The East Side ride this Saturday will take us down to the Brush Creek Wildlife Area south of Salineville to Grammy’s Kitchen in Amsterdam for lunch. SR 14 to Salem, SR 9 to Kensington, and SR 644 to Salineville for our rest stop. The riding gets good on SR 9 and 644, but really good when we turn off onto CR 55 and follow it east along the north side of Brush Creek valley before dropping down into Irondale, just a couple of miles from the Ohio River. The Brush Creek area is one of the most remote areas in Ohio. A gravel road follows the creek at the bottom of the valley and there are a few little “roads” that go up to valley walls, some of which are primitive. We won’t be taking those roads, but the valley is a great place to explore on your adventure bike.
After riding through Irondale and Hanmmondsville it’s up to the south rim of the valley to Township Road 218 – a great little lane-and-a-half heavily canopied track – to Timothy Ridge Road. Next we’ll take State Park-Mooretown Road past Jefferson Lake State Park to SR 43 and the west to Amsterdam. I’ve not been to Grammy’s Kitchen before but it gets excellent reviews so I thought it’s worth a shot.
It’s everyone on their own after lunch, but I highly recommend taking SR 164 west (great curves) to SR 212 north to Zoar and I-77.
This route is all paved – about 2.5 hours of riding time to Grammy’s.
Ride departs Bob Evans in Macedonia (I-271 and SR 8) promptly at 10 AM, this Saturday, May 28. Get there by 9 for breakfast – Bob’s tends to fill up on Saturday mornings.
Here’s the GPS route: Brush Creek to Amsterdam 220528