We decided to do things a little differently on “RAGBRAI week”. There are lots of trails, bike shops and breweries in Iowa that we have never been to, so we took this week to do a little BIKEIOWA Road Trip.

We also wanted to hit some less-known trails and destinations around Iowa.

We packed up the RV, loaded up the touring bikes and Fat bike and headed out for the week. We had identified some points of interest and had a general direction where we were going, but nothing was set in stone.

As it stands, we stopped at 14 bike shops, 16 trails and 9 new breweries/bars. We met a lot of new people and saw lots of new sites.

Did we miss RAGBRAI? You bet we did, but this trip was something different and a different kind of fun. It shows there is PLENTY to do in Iowa on your bicycle close to home.

Ride Safe!

2014 BIKEIOWA Road Trip Stops

Bike Trails

1. Raccoon River Valley Trail
2. Sauk Rail Trail - Breda, Carnarvon, Carroll, Lake View, Maple River
   
3. The Three Rivers Trail - Rolfe, Bradgate, Rutland, Humboldt, Dakota City, Thor and Eagle Grove
4. Big Woods Lake Trail – Cedar Falls
5. Cedar Valley Nature Trail – Cedar Falls
6. George Wyth State Park – Cedar Falls
7. Cedar Valley Lakes Trail – Cedar Falls
8. Lone Tree Road Trail – Cedar Falls
9. South Riverside Trail – Cedar Falls
10. Cedar Prairie Trail – Cedar Falls
11. Greenhill Trail – Cedar Falls
12. Kewash Nature Trail - Washington,West Chester,Keota
13. Fairfield Loop Trail – Fairfield
14. The Ottumwa Levee Trail - Ottumwa
15. Cinder Path Trail – Chariton
16. Volksweg Trail – Lake Red Rock - Pella

Bike Shops

Shops with (*) have BIKEIOWA swag – stop in and get some!

1. Bike Tech – Cedar Falls (*)
2. Europa Cycle –Cedar Falls (*)
3. Northtowne Cycling – Cedar Rapids (*)
4. Hall Bicycle Company – Cedar Rapids (*)
5. Broken Spoke - Iowa City (*)
6. World of Bikes - Iowa City (*)
7. Geoff’s Bike & Ski - Iowa City (*)
8. 30th Century Bicycle - Iowa City (*)
9. AJs Bicycle Shop - Fairfield (*)
10. Riverside Cyclery - Ottumwa
11. Connecticut Yankee Pedaler – Chariton (*)
12. Iowa Bike & Fitness – Pella (*)
13. MoJo Cycling - Newton (*)
14. Rasmussen Bike Shop – Altoona (*)

Breweries / Bars

1. Single Speed Brewing Company – Cedar Falls
2. Mulligan’s Brick Oven Grill – Cedar Falls
3. Volks Haus – Waterloo
4. La Calle Latin American Bistro - Cedar Falls
5. Albia Brewing Company – Albia
6. Brick Street Pub & Eatery – Albia
7. Peace Tree Brewing Company – Knoxville
8. Brewhouse No. 25 - Altoona
9. Founder’s Irish Pub – Bondurant

Photos

Fri & Sat - July 18 & 19th RAGBRAI spirit

OK, so we skipped RAGBRAI, but I still got a little "RAGBRAI spirit' in as I took off from Ankeny about 9pm on Friday, rode to Jefferson along the Raccoon River Valley Trail, slept for a few hours, then rode to Carroll, got on the Sauk Rail Trail and met up with some Emus and fellow Barflys in Lake View and rode to Marathon for a little BARmuda Triangle Action. We spent the night there, then the next morning I headed back to Rolfe to get a ride from Julie back to Ankeny so we could begin our road trip. Total mileage fulled loaded was 167 miles.

Tue - July 22^nd - Day 1

Wed July 23rd - Day Two

Cedar Falls

George Wyth has dirt trails too. I brought the fat bike for just that occasion. I hit a bunch of single track, but not sure I hit it all. CVAST is working on signage which would help a lot. There was a place under the highway bridge called “the bowls” that was a blast to ride on a fat bike with lots of sand, large rocks, broken up concrete and a bowl-like terrain. Viewing this playground from the paved trail, it looks much larger than it actually was, but it was still a good 45 minutes of playtime for this guy.

I continued to explore the dirt trails for another hour or so before venturing back to the campsite to shower up and get on the touring bike for another paved ride with Julie.

Eatin’ – Latin American Style

We knew that Redgie Blanco, one of the founding members of CVAST, recently opened a restaurant close to campus called La Calle, a Latin American Bistro, that specializes in gourmet burgers and hot dogs with a Latin twist. Check out this Cedar Valley Business Feature.

