It took us two miles of neighborhood roads to take us back to the Cedar Valley Trail System. It was a warmish, but sunny day and Christine decided to look like a mulberry today - at least until it got warm enough to take off the windbreaker. I must say, she had to cycle fast, as I love mulberries. 😂😂
This is part of the Evansdale Bike Trail.
The rail trail section ended too soon, but after about one mile of urban roads the trail continued as the Cedar Valley Lakes Trail on the flood protection barriers built along the Cedar River. Here we are on top of the earth barrier.
Closer to Waterloo the barrier became part earth- part concrete wall. Here we are on the river-side of the wall.
There was an old car rally (Memorial Day weekend) in Waterloo. I saw this couple at their hotrod and
added this photo as well. We wanted to cycle on and did not wait for the main rally.
We went past these man-made falls in Waterloo.
Upstream of Waterloo we were behind the concrete barrier for a while.
We cycled through a huge sports/picnic and recreation park where
we also found an elephant. Christine had to take off her windbreaker, as elephants love mulberries even more.
The Trail took us past Brinker Lake, a popular fishing spot,
and into the George Wyth State Park. This was a beautiful ride.
We stopped at this pond just to enjoy.
This was also the northenmost point of our ride through Iowa. From here we aim west-southwest to Lincoln, Nebraska, still some time away.
We took our parting shots of the Cedar River, also of this pedestrian bridge forming part of the trail.
We cycled under and over this bridge as we went south through Cedar Falls.
We joined the Cedar Prairie Trail and
and Christine waved at me from this pedestrian bridge.
South of Cedar Falls we passed a large strip mall with many department stores. I liked the way the developers took the Cedar Prairie Trail around the development.
The trail continued along a major highway,
crossed it under this bridge
and went back into the woods.
We had a lovely ride over bridges and past water views.
Soon we joined another Trail and cycled to the next Town, Hudson.
About two miles out we passed the first Welcome-sign.
When we reached the outskirts we saw the next welcome sign and, finally,
we saw this sign.
From Hudson we had some road cycling to do. Along the way we stopped at the Hansen Dairy Farm for the necessary icecream. Here we met Jean Hansen and she told us all about the farm and how this developed since the seventies.
We took off down a gravel road and we were very happy that we had a much easier ride than a couple of days ago.
The paved road to Reinbeck went past quickly. On the way I noted that I only had the high gear up front and we stopped at the pub in Reinbeck to ask for directions to a bike shop, if any. A very friendly farmer, Jeff, helped us out with running repairs and we left Reinbeck in search of the Pioneer Trail.
Having found the Trail, we decided to camp at the Trailhead, called the Gudknecht Roadside Park.
We had another lovely day and met some very good people along the way. Our sunset was as beautiful.
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