6 Mile Bike Ride On The Missouri River Trail

Sunday was hot, and we hadn’t planned a bike ride on the local trails. Just for fun, I did take out my Trek bicycle and made a short ride in the neighborhood. Arriving back home, I could see that Vicky had that look in her eyes that made me think that perhaps she would like to go for a ride, too.

I asked Vicky if she’d like to go for a bike ride, she quickly agreed, then asked me where we would go.

I’ve wanted to try the Missouri River Trail up by N P Dodge Park, however, Vicky expected it to be like the hiking/nature trail at the park, a narrow trail we had walked before. Nonetheless, Vicky agreed to try it out, or at least have a look at it.

Arriving at N P Dodge Park, we discovered it was very crowded, and parking near the Missouri River was almost impossible to find.

Missouri River Trail Sign

Missouri River Trail

Yet once we’d parked, offloaded our bicycles and were on the trail and biking north, we discovered the Missouri River Trail wasn’t crowded at all! The trail was wide, smooth, and fairly level in this area.

If I read the map right, we could head north for miles on this trail.

Missouri River Trail End

North End of the Missouri River Trail

Hmm… Either the map was wrong, or I misread it, as you can tell by this end of the trail sign. The sign had parts of it painted over, and the scheduled year of completion of 2007 changed to 2008.

A disappointment, but not a total loss. The ride so far had been nice, and the trail did go south from the parking lot where our car was waiting for us.

Missouri River Trail Coast Guard

Missouri River Trail Coast Guard

We turned around, and retraced our ride to the parking lot, then kept going south. This portion of the trail followed along the highway for a bit, but far enough away from traffic to feel safe. We passed a Coast Guard station, crossed under the North Omaha Missouri River bridge, where we stopped and had a can of pop, and continued south past a Missouri River overlook on MUD property.

MUD? Metropolitan Utilities District, which supplies water and gas to the Omaha area.

Before long we arrived at the base of a hill, with a warning sign telling us there was a long steep 5% grade ahead of us. At this time I heard Vicky honking her three wheeler’s horn to get my attention. Stopping my bike, Vicky pulled up alongside of me and asked if we could turn around and head back now.

Not really trying to break any distance record for us, I decided that would be fine with me and we headed back north up the Missouri River Trail.

Missouri River Overlook

Missouri River Overlook

Part ways back, we stopped at the Missouri River Overlook to sit for a while, relax, enjoy the view, and just enjoy being there. Next time we ride this northern section of the Missouri River Trail we might have to use this spot for our soda and water break.

Riding along the trail, the temperature really didn’t feel too bad, but once we were back at the car loading our bikes on the bike rack the sun and heat felt pretty bad.

Missouri River Trail North Omaha Bridge

Missouri River Trail North Omaha Bridge

This day did have a somewhat unusual ten minutes when we were taking our break under the North Omaha Bridge. The cottonwood (?) trees were really dropping their “cotton” and it almost looked like we were in a snowstorm with huge flakes coming down. Vicky had to remind me to cover the opening on my pop can to keep the “cotton” from going inside.

We liked this section of Omaha’s Missouri River Trail, and hope to ride it again someday, though it may be a while because I try to convince Vicky to try a new bike trail each and every time we go out.

Length of this bike ride: 6 Miles

Total miles biked together in 2008: 39.5 Miles

Date of this ride: June 1, 2008

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