Labor Day Ride

August was a rough month. The last day of it N.Y. Roll asked if I wanted to do a chill ride on the first day of September, which was also Labor Day. I liked the idea, so we planned to meet at N.Y. Roll's home at 8:00am. He insisted I bring a camera. I thought, "Well, of course! I always bring a camera along on most rides!". This seemed a rather odd request, but so be it. 

When I awoke on Monday it was cool, but not too cold to the point of having to wear a vest, arm warmers, or the like. Not yet, but we are hearing we will have to later this week. Fall is coming.... Or at least it is "False Fall". 

Well, when I got over to his house on my Raleigh Tamland Two, I saw why he wanted me to bring a camera. A ten foot high human-like skeleton alongside his ginormous dog skeleton was in his front yard. The dog skeleton was from last year, but the human-like giant skeleton was new. 

Sergeant Road Bike Path

Checking out the aid station at the junction of Sergeant Road Trail and Cedar Prairie Trail

The plan was to take bicycle trails to Cedar Falls and grab some coffee and then ride different trails back to Waterloo. We started by going South on Sergeant Road Trail and we had a bit of an adventure crossing all the main roads. This trail parallels Highway 63 and this road has been under construction all Summer to resurface it. The highway is mostly finished but all the approaches for the bicycle trail are dug up and forms have been placed to pour fresh concrete. This will smooth the transition from trail to road to trail again where the trail crosses three major routes for Waterloo. 

A rather canopied section of the Cedar Prairie Trail

Summiting the hill along HWY 20 on the Cedar Prairie Trail. 

N.Y. Roll was grousing about the unkempt nature of the Cedar Prairie Trail as it is a small section of the Great American Rail Trail. (GART). The cracks, weeds growing through them, and the encroaching plant life on the trail from a Summer's worth of growth were disturbing him. He was feeling it was a bad look for anyone coming through on the GART and he was advocating for more maintenance. 

I could see his point, but also considering the fact that we've had an unprecedented amount of growth this year due to copious rains versus normal, and this seems less alarming. Additionally, the past two years have been so dry nothing grew very much past May, so this year's situation is unusual, in my view.   

I'm certain N.Y. Roll will think I am wrong, so.....

Prairie Lakes Trail

A very large, very kind dog in front of Cup Of Joe in Cedar Falls. 

We went through the HWY 58 madness at Ridgeway Avenue, which is just bonkers, and skirted the edge of the industrial park on a bike path running along Ridgeway's North side. Then we found a spur to the Prairie Lakes Trail and we headed back South. 

Trails along HWY 58, the "Mayor's Bridge" across this highway, and a tunnel under Greenhill Road got us into Cedar Falls proper where we went along the Dry Run Creek on older trails to get in front of Cup Of Joe coffee shop. 

Cup Of Joe has been around since the mid-1990's. It is the first coffee shop I ever had been in and it is largely unchanged from those days inside. They serve up great coffee and if you are ever in Cedar Falls, I recommend them highly.   

Heading into George Wyth State Park

N.Y. Roll LARPing as an Army Corp Engineer.

We had a nice chat in front of Cup Of Joe and some great coffee. Then it was time to hit the trails back towards Waterloo. We chose to go on the "Cedar Valley Lakes Trail" (AKA - George Wyth Bicycle Trail) and we were heading into the more canopied parts of the trail when N.Y. Roll said suddenly, "Hold up, I gotta....) and I lost clear hearing while he slowed suddenly, and he looped back down the way we had come a bit. What?!

Apparently his Army Corp of Engineers super-power abilities were turned on because he saw a drainage issue he thought he could improve upon regarding some backwaters of the Cedar. After his rock scrambling we remounted and continued on our way to Waterloo.  

South Riverside Trail

Shirey Way, 

We saw Super Dave when we crossed the Cedar River to Pfieffer Park where we parted ways with him and rode the South Riverside Trail to Shirey Way. This was an old gravel road between Cedar Falls and Waterloo, Iowa, which I remember when it was still in use as an open road! Now it is a de-facto interurban Level B Road.  This kicked us out into the Greenwood Avenue part of the bike trail through the old Sherwood area. This then goes behind Cattle Congress and then back along the Cedar to downtown Waterloo and the end of our ride. 

It was a fun, relaxing morning ride with a good friend. I needed this and it was a bright spot in a tough weekend for me. So, thank you to N.Y. Roll for taking the time out to ride with me.  

It also is a good example of how we have a great trail system which keeps you, for the most part, off roads and away from traffic. Oddly enough, folks come from all over to ride our trail network. I know this from meeting many people over the years who have told me they were from out of town and specifically came to this area to ride the paved trails.

I ended up with 24 miles on the day, but I could easily double this amount and not ride the same trail twice. It is pretty impressive for an urban area the size of Waterloo and Cedar Falls. I don't talk a lot about these resources we have here much on the blog. But if you want to know more, here is a link to the Cedar Valley Trails Partnership site.