Biking Ohio's Prairie Grass Trail (Ohio to Erie Trail)

This paved 29 mile trail runs from Xenia to London paralleling but rarely seeing US 42. I began in Xenia at the Bike Trail Hub, and finding this trail was the only difficult thing about it. I ran into a family of three who were just as confused as I was, and they had tried to find it several weeks ago and had ended up biking the Xenia-Jamestown Connector by mistake and were back today to correct the error. So here are some photos I took to help you get on the right path.

First, the trail goes by the name Ohio to Erie Trail (referring to Ohio's planned 330 mile rail using existing trail segments.) All the literature says that the existing trails that will be used for the Ohio to Erie will retain their original names, but I saw no indication of this trail being called by its name, the Prairie Grass Trail.

After biking 24 miles of this trail, I discovered this sign as I was nearly back to Xenia Station.
If a duplicate sign would be placed across the street near the Caboose, it would greatly assist new users.

The easiest way to locate the start of the trail from Xenia Station is to take this path that runs to the left of the playground/water park...

...which gets you to Highway 68/Detroit Street. You want to cross this street but might find it easier to turn left, go a few yards on the sidewalk to where the curb is lower, cross, and then back on the other side. That's Hill Street over there -- go up it just a few yards and you'll see...

...the start of the trail on the left -- quite obvious when you get next to it, but no signage to direct you to it...

Okay, that was the hard part. Now just follow the trail for as many of its 29 miles as you wish to ride!

The trail pavement is in excellent condition and is tree shrouded for the start, but soon the tree canopy will no longer shade the trail, so on a hot, sunny summer day...

... it could be blistery warm as you get into the agricultural areas that dominate much of the trail and have no shade. But the scenery is wonderful and all of civilization's distractions are absent, so you can relish that.

Nowadays, we see composite material being used for fences, decks, and a lot more construction uses, but this trail has had a composite-material bridge over Shawnee Creek that dates back nearly 20 years to 1998! And they rightly brag about it with this sign...

Nearly obscured in the brush, I noticed this old 48 mile marker post from the original rail lines -- The PCC and St.L ( Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Chicago, and St. Louis RR) and the Little Miami RR.

At about 7.5 miles you'll come upon this rest area which is advertised as having monarch butterflies, but not while I was there...

 ...but just a mile or so beyond is the town of Cedarville. They have a kiosk with a printed card listing all the town businesses available to you with a map on the town on other side of the card.

I went another 3 or 4 miles before turning back to Xenia, but about 10 miles beyond Cedarville is South Charleston with picnic tables, water, and restrooms, and then another 10 miles gets you to the other terminus at London.