It is cool and partly cloudy this morning, a welcome change to the last few days. As we leave Millersburg and roll down to the trail, we have started to see the Amish. A family walking down Main Street. A young girl on her bicycle. A family in a buggy.
Once we hit the trail, it is full of Amish families using different transport modes. Some are riding in a buggy, others a simple wagon, some on a regular bike and a large percentage of others (surprisingly) on electric bikes. The only thing they have in common is that the men wear straw hats, short sleeve shirts and long, dark pants. The women wear bonnets, typically white or black, and a long dress. A pair of Amish girls sitting in a horse-drawn wagon pass us on the other side of the trail.
Everyone smiles and waves on the busy Holmes County Trail. It is noisier than normal with the rhythmic clip-clop-clip-clop of the horses’ hoofs on the asphalt. I believe they are all heading for the Wal-Mart, where stall space will be at a premium. We notice as we head north that while fresh manure is deposited on the trail, there is little that is aged. Ted guesses that the Amish must clean up every day after their animals. I agree.
The trail continues to bisect a swamp-like area where bullfrogs announce their positions with a low ribbit-ribbit-ribbit. A few farms are attempting to grow crops but many are thwarted by the soaked and muddy soil, particularly on the river side of the path.
We stop on the trail for a water break and leaves from a grove of locus trees release their leaves around us, oared by the wind. Soon the trail spits into two: a low road for horses and higher one for cyclists. A bicycling father and his young daughter (not much older than my granddaughter Charlotte) pass us by.
We notice a roughness in the trail that we did not notice before; perhaps the horses and buggies have had an effect. The Amish farms around us are different than those we had seen further south: they have weeds as they do not use any type of herbicides. Grasses grow in between corn filling in many of the spaces.
Water laps near the trail and we duck in and out of light and dark. We leave the trail and enter Fredericksburg.
