I hit the trail at my usual 6:30. The weather was looking iffy, so I kept my rain gear at the top. I ended up putting my rain jacket on, partly because it was spitting rain a bit, but also because it was a bit chilly with the prominent wind. I would have been in a bike path for 100% of today’s ride were it not for a detour. More on that in a moment.
With all the rain, and the fact that I was following a creek, I was not surprised to encounter some puddles.
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| This was not a big deal |
The dicey ones were where the trail went under the overpass next to the creek. Sure, I could have probably gone up to the road, crossed, and came back to the trail, bypassing the flooded part. But where’s the adventure in that?
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| Sign said, “Cylists dismount under bridge”. Well…no…that would guarantee wet feet! |
I just rolled slowly. My tires got nice and clean! There were about three flooded bits like the one above. All were easily rideable.
It seemed like I was just going from park to park/green space. There were some interesting sculptures.
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| Over the Cedar River |
At one point, I came to a trail closed sign. I looked on my phone, and could see how I could go around on Lafayette Street. There happened to be a worker guy sitting in a truck. I asked him why the trail was closed. He said it was because a sewer pipe had broke, and wiped out the trail. I asked him if I took Lafayette to where it came back by the trail, would that bypass the closure. He said it would. I was on the road for about 2 miles at the most. Then I was back on the trail.
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| One of the old depots |
Like much of what I’ve been on the couple days, the trail was through the trees. Well, when you have a storm…
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| Ruh roh! |
I managed to bushwhack around it without too much trouble. Then I was rolling along and saw this.
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| Strange place for a fire engine! |
I was getting a little hungry when I came upon a nice little trail shelter with a picnic table and a nice little garden.
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| I had a snack of little donuts I’ve been carrying for several days. |
While I was eating my snack, two guys went by with panniers on their bikes. They said hi, but didn’t stop. I got back to riding. Bit by bit, I could see I was catching up to them.
When I caught up, of course I slowed down to chat with them. The guy in front was Brian. He had started 4 weeks ago in Portland, and was going home to Davenport. He is almost done! Chris, his brother, has joined him for the last couple hundred miles (his first bike tour).
We rode together chatting the whole way (first with Brian, then later with Chris). Brian had stayed in Mitchell at the Spoke n Hostel (I’ve stayed there twice). We did much of the same route across Nebraska, but he didn’t do the gravel stuff (including the Cowboy Trail). Too skinny of tires.
We stopped at a cool coffee shop. It was almost noon, so I had some chicken salad, which was quite good! Afterwards, I told the guys we needed a selfie.
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| Chris, me and Brian |
We continued riding. The miles were flying by. It did help that we had a tailwind!
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| Chris said something was wrong with this deer. It didn’t run away. |
We came to another downed tree. This one was pretty easy.
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| Just go under it! |
We had met a worker guy who had cleared another tree. He asked me if there were any others. I told him about the one near the beginning of the Cedar Valley Trail.
Just outside of Hiawatha (which I think is maybe a suburb of Cesar Rapids?), the guys stopped to decide how much further they were going to go (they started in Waterloo). We said our goodbyes, and I continued on for another mile to get to my hotel for the night.
It’s not a Super 8, but it is a Wyndham Hotel (Days Inn), so I get a discount (cuz, ya know, I’m a Gold member now…still need to ask what does that mean? What do I get for my gold status???).
Even though today was 71 miles, it seemed to go really quick. I enjoyed the time spent riding with Brian and Chris.
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