Bike from Playland Park to The Narrows in Iowa

Our Cannondale Tandem Bike on the Riverfront Trail

First Bike Ride of the Year

Finally an almost perfect day for a bike ride on May 7, 2011, and ignoring anything else that could have been done, we loaded our tandem onto the back of our car and headed to Playland Park in Council Bluffs Iowa for a ride north on the Council Bluffs Riverfront Trail.

The first bike ride of the year always requires something easy and we decided on this "not too strenuous" trail, hoping for a bike ride of about 5 or 6 miles round trip total.

Vicky and Our Tandem on The Riverfront Trail

Time to Turn Around?

It didn't take long at all to reach a potential turn around spot, about 2 1/2 miles north on the trail. This was at a spot where the trail temporarily becomes a part of the street. If we turned around here that would give us our planned minimum five mile ride

Yet the ride had been very pleasant so far, the temperature was in the 80's, and even though there was a bit more wind than we liked, we were still feeling fine. Now keep in mind that we are great grandparents, so we can sort of justify things like going on only a five mile total bike ride.

If you have never been on this Iowa riverfront trail, you may be interested to know that this section of the trail so far on this bike ride is within view of the Missouri River at times, and also Interstate 29 is near at times, and at other times that side of the trail has views of houses nearby. I would guess that the trail is an old train route, or perhaps it is just a levee.

The trail in this section has just enough gentle up and down slopes to make it fun, with a few gentle curves.

Time for a Drink

Let's Go Explore!

Within sight of where this picture was taken (but facing the other way), if a bike rider wishes to continue, there are two options. One can take a right turn and go to Big Lake, or take a left and go to Narrows Park.

This portion of the ride turned out to be entirely on a paved road with some traffic. There are hills that were easy enough in a motor vehicle, but a bit of a challenge for us on our tandem bicycle.

Missouri River at Narrows Park

That's It? We're There Already?

Gee whiz, too bad we didn't know this place was so near on our previous rides on the Council Bluffs Riverfront Trail! The sign on the trail just pointed in the direction of this great mid point for a round trip bike ride, and it turned out to be only about a mile one way!

We had taken the right turn and rode to Big Lake on one of our bike rides, and we felt adventuresome enough this time to keep riding, take a left turn and ride to Narrows Park, with no idea of how far it might be and no idea what the ride might be like.

This is the Missouri River at the park. The water level is a bit high, but at least there was no flooding here.

Relaxing at Narrows Park

What's at Narrows Park?

Narrows Park does charge admission, two dollars the sign says. Does this apply to bicycles? There was a park ranger there, so I asked and he did say "No charge for bicycles".

It is a nice medium sized park, with picnic facilities available, and just enough nice shade trees to make it quite pleasant.

By the way, and I suppose I should have thought to take a better picture of it, the exit from the park had the worst hill of our ride. It does become a bit steeper than you can see in the background of this picture, so we took a bit of a run at it, and managed to still be going 14.9 mph as we neared the top and coasted the rest of the way up it.

Riverfront Trail

On the Riverfront Trail

Thought I'd add this view of the Riverfront Trail (the portion that was not on the levee). Interstate 29 is off to the left. Nice trail, isn't it?

Stop for Pictures

More Pictures On the Riverfront Trail

This spot along the trail is one place I have always wanted to stop and take pictures, and this time I finally did just that. You see, it is so very near the end/beginning of our rides that it just didn't seem like something to do.

However, there is a nice shade tree here, an old concrete wall that makes a great place to sit (unseen here, off to the left).

Missouri River Beyond Its Banks

At this location you can see that the Missouri River is way beyond its banks. From the sounds we heard, it is obvious that frogs appreciate the extra wide river.

North on the Riverfront Trail

This is a look at the first section of our ride, taken on the way back not too far from Playland park in Council Bluffs.

Waiting For Me

Vicky really did not want to stop yet one more time as I took these last few pictures on our May 7th bike ride, but she did find a comfortable spot in the shade and I did not spend too much time with the camera, in my opinion at least.

Okay, that's it! We took the short ride bike to the car at Playland Park and headed for home after this first bike ride of the year.

Length of this bike ride: 6.8 Miles

Weather on this bike ride: Sunny, in the low to mid 80s, windy in exposed areas.

Average speed of this bike ride: 8.3 mph

Top Speed of this bike ride: 16.5 mph

Total miles biked together in 2011: 6.8 Miles

Total miles we've ridden on our tandem: 194 Miles

Date of this ride: May 7, 2011

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