Me and Mini-Me Try Some New Trails

Father's Day, Tristan and I read for our ride in our matching bike vests.  Not quite matching--his closes better than mine!

Well, the Father’s Day biking news is that the trail situation in my neck of the woods is looking much improved.

Tristan has a new bike vest.  Audrey has been looking for a vest like my bike vest, and found one that she thought could be cut down and reworked.  Katy did the sewing, so now Mr. T can be a bike Mini Me.  He was pretty excited to wear the vest today, and readily agreed to a ride, so we headed over to the Boyson Road Trail, where we made some pleasant discoveries.

The city of Marion has snuck up on me with two new trails.  Last year, there were a branch trail off of the Boyson Road trail that went through the Frisbee gold course and then petered out.  That trail has been extended all the way to Highway 100.  You can see Menards up a hill at the end.  There are some nice woods, a fairly long bridge over Indian Creek and an as-yet unexplored other branch along this trail.

Mr. T and I crossed the bridge at Thomas Park—the one that leads to the athletic fields—just because Mr. T likes to cross the bridge.  Then we rode to the end of the trail and turned around.  I was curious to see if the side trail had been extended and asked Mr. T if he would like to ride on a new trail.

He would and we did.  And I was pleasantly surprised at how far we went.  The new trial is probably as long or maybe even longer than the Boyson Road trail, and it was a very pleasant route through meadows, and woods, and over a new bridge.

It ended abruptly like it wanted to go under a bridge of Highway 100, and I wonder if it will be extended.  It’s not terribly far from there to the Sac and Fox Trail—will these trails eventually connect?

Anyway, on the way down, I noticed the barriers where they have been building a new trail along the railroad line that leads to Walgreens on C Avenue have been removed, so again, after we headed back north on the Boyson Road Trail, I asked Mr. T if he wanted to try another new trail.

Of course he did.

And the whole trail, in Marion, is done!  We could walk to the Boyson Road trail and follow the rail line back.  We always could, but it used to be that the old rail line was a bit hard to manage because it wasn’t a finished trial, and the hillside was hard to climb to get to the line.  Now, a gradual incline from the rail line to the Boyson Trail has been installed.

Well, I knew that they were working on a new north end of the trail, which makes the whole thing more accessible from my Cedar Rapids neighborhood.  I didn’t expected the rail line trail to be done so soon—nor did I have any idea how much new trail was lurking behind the branch that began near the golf course.

And no flat tire!  It will be a nice new trail ride for shorter RAGBRAI practice runs.