We resumed our BT wanderings this year using our camping strategy to hike the increasingly far away sections and this time brought our bikes as many of the Defiance sections includes towpath along the Maumee River (which we learned is the largest river that empties into the Great Lakes- who knew?). We decided to camp at Independence Dam State Park near Defiance (section point 8), which is at the more southern end of this BT section. April and I took a lazy day drive out there and arrived in mid-afternoon only to have to set up camp in an unexpected shower. Wendy arrived shortly after us and was in the same predicament. We all managed to put up our awning from the car and attach some tarps to cover us and the bikes to make the light rain more bearable, and pretty much when we were all done the rain stopped. After dinner (July 4th leftovers) we decided to do a little test biking in the park, which was all part of the BT, and visited the dam and canal associated with it. It actually turned out to be a long ride as the length of the park from the entrance to our camp site was almost 2.5 mi! The site itself was great, totally at the end of the campground, fully shaded, and placed between the Maumee River and the canal. The bad was that a county road was on the other side of the canal so car noise was ever present but thankfully decreased at night…when distant trains made their presence known. There was not much privacy between sites but because we were camping mid-week there was rarely anyone else camping, certainly not near us. We all had fun trying out Wendy’s hammock but none of us thought we could sleep in it. So, we retired to our cots semi-dry and having some BT miles under our belts.
