Today’s ride was the opposite of yesterday’s–I covered about 60 miles and had some peaceful long stretches of trail riding early in the day, and then about 20 miles on a busy highway as I headed into Grand Rapids, MI at the end of the day. In St. Johns, MI, where I stayed last night, I began by heading the few blocks back to the Clinton-Ionia-Shiawassee Trail to start my ride.

St. Johns is the largest city and county seat of Clinton County, which has an armed services memorial right where the trail intersects with Clinton Ave., the town’s main street. As you can see from the photo below, there are 19 panels of names in the memorial. I thought it was interesting that 12 of the 19 panels are taken up with names of those who served in the Civil War, vastly outnumbering all the other conflicts combined, including the two World Wars. I mentioned this to my innkeeper Ken, and he said that Michigan had been asked by the Union Army to send two divisions of soldiers to serve in the Civil War, but it actually sent four divisions (I believe that Union Army divisions at that time contained 1,500 to 4,000 men). In any event, I can only imagine the toll it must have taken on the farming communities of that time to have so many men serving in the war.

I understand there were one or two members of the Green family who had served in the Union Army in the Civil War. That was a long time ago, and I don’t know their names, but I imagine they are included in the panel that lists four men with the Green surname.

Speaking of names, I enjoyed reading a number of tributes and memorials on benches placed along the trail–and used these benches from time to time to have a moment off the bike. Here are just a couple examples.

I want to thank those honoring Mindy with this tribute–it never hurts to get a little positive reinforcement like this.

As for people you meet on the trail, I met Thomas, who is from the Czech Republic, at a rest stop in Pewamo, MI. Thomas is a PhD cellular biologist who is doing post-doctoral cancer research at Michigan State University. He plans to move back to the Czech Republic someday to continue his research. He likes to bike as a way to get some exercise and clear his head for his work in the week ahead. We had a fascinating discussion about the cellular aspects of cancer, and I was very impressed by the clarity of his explanations of how healthy and cancerous cells replicate. Thomas seemed very interested in my trip and I gave him the address for this blog.

A few hours later on the trail, I met a guy out biking who has been a high school wrestling coach and continues to wrestle himself, even though he is in his sixties. He also works as a guard at the state prison in Ionia, MI. Wondering if his wrestling skills have ever proved useful in that line of work, I asked if he has ever been involved in any fights in the prison, and he said oh yes, many of them, including fights where some of the prisoners had knives. He said he’s been exposed so many times to the pepper spray used by guards to quell these disturbances that he’s gotten immune to its effects–he can calmly walk into a room filled with it and open a window to clear out the fumes. I unfortunately never got this guy’s name or photo, but we talked for about 20 minutes after he rode up as I was looking at my maps once it was time to leave the trail and head back onto the highway and said he thought he and I were the only guys on the trail who weren’t riding e-bikes. He doesn’t think e-bikes provide very much exercise. I think it’s interesting how biking can attract so many different kinds of people, for so many different reasons.

Following are a few examples of some of the diverse scenery from the trail. These photos are all taken from the area around Ionia, MI (pop. 11,704). Here is the Grand River that flows through Ionia.

This was a view off the trail that is part of the Ionia State Recreation Area.

Unfortunately, not everything you see near the trail is natural beauty. This was a sign I saw on a fence a few blocks from one of the entrances to the trail in Ionia. I Googled “industrial waste stored in Ionia” and learned that an investigation in 1989 found a quarter-acre site with approximately 6,000 cubic yards of drummed wastes and contaminated soils containing paint wastes and solvents.

Even though I took Tuesday off when my bike was in the shop, in addition to last Sunday, I rode 218.6 miles this week, an average of about 44 miles a day on the days I was riding. Tomorrow (Sunday) I will again take the day off from biking, and plan to visit with my sister Donna and brother-in-law Mark, who will drive down from their home in Traverse City, MI.