His place was about 4 miles from our George Wyth campsite with over half the distance on paved trail. We pulled up, parked, walked in and Redgie was there to greet us. I met Redgie when he showed up at one of the Fat Tire Rides in Des Moines a few years back. Then we’ve kept in contact ever since.

We got there about 11:30am and it was not long before there was a line of folks out the door for lunch and picking up to-go orders. He has an awesome spot on College Street that lends itself to the perfect spot for the downtown lunch crowd.

We asked Redgie what was good and he made a recommendation since I liked spicy foods, so I ordered up a burger which came with sweet potato fries and some sweet coleslaw. Julie had a spicy hotdog with fries and slaw. He also gave us some extra hot sauce that had a kick to it for dippin’ the fries. Both were super-tasty. Redgie bought the beers (thanks RB!)

Waterloo

After lunch we wanted to venture out more on the Cedar Valley Nature Trail and decided to ride to Evansdale which was 20 miles one-way. We rode trail through Waterloo which has some great views along the river. We got another 8 miles before the trail was closed. There was no way to bypass the closure as fences were up and the trail was torn up. I looked on Google Maps for a detour, but did not see a good one as there was the river on one side and woods and industrial areas on the other side. We tried to take one dirt track for a ways but it led us to a RR track with a train on it.

So – plan B was enacted and we cruised back to Waterloo and found this little German bar called Volks Haus. We had a couple of beers there with some tasty salt-n-pepper chips. They had a great Porter from the Broad Street Brewing Company in Reinbeck. There was a local at the bar who was friends with The Bar-Handlers RAGBRAI Team. Discussions ensued and we had another beer.

We were off to another cycling hot-spot called Mulligan’s Brick Oven Grill. This is a place frequented by the CVAST dirt crew and several road/trail rides start/end there. I forgot it was Wednesday and we showed up just as two rides were leaving. Almost perfect timing, but I wished I would have brought the fat bike to go on the dirt ride.

We saw several familiar faces in both groups. Kat from cyclocross and talked with Cory, Chad and Dave from CVAST. All of whom are responsible for the upcoming IMBCS mountain bike race on August 17^th.

Both groups took off and we ordered beers and supper. They had that Reinbeck Porter on tap and Julie had a Blue Moon. I ordered the Buffalo Chicken pizza and Julie had the Sicilian Hoagie. Both were brick oven fired and tasted great.

Mulligans sets right along-side the trail and it was cool to see a constant stream of cyclists rolling by the patio area the whole time we were there.

We left before the group rides got back to explore some more paved trails before heading back to the campsite.

TRIP NOTES

The “Cedar Valley Trails & Recreation Guide” was very well laid out and our most important asset for getting around town via trails. We also used Google’s Bicycle directions too.

As everyone knows… no trail system seems as familiar as your trail system at home. There were a few times we had to make U-turns and back-track a bit to get us. I had a few issues with getting the App to update my position in real-time, and Google bicycle directions were pretty much spot-on except for a couple of times. It is all part of the fun of exploring new places.

Our advice is to use the “Cedar Valley Trails & Recreation Guide” to get a lay of the land, and then if you want to, fire up Google Maps with bicycle directions and let the voice commands guide you.

Did we see all we wanted to see? I think we did. We wanted to explore the cities from a cyclist’s viewpoint. We rode paved and dirt trails, stayed at a great camping spot less than 4 miles from downtown Cedar Falls, ate and drank local fares, and got to talk with some cyclists, bike shops and local advocates.

PROs - Outstanding Trails System, George Wyth is a great place to camp and connects directly to the trails system. Great bicycle-centric places to eat and drink. Passionate cycling community for on and off-road riding. Great maps, tons of signage and info kiosks. Easy to spend a whole weekend riding trails. Bike shops are friendly and close to the action. Finally got to stop by Single Speed Brewery and La Calle. The Cedar Falls/Waterloo area is VERY bicycle-friendly

CONs - Some of the trail spurs could use a little more signage. Closed trails offered no detours. Finding a grocery store by bicycle close to the trails was difficult. The MApp app did not show my location in real time.

Thu July 24^th- Day 3

Read Review

Fri July 25th- Day 4

Sat –July 26th – Day 5

Read Review

Road Trip Complete

Well – There you have it. The 2014 BIKEIOWA Road Trip is in the books! 14 bike trails, 16 Bike Shops and 9 breweries/ bars in 5 days. Was it long enough? Heck No! We made a good dent, but there are still plenty of places on our list that we did not get to, but will on the next road trip!

Where do YOU BIKE IOWA?