Cedar Valley Tour 2023 (31 years) July 16 & 17 (Sunday and Monday)

July 16, 2023, SUNDAY, start 9am Hiawatha Trail Head. Ride on the Cedar Valley Nature Trail to Overnight in Waterloo, Return to Cedar Rapids on MONDAY.

PANDEMIC plans. Bring a mask to wear into the stores/restaurants. Buy food, take it outside to eat. Keep our social distance. Get your shots. Everything is the same as last year, the year before, the year before that and so on.

Brandon MiniMart is no more. After many years of decline, they are closed up.

Every year someone expresses concern about a bit of trail being impassible. Well, there are countless detours available on nearby local roads. "What's the trail like, what's the condition". We will find out when we get there. As Calvin said: "Let's Go Exploring!"

CVT starts at 9:00 am at the Hiawatha trail head on Boyson Road just 2 blocks east of I380. Overnight parking is okay there. For a shorter option you can start your ride at the train depot in Center Point. Overnight parking is okay there too. The short option cuts about 13 miles off the ride each day but you asphalt lovers will miss 13 miles of paved trail.

We stop everywhere. Many places to snack or drink and we will take advantage of those.

Overnight motels. Plenty to choose from near the Cross Roads Mall area in Waterloo. Dinner at Panera right across the street from the Days Inn Crossroads (319)235-4461. Plenty of other motels nearby. Panera has outdoor seating.

We know the back roads in to Waterloo so we only have 2 blocks of potentially busy road. This is a very flat trail and route.

I'll be riding from my house at 8am if you want to join in for some extra miles. Meet up at the Hiawatha trail head at 9 am. Ride slow, stop in every town for snacks and drinks. Carry your own change of clothes and tooth brush. Dinner at Panera across from the motels.

There is no trail pass required for the CVNT.

This is a regular Hawkeye Bicycle Association ride and helmet use is requested.

See you on the ride.

Cedar Valley Tour 2022 (30 years!) July 17 & 18 (Sunday and Monday)

 30 years.

SUNDAY start 9am,  

Return to CR on MONDAY. 

 why on monday?  Most participants are retired now so why not.

PANDEMIC plans.  Bring a mask to wear into the stores/restaurants.  Buy food, take it outside to eat.  Keep our social distance. Get  your shots.

Everything is the same as last year, the year before, the year before that and so on.

Leave the Hiawatha Trail Head at 9:00 am.

Every year someone expresses concern about a bit of trail being impassible. Well, there are countless detours available on nearby local roads.  "What's the trail like, what's the condition". We will find out when we get there. As Calvin said: "Let's Go Exploring!"

CVT starts at 9:00 am at the Hiawatha trail head on Boyson Road just 2 blocks east of I380.  Overnight parking is okay there.  For a shorter option you can start your ride at the train depot in Center Point.  Overnight parking is okay there too. The short option cuts about 13 miles off the ride each day but you asphalt lovers will miss 13 miles of paved trail.


We stop everywhere.   Many places to snack or drink and we will take advantage of those.

Overnight motels. Plenty to choose from near the Cross Roads Mall area in Waterloo.  Dinner at Panera right across the street from the Days Inn.  Panera has outdoor seating.

We know the back roads in to Waterloo so we only have 2 blocks of potentially busy road.  This is a very flat trail and route. 


I'll be riding from my house at 8am if you want to join in for some extra miles.
Meet up at the Hiawatha trail head at 9 am.
Ride slow, stop in every town for snacks and drinks.
Carry your own change of clothes and tooth brush.
Dinner at Panera across from the motels.

There is no trail pass required for the CVNT.
This is a regular Hawkeye Bicycle Association ride and helmet use is requested.

See you on the ride.  

Cedar Valley Tour 2021 (29 years!) July 18 & 19 (Sunday and Monday)

 

29 years.

SUNDAY start 9am,  

Return to CR on MONDAY. 

 why on monday?  Most participants are retired now so why not.

PANDEMIC plans.  Bring a mask to wear into the stores/restaurants.  Buy food, take it outside to eat.  Keep our social distance. Get  your shots.

Everything is the same as last year, the year before, the year before that and so on.

Leave the Hiawatha Trail Head at 9:00 am.

Every year someone expresses concern about a bit of trail being impassible. Well, there are countless detours available on nearby local roads.  "What's the trail like, what's the condition". We will find out when we get there. As Calvin said: "Let's Go Exploring!"

CVT starts at 9:00 am at the Hiawatha trail head on Boyson Road just 2 blocks east of I380.  Overnight parking is okay there.  For a shorter option you can start your ride at the train depot in Center Point.  Overnight parking is okay there too. The short option cuts about 13 miles off the ride each day but you asphalt lovers will miss 13 miles of paved trail.


