July 16, 2017
Ruggles Beach, OH to Birmingham, OH. Finishing at East Harbor State Park, OH
Day 17 - Car Camping
Sunny with patchy clouds.
We left our WS house at 8 a.m. stopping for breakfast in Vermillion.
We then rode down to the lighthouse to our starting point 2 weeks ago and took a photo.
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We then headed south on Hwy 60 to Davis's house so we could pick up our car. We arrived about 10:15 a.m. and we had everything in the car in 15 minutes and was soon driving east towards Lorain. I planned to drive out and see if I could get a photo of the lighthouse as we had missed it on the first day due to rain.
In 1836, a brick tower was built at the outer end of the pier that extended from the west bank of the river
The current lighthouse was lit in April of 1919. In 1965, the breakwater was improved an an automatic light install. The current tower was decommissioned and slated for demolition. Luckily the citizens of Lorain banded together and saved the lighthouse.
We then drove west towards Sandusky on Hwy 2. The reason we were in the car was I wanted to visit a couple more lighthouses west of Sandusky over on the Marblehead Peninsula. However cyclists are not allowed to ride the Edison Bridge on Hwy 2 so we were driving the car over there and then camping for a couple of days at East Harbor State Park where we could do some more riding. The Northern Tier goes way south of Sandusky because of this bridge.
After driving over the bridge it appears to have a pretty good shoulder and looks like you good bike over it (except for the big no pedestrians sign).
The below photo shows that they could either build a protected lane on the bridge or even connect the two piers and make a pedestrian bridge.
We parked near a grocery store and went in and stocked up for lunch and dinner. We ate our lunch outside then unloaded the bikes and headed to Port Clinton to see the Port Clinton lighthouse.
Around 1832 a stone lighthouse and keepers home were built. This light was deactivated in 1859, but re-activated again in 1864.
After two piers were built in 1883, a wooden pierhead light was established on the west pier in 1896. Unfortunately the old stone twoer was toen down in1899 with the stone used to protect the front of Grassy Island Lighthouse.
In November 1952, the wooden Port Clinton lighthouse was removed from the pier and relocated to a marina on the Portage River. Now fully restored the lighthouse was moved to Waterworks park and re-lit on September 26, 2016.
After the tour and collecting the stamp we headed in the opposite direction to Marblehead Lighthouse. We arrived there just when they were starting the last tour of the day and climbed to the top of the tower.
Marblehead Lighthouse was first lit in 1821. In 1880 the current keeper house was constructed along with the exterior of the tower was covered in stucco and painted white. At the time there were concerned that the tower should be replaced. By 1897, instead of a new tower the existing tower was renovated. The top eight feet of the limestone tower was removed and a brick extension was built. A new lantern from the discontinued Erie Land Lighthouse was placed atop the tower in 1900.
The lighthouse was automated and given a fresh coat of stucco in 1958.
After the tour we biked back to the car, picked up some cooked chicken to supplement our dinner and then drove the short couple of miles to the campground.
Set up and had dinner.
Today's ride: 41 miles (66 km)
Total: 701 miles (1,128 km)
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