New cycle tour scheduled This summer Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park offers a new program, called Bike-with-a-Ranger Cycle Tours and Programs.
Park Ranger Arthur Currence, will meet with cyclist at 8 a.m. every first and third Sunday now through September behind The Wright Cycle Company building. Bike-with-a-Ranger Cycle Tours and Programs is a great way to explore the area’s exceptional history the same way citizens of Dayton did back during the early 1900s. The Wright brothers made many tours of the area too.
Through out the summer there will be many opportunities and rides to pick from.
• Bicycle Tour 1: Printers, Writers & Flyers will take place on August 6 and September 3. On this tour you will visit The Wright Cycle Company building and print shop, the home of Paul Laurence Dunbar, The Wright Company (airplane), and the World’s First Practical Airplane. If their father, the bishop, suggested his sons to “go fly a kite” then you can discover where they flew them. The tour will cover West Dayton and Carillon Historical Park (2 hour; 10 - 12 miles): The ride is easy and the admission to Carillon Historical Park is waived courtesy of Dayton History; regular admission charged by Ohio Historical Society if touring Dunbar House — advance registration suggested.
• Bicycle Tour 2: Watching Birds, Flying Boats & Ancient Times is scheduled for August 20. Leave the Wright-Dunbar neighborhood to pedal along the Great Miami to see the world’s first practical airplane, discover the location of the Wrights’ work with “seaplanes”, the location for their bird observations, and the Wrights’ first aeroplane factory. As a treat, visit the site of one of the Miami Valley’s oldest communities at Sunwatch. This tour will include West Third, Carillon Historical Park, The Pinnacles, Sunwatch (2 - 4 Hrs; 15 - 20 miles): The ride is easy to moderate. No fee for this ride.
• Bicycle Tour 3: Grand Tour of Wilbur’s Wride of 1892 is the last chance to tour with Ranger Currence this season - this one takes place on September 17. The summer’s closing grand tour features an opportunity to follow the pneumatic tire tracks of the Wright brothers on the 31 mile circuit described in Wilbur’s letter to Katharine. Their tour passed the Fairgrounds, Oakwood, Centerville, Miamisburg, Miamisburg Mound, West Carrollton, and near the future site of Carillon Historical Park before returning home. Like the brothers, you’ll climb the “Classic Heights of Runnymede”, see their grandfather’s first home site “out West” (i.e. Ohio), their uncle’s home still standing in Centerville, and eventually to Great Miami Mound. The ride is moderate and geared for the experienced rider. It will pass through potentially high volume automobile traffic and with some good climbs. Admission to Sunwatch and Carillon Historical Park is waived. Number of riders limited, and advanced registration is required by September 6, 2006.
Beside the tours the park also offers talks about bicycling every first and third Tuesday at 7 p.m., Bicycle Snap-Shots, a program about cycling (past and present) will be given at The Wright Cycle Company building.
For detailed descriptions of tours and programs call Arthur Currence at 225-7705.
Both park locations, Huffman Prairie Flying Field Interpretive Center and The Wright Cycle Company complex, are open daily 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. During the summer there are extended hours for the Huffman Prairie Flying Field Interpretive Center where it is open until 6 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.
The Wright Cycle Company complex also has extended hour for the summer and is open until 8 p.m. on Tuesdays.
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