We stop everywhere.   Many places to snack or drink and we will take advantage of those.

Overnight motels. Plenty to choose from near the Cross Roads Mall area in Waterloo.  Dinner at Panera right across the street from the Days Inn.  Panera has outdoor seating.

We know the back roads in to Waterloo so we only have 2 blocks of potentially busy road.  This is a very flat trail and route. 


I'll be riding from my house at 8am if you want to join in for some extra miles.
Meet up at the Hiawatha trail head at 9 am.
Ride slow, stop in every town for snacks and drinks.
Carry your own change of clothes and tooth brush.
Dinner at Panera across from the motels.

There is no trail pass required for the CVNT.
This is a regular Hawkeye Bicycle Association ride and helmet use is requested.

See you on the ride.  

2020 Cedar Valley Tour July 12 & 13

28 years!

SUNDAY start 9am,  

Return to CR on MONDAY. 

PANDEMIC plans.  Bring a mask to wear into the stores/restaurants.  Buy food, take it outside to eat.  Keep our social distance.

Everything is the same as last year, the year before, the year before that and so on.

Leave the Hiawatha Trail Head at 9:00 am.

Every year someone expresses concern about a bit of trail being impassible. Well, there are countless detours available on nearby local roads.  "What's the trail like, what's the condition". We will find out when we get there. As Calvin said: "Let's Go Exploring!"

CVT starts at 9:00 am at the Hiawatha trail head on Boyson Road just 2 blocks east of I380.  Overnight parking is okay there.  For a shorter option you can start your ride at the train depot in Center Point.  Overnight parking is okay there too. The short option cuts about 13 miles off the ride each day but you asphalt lovers will miss 13 miles of paved trail.


We stop everywhere.   Many places to snack or drink and we will take advantage of those.

Overnight motels. Plenty to choose from near the Cross Roads Mall area in Waterloo.  Dinner at Panera right across the street from the Days Inn.

We know the back roads in to Waterloo so we only have 2 blocks of potentially busy road.  This is a very flat trail and route. 


I'll be riding from my house at 8am if you want to join in for some extra miles.
Meet up at the Hiawatha trail head at 9 am.
Ride slow, stop in every town for snacks and drinks.
Carry your own change of clothes and tooth brush.
Dinner at Panera across from the motels.

There is no trail pass required for the CVNT.
This is a regular Hawkeye Bicycle Association ride and helmet use is requested.

See you on the ride.  

2019 Cedar Valley Tour July 13 & 14 (27 years!)

Everything is the same as last year, the year before, the year before that and so on.

Leave the Hiawatha Trail Head at 9:00 am Saturday morning.

Every year someone expresses concern about a bit of trail being impassible. Well, there are countless detours available on nearby local roads.  "What's the trail like, what's the condition". We will find out when we get there

CVT starts at 9:00 am at the Hiawatha trail head on Boyson Road just 2 blocks east of I380.  Overnight parking is okay there.  For a shorter option you can start your ride at the train depot in Center Point.  Overnight parking is okay there too. The short option cuts about 13 miles off the ride each day but you asphalt lovers will miss 13 miles of paved trail.


We stop everywhere.  Every place to snack or drink and we will take advantage of that.

Overnight motels. Plenty to choose from near the Cross Roads Mall area in Waterloo.  Dinner at Panera right across the street from the Days Inn.

We know the back roads in to Waterloo so we only have 2 block of potentially busy road.  This is a very flat trail and route. 

See you on the ride.  The details are always the same.
I'll be riding from my house at 8am if you want some extra miles.
Meet up at the Hiawatha trail head at 9 am.
Ride slow, stop in every town for snacks and drinks.
Carry your own change of clothes and tooth brush.
Dinner at Panera across from the motels.

There is no trail pass required for the CVNT.
This is a regular Hawkeye Bicycle Association ride and helmet use is requested..

2018 Cedar Valley Tour

Dates are June 30 and July 1 this year.  Moved up on the club ride schedule to accommodate other rides.  Well be back to the traditional week before ragbrai in 2019.

Well it would be July 14 but that is Bastille Day and I also organize a Bastille Day ride. That starts in Sokol Park in Cedar Rapids at 6pm.  Bring a french bike of course.  We'll have our cake and eat it too.

And why stop there, I'm tossing in a easy vintage Schwinn Bicycle ride on July 15, Sokol Park.

CVT starts at 9:00 am at the Hiawatha trail head on Boyson Road just 2 blocks east of I380.  Overnight parking is okay there.  For a shorter option you can start your ride at the train depot in Center Point.  Overnight parking is okay there too. The short option cuts about 13 miles off the ride each day but you asphalt lovers will miss 13 miles of paved trail.


