Dayton and the Great Miami trail

Tuesday
Most of our biking is done on the Little Miami trail, but today we had a change and drove up to Dayton and cycled some of the Great Miami trail. This is another long trail, extending from Hamilton, just north west of Cincinnati, up to Piqua, a distance of about 86 miles. In its southern section in particular it passes through more built up areas than the Little Miami, and is rather more industrial in places. In a number of sections it runs along the top of a flood control levee, affording good views of the river, but making it more open to sun and wind. The top right image shows the Five Rivers Fountain of lights in Riverscape MetroPark, a series of five fountains (two of them are out of the picture to the right), that shoot water about 200 feet high and 400 feet across at the confluence of the Great Miami and Mad Rivers. The five streams of water, symbolizing five regional rivers, meet in a giant center spray, and have been part of the city skyline since 2001, when the park opened. At night they are illuminated. The region is blessed with an abundance of water, thanks to the Great Miami Buried Valley Aquifer, one of the nation’s most plentiful aquifers and the source of the fountain’s water. This was the first time I had seen it in operation. The fountains are supposed to run for eight minutes at the top of every hour, however today they were cut short, I suspect due to the wind, and so I didn’t get chance to take a panoramic shot with all five water jets plus the central one.
The bottom right image includes a statue of the city’s two most famous sons, Orville and Wilbur Wright. It depicts Wilbur explaining “wing warping” to Orville, the technique that gave them control of their aircraft.
One year ago: Mono Monday - Lines