The term “eye candy” is often used to refer to often expensive, very colorful and really attractive bicycles. I recently took a long run on the Little Miami Scenic Trail and was overtaken by some truly great looking bicycles, which swiftly and silently approached before whizzing past me. But, as much as I appreciate “eye candy” bikes, to paraphrase Shania Twain, “that didn’t impress me much.”
What did impress me was a number of bicyclists, many riding basic bikes, who called out “on your left” or “passing” or rang their bells as they approached. I knew what to expect and knew to maintain my position running along the righthand side of the trail. I was pleased to know that at least some trail users are knowledgeable, courteous and safety-minded.

I am in the habit of calling out “on your right” when a bicyclist passes me unannounced, hoping that at least a few will figure out that they should call out “on your left” when passing. I have no idea if this approach is at all effective. On the other hand, whenever someone passes me and announces their presence, I always say “thank you,” to acknowledge I’ve heard, to express my appreciation and to provide positive reinforcement. My hope is that my “thank you” will encourage others always to announce their presence when passing.

Here are two things you can do to encourage safe passing behavior on the trail:

1. Set a good example by always announcing your presence when passing.
2. Provide positive reinforcement by thanking those who announce their presence when passing you.

With these simple actions, each of us individually and all of us together can make a real difference, one passerby at a time.

by Erick Wikum
October 2019

by Phillip Obermiller

Just north of the bridge at mile marker 41 on the trail is a red-brick 19^th century farmhouse, once the home of Nancy Ford Cones. Cones pioneered the role of women in photography while living and making images at Road’s End, her homeplace alongside the Little Miami River. “It is a dead sure thing,” she once wrote, “that if you cannot make pictures in and around home, it is positively hopeless to go abroad to find them.”

She wasn’t much appreciated by the other members of the Loveland Women’s Art Club who chided her for “attempting art” with her camera. Yet her photographs were shown in art galleries in San Francisco, Boston, and London, and she took second place in a national photographic competition after Eduard Steichen and ahead of Alfred Stieglitz. Eastman Kodak and Bausch & Lomb paid royalties for the use of her images in their national advertising. Her professional oeuvre includes 15,000 glass photographic plates and 3,000 gum prints.

Cones was a leader not only in photography’s Pictorialist Movement but in another way as well. Both Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton are credited with declaring that "woman is riding to suffrage on the bicycle" because early women cyclists opted for practical pants and/or leggings over the voluminous and “more modest” fashion of the day. The 19^th amendment was passed when Cones was 51 but she had been bicycling unencumbered by a long skirt or dress well before that, embodying on two wheels the independent spirit shown in her photography.

Cones died in 1962 before a section of the Little Miami Railroad became the Little Miami State Park. Nevertheless, she would likely be pleased to know that a popular bike trail now crosses her former front yard - and that hardly any of the riders are wearing skirts or long dresses.

Somewhere, Nancy Ford Cones is smiling.

Photo: Nancy Ford Cones (right).

(Phillip Obermiller is a member of the Friends of the Little Miami State Park and has a Nancy Ford Cones print in his den.)