By PETER GREER
greer@crescent-news.com
Chuck Haney is living his dream -- and soon, the Defiance area will be a part of it.
The 47-year-old Ayersville High School graduate is a lifelong bicycling enthusiast who makes his living writing about and photographing his adventures on the road. The Defiance area will be the subject of a magazine article he is working on which is expected to be published by next spring.
Haney lives in Whitefish, Mont., but he doesn't spend much time there. "I'm gone (from home) maybe 60 percent of the time," he says, "traveling cross country."
"This trip alone, I've logged about 6,000 miles," he says.
His home choice is a result of a cross-country bicycling trip he made in 1989. "I went through Whitefish, Mont.," he says, "and I knew that was where I wanted to live."
But Haney was logging miles on his bicycle in northwest Ohio long before making any cross-country tours. "I grew up in the 1970s," he says, "and I was a member of a very vibrant bicycle club. I got started at a young age."
Haney has written and/or taken photographs for nine books, a number of calendars and a number of travel-oriented magazines. He also teaches photography workshops.
Today, Haney has a number of projects in the works. Among them: his 10th coffee table book and various magazine articles, including one that brought him back home last weekend.
His article describing the best and most scenic places to bicycle in Defiance will be featured in Adventure Cyclist, a magazine available only to the 50,000 members of the Adventure Cycling Association (ACA). "I'm not positive what issue it will be," he notes. "It'll either be out at the end of this year or spring of 2009."
There may be some ACA members used to cycling in the midst of mountains and oceans who will be surprised that the Midwest has any significant places to cycle, but Haney believes otherwise.
"I can pick and choose to go where I want, that's what I do," says Haney, who notes that his choice to return home to do an article was based on far more than simple nostalgia.
"There's a lot of history in this area," he says. "In my article, I talk about the Black Swamp, the Battle of Fallen Timbers. ... I describe routes with an interesting history."
But history isn't the only highlight of Haney's article, which also discusses a number of picturesque area routes. "There's beauty everywhere," he says. "You just have to look. The best time to come ride (in Defiance) is the first of May when the red buds bloom."
He admits that a number of areas around here can be "really boring" for cyclists but finds a great deal of beauty in many other areas including along Ohio 424. "You see quite a few tourists around there with bags on their bikes," he says.
Appropriately for the man responsible for what Shutterbug Magazine refers to as "the best nature photography on the web," Haney's article will include various pictures depicting a number of examples of the beauty in the area where he grew up.
"I'm mostly a photographer," says Haney. "I learned to write, I write on the side."
The idea for Haney's article may have germinated during a trip from Columbus to Portsmouth, otherwise known as the Tour of the Scioto River Valley. The tour, held during Mother's Day weekend each year, covers more than 200 miles and has included as many as two dozen Defiance-area participants. Writing about the tour, which he refers to as "the highlight of the cycling season," may have given him the idea to focus on the Defiance area for an article.
For the future, Haney awaits publication of his 10th coffee table book, scheduled for a Nov. 1 release. "It's called Montana Unforgettable," he says. "It's a picture book of the state."
The book will not be available at bookstores in this area. "The book will be available mostly in the western region (of the United States)," he says. "But anyone who wants a copy can get it off my website (wwwchuckhaney.com) or Amazon."
Beyond his current projects, Haney isn't sure where the road will take him, although he's fairly certain his love affair with bicycles and his life on the road will continue.
"I like seeing the world at 20 miles per hour," he says with a grin.