10 Mile Bike Ride In Council Bluffs Part 3 of 3

Council Bluffs 3 Lake Manawa Trail Bridge

Bike Trail Ride To Indian Creek Bridge

Arriving at Lake Manawa after our bike rides in the area of the Western Historic Trails Center, we searched for, and found, the parking lot we had used once on a walk of the Lake Manawa Trail. On that walk we went as far as the Lake Manawa Trail bridge, and the connection to the Indian Creek Trail.

Remembering the walk to the bridge, we expected this bike ride to the Indian Creek Bridge to take a while, and we were both amazed at how quickly we arrived at our destination. We had planned on biking up the Indian Creek Trail, but, from the bridge, it did look sort of boring in comparison to the trail in Lake Manawa State Park.

I won’t post any pictures of the Indian Creek Trail here, but may add them whenever we get around to a ride on that trail.

Council Bluffs 3 Old Railroad Tracks

Old Railroad Tracks?

We headed back the way we came, and continued past the parking lot and our car. The trail is nice, perhaps on an old railroad line? Keeping our eyes open for wildlife, we hoped to see a deer as we did on our walk here, but no luck this time.

In a bit we arrived at spot where we had to decide whether to head right or left. No markings or hints of which way to go, and we decided to take a right turn instead of a left turn, just because it looked more scenic.

Council Bluffs 3 Lake Manawa Trail In Woods

Lake Manawa Trail In Woods

This turned out to be a good choice, though I guess it really wasn’t the main trail. This portion of the ride was extremely nice, and, if needed, there were benches every now and then alongside the trail.

Continuing up this section, it did sort of do a wandering semicircle and connected back with the main trail. Reaching the main trail, we continued up it, and came to the end of Lake Manawa State Park, but not the end of the trail.

The trail had been so nice so far that we decided to keep going, though there was a street to cross before we were back on the trail and away from traffic. Vicky is really uncomfortable with the thought of traffic, and waiting till there were no cars at all in sight, she took off as fast as she could to get across the street, with her rear wheels spinning in the gravel as she accelerated.

After safely getting across the street, we biked a bit more up the Lake Manawa Trail.

Council Bluffs 3 Lake Manawa Trail Beyond The Park

Trail Beyond The Park

The trail remained a good quality surface, but the scenery along the trail changed from woods to a residential section on our left, with an industrial area on the other side.

Before long the section of houses on the left ended, and our interest in this trail ended too. Turning around at a spot where a glance at our trip meter made us realize we’d be at ten miles total by the time we got back to our car, we headed back.

Overall, the Lake Manawa Trail was one of the most enjoyable bicycle rides we have been on so far. High points of this ride, other than the pleasure of bicycling together, were: actually seeing a bluebird fly past us as we were parked along the trail (haven’t seen one of them for years), goldfinches (those things are colorful!), biking quietly past redwinged blackbirds, undisturbed by our presence a few feet away, and one more thing, it was sort of too far away to get a good look, but there was a really nice looking three wheeler going down the trail, recumbent style, with the rider looking quite comfortable. This adult trike had two wheels in the front, and one in the back. I looked up similar trikes on the internet, and learned they are called tadpole style.

Our mileage has increased to a ten mile ride now. Pretty neat! Vicky was hoping to ride again the next day (a good sign that we had fun), but we had other things that needed to be done.

I did get a little sunburned on this ride, but just enough to be itchy. Some sunscreen may be a good idea…

Length of this bike ride once the day was over: 10 Miles

Total miles biked together in 2008 once this day was over: 33.5 Miles

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