The tent was quite wet from overnight dew and we decided to cycle into town for coffee and some sightseeing.
We found Lara's Bakery and had some delicious Mexican-style pastries and bread with great coffee. We loved the patience and helpfulnesswe found here. This Bakery introduced us to breads and sweet things different to those you normally get at a store. We shall certainly try out more Mexical-style baked goods in future.
The center of Marshalltown was struck by a strong hurricane in 2018 and many buildings have been torn down due to the damage.The court buildings are under renovation.
We could see ongoing renovation and
found this interesting mural. However, there is much that still need to be done.
We started cycling at 11:30am and the first part was on the Marshalltown cycle paths. These took us along the top of the flood barrier built along the Iowa River.
This is part of the Linn Creek Recreation Trail
The Trail took us through a different part of town and we passed this great covered pedestrain bridge linking the trail to other parts of town.
At some bridges you have the trail underpass, but there is also the option to cross the road in times of high water levels in the Linn Creek.
Once out of town the vegetation changed and we cycled through beautiful wooded and grassed areas.
The trail is well used and we talked to a several people along the way. We nearly stopped at the Grimes Farm for something to eat, but Lara's baked goods were still providing sustenance.
We left the Linn Tril and joined the Iowa Highway 330 Trail in the valley above. We were soon doing some hills.😄😄😄
We stopped for lunch along the trail and continued to enjoy Hansen's Cheese Curds. 
Here three great young men passed us. They are the first long-distance bikers that passed us and they are also broadly following the Rails to Trails trails. You can see they carry lighter loads and also aim to do up to 100 miles per day. We had a great chat and hope to see them sometime again.
We finished our lunch and saw the three for some time in the distance still.
Some of the hills along Highway 330 were so looong.
We cycled a couple of miles along a bad section of paved road. The cracks have opened up so much that it affected our comfort quite a lot.To add to the misery, we reached the Heart of Ohio Trail and the first part is simply a horse trail.
We met a hiker who told us that this was pretty much what we would see up to the next town, Collins. We decided to go back to the paved road and had to endure about two more miles of poor paved road up to the newly resurfaced sections.
We passed beautiful scenery along the way to Collins, including this wetland.
At Collins the trail improved a lot with paved sections where the trail could be inundated and crushed limestone for the remainder.
We were again in our element and loved the countryside.
We passed this new wetland
and the green of the new corn and soy bean plants are also changing the countryside.
Behind Christine is an abandoned rail bridge. The trail made a loop around this spot.
And we were back among the tall trees. We saw a lot of bunnies as well.
We had some fun getting past this fallen tree, but Christine showed that we shall overcome.
At Maxwell the Trail made a nice U so that we could cycle through town. We enjoyed the town section, as we could stop at Casey's for an icecream.
Between Maxwell and Cambridge the Trail improved further and we made good time.
We reached this big bridge just before Cambridge.
This was our first view of Cambridge and the site of the old station.
We stopped here for the evening and
Jorge and Paula walked over to find out if we needed anything. We ended up chatting away like old friends. They also like the trails and are thinking of doing something similar after retirement.
No comments:
Post a Comment