Blazing A New Trail Near Our Home

My shadow as I pull up late in the afternoon..what is that beside the sign?  A new trail!

I’ve been seeing a “Road Work Ahead” sign on the Cedar Rapids end of the trail that runs behind Walgreens on C Avenue NE in my neighborhood, and cynically assumed it would take years for the city to actually do anything with this trail.

Well, CR Public Works, I take back my cynicism.  Suddenly, in the course of maybe a week, a sleek new limestone trail has magically appeared.

I noticed, as I zoomed by on C Avenue Monday night on my commute home, something looked a bit different, so I turned around to investigate.  Sure enough, a new access to the old rail line had been created at the end of a dead-end street.

The start of the trail looked a bit mushy—we had two inches of rain over the weekend.  And Audrey was due to come home soon—we had planned to go for a walk.  So I rode home, texted her that there was a new trail, and we decided to walk it.

Well, it was slightly mushy in parts, but in surprisingly good shape.  As far s I can tell, the city is done putting most of the limestone down, and just has a bit of shoulder fill to move in before Miller time (or should it be Fat Tire time?).

The shaow of the walkers--Audrey and I head away from the sunset along the new trail.  Clearly, we are not cowboys or we would be going the other way.

We walked a loop, first going to Lindale Avenue in Marion, then back north through a quiet residential neighborhood to the short west trail that runs beside the longer Boyson Road trail.  We headed back home, passing by Bowman Woods School on Boyson Road.  The loop we walked was about an hour long—which makes it just about the perfect length for the occasional evening constitutional, and along this walk we crossed no busy streets at all.

Well, cool for you, CR.  Thanks for putting in this trail.  My late fall bike riding has just gotten better.

Eventually, years from now when the CENMAR trail is finished, this new trail will be my commuting route, and I’ll be able to ride all the way to MMU with only the short sidewalk jaunt to Walgreens being pre (or post) trail.

Yeah, it was a nice way to end a very nice ride.  Although the ash trees are spent, there were still lots of pretty maples to enjoy on my ride.  Happy trails!

This photo and below are in the neighborhood east of Harding Middle School and Noelridge Park.  I had taken the Cedar River Trail north through town, not knowing that there were more trail adventures in store.

A Quick Ride With Mr. T

Tristan, walking home with me. Note his "I voted" sticker.

Spring suddenly arrived in Iowa today. I don’t know if it’s here to stay or just in town briefly to check on apartments before making the permanent move later, but we enjoyed the visit.

I left campus as soon as I could and took the trail home. As you can imagine, I saw far more people on the trail than I have in other recent trips. The temperature was in the 60s, and I didn’t wear a coat or even a sweater over my short-sleeved shirt.

I didn’t actually see many other bikers, but there were lots of walkers and joggers on the trail, including what seemed to be a large group of runners from some junior high team—all shirtless boys, looking far leaner that I ever have.

The ground still seemed very brown. Spring hasn’t settled in enough to wake up the grass or other plants, although I did see a few crocuses poking up in my front lawn.

When I got home, around 4:30, Tristan was there, along with his sister Amelia, and his young cousin and Aunt Theresa.

Mr. T, of course, immediately wanted a bike ride. I installed his seat and away we went, headed up the Brentwood Hill. About halfway up, I learn a loud crunching thud, and immediately suspected I had blown a spoke. We went for a fairly short ride, just around the neighborhood, so I could get home and check.

Yup. Broken spoke.

Fortunately, Mr. T was not upset at having a short ride. And he readily agreed to a walk, so I took him with me as I strolled to Peace Church to cast my ballot. The poll worker let Tristan have the “I voted” sticker, and he had to tell me all the way home that “Tristen get sticker.” I think the sticky was pretty much worn out of it by the time we got home.

Never mind. It was a good biking day, and if I had to break a spoke, glad it was during the short ride at the end and not the long commute.

NOTE: Earlier version of post said something about "canceling Audrey's vote." Not true, she voted for the tax extension, too.