We stop everywhere.  Every place to snack or drink and we will take advantage of that. 

Overnight motels. Plenty to choose from near the Cross Roads Mall area in Waterloo.  Dinner at Panera right across the street from the Days Inn.

We know the back roads in to Waterloo so we only have 2 block of potentially busy road.  This is a very flat trail and route. 

See you on the ride.  The details are always the same.
I'll be riding from my house at 8am if you want some extra miles.
Meet up at the Hiawatha trail head at 9 am.
Ride slow, stop in every town for snacks and drinks.
Carry your own change of clothes and tooth brush.
Dinner at Panera across from the motels.

There is no trail pass required for the CVNT.
This is a regular Hawkeye Bicycle Association ride and helmet use is requested.

Trail conditions?  We'll find out when we get there.

 One thing about the CVT is there are always decent riding alternatives around any section of the trail.

Fine new bridge just west of Center Point.

 Tree today, gone tomorrow.

 Fine architecture in the small towns along the trail.

 Fine art in the small towns along the trail.

Fine riders along the trail.

Fine vista, not along the trail.

Cedar Valley Tour 2017

25 years!

In the early years the ride was organized by KGAN, the local CBS-tv affiliate.  The ride alternated starting cities.  Waterloo/Cedar Falls vs Cedar Rapids/Marion. They catered the saturday night meal and had music entertainment.  For some years, the promo was the "missing link".  A bit of trail that some farmer fought to return to some distant owner farm.  The ride had to 'go around' on gravel roads.  No biggie.  Now the trail follows the property line around that field.  One year I remember is when I only rode on sunday.  I headed north following the group that mostly left long before me.  I ran in to a local rider I knew, Paul Healy.  me: "I don't know how I'm getting back home"  Paul:  "I have 2 cars in Cedar Falls, I don't know how I'm driving both back".  Cool, problem solved.  Paul's son drove himself to CF and was too exhausted to ride back on the sunday.  Another year I rode up on saturday and by the time I got to Cedar Falls, my back was really bad.  By pure co-incidence I ran in to my mother in Cedar Falls by the book store near campus.  She had a lunch date with one of my sisters's now ex boyfriend's parents.  Thanks for the ride home mom. But I forgot my car in Hiawatha so that was another trip to get that.  KGAN ended the sponsored the ride after 6 years.  They would have their hairdoos ride and do the nightly news on the lawn at the motel.  KGAN used to have a satellite up link truck (KCRG had the helicopter).  Once KGAN quit, members of the HBA kept the ride going.  The last year the Werner's led the ride, they took their pre-teen daughter who obviously ran that family.  I made the mistake of throwing my bag in their car.  I got in many hours before them, took a shower and washed my cycling clothes.  Well it was 4 or 5 hours of nothing but towels to wear and boring saturday afternoon tv to watch. I also learned that motel rooms are terrible for drying clothes.  That convinced me to offer to take over being ride leader.

It is amazing how little rain this ride has received.  Iowa spring rains are done by mid July.  The biggest annoyance is the bugs in the tree covered sections of the trail.  Mosquitoes have subsided but gnats have exploded.  You learn pretty quick to keep moving but ride slow enough so you can keep your mouth shut and breath through your nose.  I've been thinking a full mesh windshield would be nice.  If you want to experience an extreme example, ride the Cedar Rapids trail past Mount Trashmore some summer evening. Another amazing fact of life in Iowa is the billions of gnats on the CVNT don't follow us on RAGBRAI.  The ag industry war on nature really shows all across the state.  Despite many efforts to return Iowa to wetlands (bug factories), the chemicals are winning.  If you study Iowa geographic history, you find out Iowa has been everything from the bottom of an ocean to all trees, to all swamps to being under 1000s of  feet of ice 30 times over that scraped every thing away.  Those that think we need to return Iowa to the way it was before have some bizarre notion: pick a random time in recent history and try to roll back the man made changes.  Really, every plant and animal and insect, bird and bacteria is invasive.  Especially people.  The only constant on earth is change.  Humans will wipe themselves out long before the sun goes nova and swallows the planets.

The slow creep of pavement continues.  More miles are now hard surface.  Soon the asphalt weenies will be able to ride all the way.  IMO, the middle of the trail is the nicest.  More nature, less congealed crude oil slick.  Watching for turtles and fish sure beats watching comfort bikes.

See you on the ride.  The details are always the same.

July 15 & 16, 2017
Meet up at the Hiawatha trail head at 9 am.
Ride slow, stop in every town for snacks and drinks.
Carry your own change of clothes and tooth brush.
Dinner at Panera across from the motels.

There is no trail pass required for the CVNT.
This is a regular Hawkeye Bicycle Association ride and helmet use is requested.

Trail conditions?  We'll find out when we get there.