because they were going just fast enough that I really didn't want to pass them,” Krocker said.

Krocker recorded many scenes of his trip using a GoPro camera.

He felt comfortable traveling alone on his longest trip so far of about 230 miles.

“I loved it. It was quiet, there were lots of things to see and I had cellphone coverage almost the entire way,” Krocker said.