We are huge baseball fans in our house, Chicago Cubs to be specific. We try to catch games whenever we can. It is actually a goal of ours to see the Cubs play in every stadium. Minor League games are some of the most enjoyable experiences. When we purchased tickets to see the Iowa Cubs vs. the Columbus Clippers, I of course started looking for what we could do locally. This usually means searching for bike trails and local breweries. I was successful in finding both and mapped out our adventure.
It was an unusually warm spring day, with a hint of humidity. We parked at a local LA Fitness, just west of the trail we planned to ride on. Since we are members of LA Fitness, we would have a place to shower when we were finished. I typed our first destination in Apple Maps and it brought us along surface stress for the first mile. I was a bit nervous about both traffic and being the lead biker, I ended up taking a tumble across a rail road track within the first 5 minutes. I quickly got up, brushed off the cinders and continued on a bit more cautiously. In hind sight I would have ridden directly east from the gym to the trail. This would have limited our time on surface streets. Do your homework, or use an app like RideGPS.
Once on the trail, we rode north to to Understory, a new concept from Wolf’s Ridge Brewery. A beautifully preserved historic building close to nature. Getting there was a bit bumpy, the trail is in need of work in several places and there was a bit of construction going on near the OSU campus. Overall it was a quick 4 miles along the Olentangy River. We got off the trail at Tuttle Community Park and rode east, then north for a bit along local roads. Traffic was not too heavy, but it was a bit uphill on the way there. There are bike racks available, so we parked and headed inside. The commons area is on the lower level and looks out on the Olentangy Trail. We grabbed a beer and found a seat on the patio. This was a perfect spot for a cool beverage. They sell beers by the can, or you can fill your crowler or growler. We bought a couple of cans of beer to go, and used our Crowler Caddie to transport them on our bikes.
Back on the trail, we retraced our steps south until we hit the Ohio to Erie Trail. We then headed west to Columbus Brewing, again using Apple Maps. We jumped off the trail at McKinley Ave and only had to ride about 1/2 mile on the surface streets. There was very light traffic, in an industrial/warehouse area. We were not sure if we were in the correct place at first. When you see the brewery sign, don’t be turned away about the production like look from the outside. Inside the brewery has a very open vibe and the staff was very friendly. We did not have food, but read reviews that the food is great. The beer was great, we tried two fruity seasonal beers, the raspberry was our favorite. Columbus Brewing is one of the longest running breweries in Ohio and oldest in Central Ohio. Beer is only sold in 4 or 6 packs, so we filled a howler to go and loaded it into another crowler caddie for our ride back to the car.
Great adventure. All together 15.4 miles.
The Columbus Clippers play at Huntington Park. The stadium is in the arena district in downtown Columbus. Had an intimate atmosphere, food options were not great, I would suggest maybe eating at a local restaurant outside the park and snacking once inside. There are many craft beer stands along the concourse, and we enjoyed sampling more local brews. It was a beautiful night for a game, and the Cubs won 9-5. Go Cubs Go!