Two of the very nice, but shorter bike trails in the area are the Muskingum County Trail and the Great Guernsey Trail.  The Muskingum County Trail runs through the Muskingum Valley south of Dresden.  It is only four miles long, but is a very pretty trail.  There are nice trailheads at either end of the trail, although the one in Dresden is a little easier to find.  The trailhead on Rock Cut Road ends at a dirt road beside a gravel pit.  There were plans for the trail to be extended, but the trail association couldn’t get permission from the landowner south of Rock Cut Road.  The trail is asphalt but had a few rough places that needed to be marked for future repaving.

We extended the length of the trail by riding through Dresden which is a small town with little traffic.  There is a McDonalds, several “quaint” stores downtown, and The Depot Smokehouse which was by far the most popular eatery in town.  The main road was wide with one traffic light, so it made for an easy ride.

The Great Guernsey Trail is a six mile trail from Cambridge to Lore City.  Cambridge is a wonderful town to explore with a bustling, historic downtown area.  The trail starts east of Cambridge just off US 40.  It has the best trailheads of any of the bike trails we rode in this area.  The Great Guernsey Trail also had lovely shaded rest areas every mile.  The trail is scenic, even though it is short.

Lore City, at the end of the ride, is “famous” because it was the site of a raid in 1863 by the Confederate Morgan’s Raiders.  City doesn’t really belong in the name of the village because it is very small (325 people), but it had a nice park and the bike trail circled the park.

We enjoyed both the rides but hope that both trails will be expanded.  It would be nice if the Muskingum County Trail covered more of the county and if the Great Guernsey Trail really was great!  Perhaps their names reflect the hope that someday they will both be county-wide trails.