Recap: Portsmouth Connex Wild Ride (Shawnee State Park)
It’s a long drive from Columbus, but boy is the riding in Shawnee State Park worth it! Knowing this, I took advantage of the Portsmouth Connex Wild Ride (website) happening on a beautiful summer weekend and headed down to enjoy riding in my favorite part of the state. The folks behind this event are really trying hard to put on a nice ride and, based on my experience, are succeeding!
They offer two gravel routes of 35 and 58 miles; I did the latter, which was easily 70-80% gravel, a true treat! On top of this, they also offer 5(!) paved routes, of distances ranging from 9-100 miles. All of the routes feature lots and lots of climbing. I ended up with 6200 feet of climbing on the day (my Garmin initially recorded 7100!)! The climbing is very different between the two halves of the course. In the first half it’s very long, gradual climbs—think 1-4 miles at 5-8%. The second half is more typical Ohio gravel route climbing, with shorter but much steeper (10+%) hills.
Shawnee State Park and Forest are tremendously beautiful. The big climbs reward you with big views, there are some pretty creeks, and plenty of beautiful forest. We saw many different folks out enjoying the park, including backpackers, horse riders, and even a group having a great time hunting for salamanders, which was apparently a daytime activity as part of some “Firefly Weekend” at the park. We also rode with Frederick and Danny from Huntington, WV, for a bit. They were super kind and praised the OGG site as a great resource. They’ve also attended the Great/Big/Spring Thaw Ride at Scioto Trail in the past.
It was super dry and dusty all day, but the weather was great! The gravel ranged from smooth hardpack to chunky double track in a few places where there was fresh logging activity; this provided an added technical challenge. Several sections had been freshly graded or had new gravel dumped, and many of the areas that would have been faster under less dry conditions had a significant layer of silt on top. There was nary an easy pedal stroke all day!
This made the warm welcome at the finish—with an arch, volunteers ringing cowbells, and an offer of a tasty freeze-pop—even more wonderful! This was par for the course on the day. All of the volunteers were super friendly, the rest stops were nicely stocked (unique item: freeze-dried Skittles!) and well-spaced (two plus one final water stop on the 58 mile route), and the swag was pretty great for the modest entry price. We received a shirt with a great design, a pint glass, an edible (cookie) medal matching the name of our route, and a coupon for a beer at Portsmouth Brewing Company.
After heading to the park lodge to clean up we then made our usual stop at the Buckeye Dairy Bar, which I would vote is a must-do on any trip to Shawnee. They have all manner of tasty post-ride food and of course, ice cream. A large peanut butter s’mores milkshake was my recovery drink of choice!
I can’t recommend this event enough! This is the second time I’ve done it, and it will continue to provide me a great reason to spend a few hours in the car to attend. The number of gravel riders seemed quite small in comparison to “roadies” (Frederick and Danny were the only two we saw all day, though we did see other tracks), so make the trip next year and tell ‘em OGG sent ya!
See below for photos and routes.
