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Photographs promoting Ohio University Inn’s hotel package for Ohio’s Windy 9 taken on April 25, 2017. (Photograph by Joel Prince)

All Roads (Of Ohio’s Windy Nine) Lead to Athens

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Motorcycles symbolize a strong sense of personal independence, a certain mastery of simplicity, and the ability to just get up and go.

For the second summer, Ohio’s Windy Nine, a thrilling nine-route, 1,000-mile curated motorcycle trip that deposits riders in Athens, has been providing motorcyclists with a safe, fun, and electrifying way to indulge their passion.

“Unlike a lot of other communities, we’re always looking for ways to create tourism products to get us through the summer months,” said Paige Alost, the executive director of the Athens County Visitors Bureau and one of the people behind the creation of Ohio’s Windy Nine.

The path was devised after some serious research, looking into other parts of the state that have curated motorcycle paths, and consulting a few avid riders in the Athens area. The trail itself is built around State Route 555, also known as the “triple nickel,” which runs through southeastern Ohio. The visitors bureau selected several other roads that feed into or out of the area around S.R. 555 to build the map for the route, looking to create a motorcycling experience that would be challenging yet exciting for all experience levels of motorcyclists.

This man claims to have driven every Windy 9 route. (Photograph by Joel Prince)
This man claims to have driven every Windy 9 route. (Photograph by Joel Prince)

“A lot of times, when people visit a rural area, like Southeastern Ohio, they’re afraid to venture off the main path, off of the 33s and 50s of the world,” said Alost. “This is a way that we can take a group that wants to experience an area off of the beaten path and show them a region that is so rich in history and that has so many great things to look at.”

Alost estimates that it will probably take about three summers to get Ohio’s Windy Nine’s name out there among motorcyclists.

“So far, it’s been hugely successful. Just this summer, we’ve had people coming from as far away as Oklahoma and Key West, Florida. We also have lots of people coming from the contiguous states – Michigan, West Virginia, Illinous, Pennsylvania, and a lot of people from New York,” said Alost. “What it really comes down to is the quality of the roads, which is so high. That gives us some great feedback for our county engineer, and it provides a way for us to generate some positive economic impact.”