Go Forth July!

 July 16, 2023

Dear Fellow Bicycling Enthusiast,

I hope you are enjoying some excellent summer spinning.  Here is a summary of some spinning that I enjoyed on the Fourth of July.  I met up with my friend Rod who has recently relocated to the thriving hamlet of Springfield, NE.  We were excited to get out to the pedestrian bridge (aka the Lied Bridge across the Platte River), and i was curious about the current status of the MOPAC Trail.  I asked him to meet me in the trail parking lot just east of Highway 50 (144th St) and Platteview Road.  It was an appropriately patriotic place to start a 4th of July bike ride.

There was also a nice bike repair/maintenance station:

We started off in some nice cool weather down to the Platte River

and then over to the Lied Bridge

We scooted across the bridge over to the outskirts of South Bend where we found some informative signs.  I found out that there is a gravel road route that connects the following two parts of the trail:

• (northern part) the part that goes from at least the Springfield Cemetery to South Bend
• (southern part) the part that goes from Wabash, NE to Lincoln, NE and from there you can get on a few other trails that 99 miles meandering with mazy motion through hill and dale runs to Marysville, KS

This connecting road is called 334th St. 

This finding leads me to consider the following:  Why do people ride gravel multi-use trails for long distances?  I suppose the answers are as varied as the people that ride them.  So, if this is something you’ve enjoyed, please provide your viewpoint.  The reason I ask is because it seems like it might be similar to the reasons for riding gravel in general:  it’s a bit less trafficky and you get to experience a more peaceful ride and take the path less travelled.  Also, it’s the journey, not the destination.  However, I hope you’re not in a hurry and have a penchant for camping and/or some clever lodging planning.  

If a person wanted to undertake a gravelly bicycle trip from Omaha to Marysville, here is a list of trails (from N to S) as I understand it:

1. MOPAC (OMA to LIN)
2. Jamaica North (LIN to SAL [Saltillo], possibly to include Williamsburg Trail in LIN?)
3. Homestead Trail (SAL to BEA [Beatrice])
4. Chief Standing Bear Trail (BEA to NE/KS line)
5. Blue River Trail (NE/KS line to MRY [Marysville])

I discovered the names of these trails on the TrailLink website, which is also apparently a free app.  I may give that app a try and see if it satisfies my appetite for devouring trails!  Highdy-ho, mofos!  

What I am most curious about are good places to stay along the way.  I’ll probably do a little digging before potentially planning this trip.  My friend Rich has mentioned riding from Omaha to Marysville in a long day, but that doesn’t sound appealing and I am not in that kind of shape right now.  Maybe by Fourth of July 2024? 

Here is what I found out about overnight options for a trip starting on the MOPAC from Lincoln, NE to Maryville, KS.  It seems a person could do a bike packing-type trip with camping at a few places along the way to make a 4 to 6-day trip out of it.

• near Lincoln:  
• Wagon Train State Recreation Area, Hickman Rd, Lincoln, NE 68503,  (402) 471-0641:  this place looks good, but would require a slight departure from the trail 
• Victory Quest, 14401 SW 15th St, Roca, NE 68430, (402) 794-2102 (Not sure if this is a real option since it sounds like it could be a church camp and there's not much info other than address and phone I could find.  If this doesn't work out you may want to just find a college party somewhere and crash the party and fall asleep on someone's couch, what could go wrong?  Or maybe just power through to Beatrice?)

• Beatrice:  Chautauqua Park Campground, (402) 228-5200
• Marysville:  Marysville City Park Campground, 10th & Spring St Marysville, KS 66508, (785) 562-3101

So there are a few ideas about the possibility of taking the gravel trails (where available, which is probably at least around 95% of the time) from Omaha to Marysville, KS.  

Anyway, we made it back to Springfield in warmer weather.  I had begun to feel a bit peckish, probably due to the meager breakfast of a single Clif bar I had eaten.  I blame those intermittent fasting plans I've heard a bit about these days.  

Although that OMA to Marysville trip seems intriguing, for now, I think I’ll just consider signing up for the Middle Loup River Challenge (Sept) and/or the Beer and Bagel Run (late Oct).

Before I got around to finishing up this post, I also had a chance to get out for a nice out and back ride on the West Papio Trail from the downtown Millard area to the Bellevue Berry Farm, with a pleasant stop at the Kros Strain / Pint 9 breweries on my way back.

A couple things I enjoyed seeing along the way:

1. Great blue heron flapping lazily along above the trail
2. A woman in shorts and rubber rain boots gathering some of those flowers that have gone to seed and look like huge dandelions.  At first I thought they were thistles, but now I don't think so because they seemed poofier. 
3. 

There you have some meandering thoughts about the summer experience.  I hope to get back to you eventually with more excitement.  In the meantime, please enjoy the spin.

Bikefully yours,

BSO

Feet don't fail me now!

June 26, 2014

Hello!  What have you been doing?  Hmmmm.  We should discuss this further.  I have been pedaling around and about Lincoln, Nebraska lately.  Here are some things that I encountered during my pedaling.

It has been great getting out for some bicycling.  I even saw a sign for the mysterious and alluring MoPac Trail, which may or may not involve a bridge and allow one to pedal from Lincoln to Omaha or similar.  

I decided to look into this further by sitting and without using my legs.  Here is what I have discovered. I had a copy of the summer edition of the Bike Rack's "The Bike Messenger" newsletter featuring an article entitled "Trail Between Lincoln and Omaha may Become Reality" which I interpret thusly:   some progress has been made towards identifying potential routes to connect the current fragments but a consulting firm has been hired and there's still a lot of folks that aren't thrilled about a multi-use trail messing up their homesteads.  So don't hold your breath.   

Fortunately, you can take Highway 6 for a good deal of the way, and the part between Waverly and Lincoln features a silky smooth shoulder for much of the way (quite a bit smoother on the way to Lincoln - apparently they want you to feel welcome on your way in, but good riddance when you decide to leave).  

Leaving Lincoln!

There is also a sweet ice cream joint where all the coolest bicyclers stop.

It has been pretty soggy here lately.  I’ve currently got two fans running in my basement and they have been for 72 hours straight without complaint.  I don’t know if there’s any mold, but I sure don’t smell it over the smell of my fear of mold. 

Have you ever decided that you wanted to get somewhere and that the ideal way to do so would be by pedaling your bicycle?  Yes?!  I thought so!  Have you also thought that you didn’t have the time, energy, inclination, or some combination thereof to actually execute said ideal trip?  What!?  Why, me too!  Last week I was excited to get out and pedal after driving my vehicle closer to my goal of downtown Lincoln, Nebraska!  

Whew-ee!  I know you are jealous.  My anxiousness resulted in a lack of one or two specific items (depending on how you look at it/them).   Did you already guess?  You are one or two smart cookies, you!  I will give you a hint, I did have my socks.  Although I typically like to have my piggies wrapped in a nice warm blanket and encased in protective turtle carapace-like footware to ward off the stones, hornets, and biting hounds that lurketh beneath, I found that I lacked this/these option(s).  So here is what I did.

That felt pretty good.  I don't think my flops are really rusty, but I did feel that they had come between me and my beloved Bastard of a bicycle.  So I decided to take things one exhilarating step pedal stroke further.  Ah!  Now this is living! 

Let’s bicycling fun charge!  I think my nostralia may be sensing mold.  I’ll be back soon with a respirator and some bleach!  Oh, and I should probably do something about the mold, too!