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May 22 – 24 2022 The entire Trail from East to West
Day 1 Norfolk to O’Neil 80 miles
Day 2 O’Neil to Bassett 50 miles
Day 3 Bassett to Valentine 65 miles
The Trail was in good condition with very, little vegetation in the middle of the trail for the duration for late Spring. There are plenty of soft spots (deep gravel) that wider tires (used 50cm) are highly recommended for the Trail.
If you are riding the entire Trail, there are multiple detours along the route. The issue is that some are not marked well until you get to where for example, a bridge is washed out and it says closed as you reach the river and you must backtrack. The detour puts you on a busy highway with plenty of traffic mostly with large trucks. Since the Cowboy follows the highway for a majority of the Cowboy, we learned that once the obstacle was bypassed, we would just join back onto the trail which in most cases was a football field in distance to return to the Trail.
Treat all transitions with caution that includes all roads, driveways and bridges that crosses the trail as each may have challenges to include drop-offs, soft and deep sand plus up to 6” to get back up on the trail.
You may want to take into consideration the winds for the timeframe of your ride because you are exposed as the limited trees along the trail do little to help block the wind. 2 out of 3 days it was a direct headwind of 10+ knots. Also, going from East to West is a steady 1 to 2% climb.
We chose the Spring time frame to avoid the possibility of the dreaded sand burrs but we did have several occurrences of the burrs being imbedding in our tires. Luckily, we were running a tubeless tire setup with a sealant we have been using for years and after removing a burr, it quickly plugged the leak and we continued on with our journey.
Throughout the length of the Cowboy, there was some sort off wildlife digging holes mostly on the sides of the trail but some were in the middle of the trail and quite large. It was difficult to see the severity of the hole until you were almost on it.
As you approach each town on the trail, there is a sign announcing the name off the city and distance to the next one. As you are departing that town, there is another one along the trail.
Near Bassett, keep your eyes in the pastures adjacent to the trail as you might see wildlife of not the indigenous type but more of the exotic kind – 2 camels and a zebra!
Was a little scared by previous reviews, but seems this trail is getting better. I would definitely not go on it with anything less than 700x38c. Still sections of deep gravel you can fishtail on. Hopefully the let some trees grow around this for shade and wind protection. Rode from Schram street to across the river--approx. 15 miles. Be prepared for wind.
Oak Creek Trail is still closed just north of Valparaiso which was not posted on the info kiosk in Valparaiso. Better to start at County Rd. 30 if heading northward. Beautiful trail. Largely wind protected with embankments and trees. The horse trail alongside occasionally crisscrosses the fine gravel trail which was in good shape for this early spring ride. Restrooms were not open. North of Loma we encountered >20 mph winds which were gusting to 36 mph which added a significant challenge. But it was a pretty ride and worth the effort.
Great spring ride in Nebraska—watch out for those winds across the plain sections of the trail!
Sept 2021! Rode from Lincoln and the trail was in great shape! A bridge was out so there was a slight detour, but it kicked us into some gravel through some scenic Nebraska farms. We ended the day in Beatrice at Chatauqua Park. Slept in the park and rode back into Lincoln the next day. Great event GREATtrail!!!
Yucky trial. We rode from Springfield out to South Bend. Deep gravel that was unsafe to ride on and lots of dog poop. We will not be back.
After starting from the Lewis and Clark National Historic Headquarters and Visitor Center, we bicycled across the awesome Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge, rode the Iowa Riverfront Trail, and then crossed back to ride the Omaha Riverfront Trail.
I'm sorry to say it was less than impressive. We traveled from Southern California to experience the bridge and bike trails on both sides of the Old Muddy, and Omaha really let us down. There were some great views of the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge and the mighty Missouri River, but due to construction the downriver portion of the trail past the Lewis and Clark center was closed off!
Heading upriver was just as disappointing. After a mile or so the trail just comes to an end at a restaurant parking lot. We were tempted to ride through the parking lot, get on Abbott Drive to find where the trail eventually resumes, but these two senior citizens didn't particularly want to share the road with two ton vehicles whizzing past us.
OMAHA: We look forward to coming back when all of three sections of your Riverfront Trail are a connected Class IV Bikeway and construction free!
The wife and I thoroughly enjoyed our trip bicycling from the Nebraska side to Iowa and eventually back over on this awesome suspension bridge in October. Plenty of photo ops, pedestrians, and joggers!
Bicyclists: Plan on riding Omaha's Riverfront Trail and Iowa's Riverfront Trail on either side of the bridge to make a day of it! Council Bluff's Tom Hanafan River's Edge Park is especially cool with its large grassy areas, trees, and sculptures!
Beautiful tree canopy trail passing through western Iowa farm land and small towns. We can’t wait to come back and enjoy the trail again next year! Should be on everyone’s trail list.
The first eight or nine miles is fine except for finding large, very large grave(Gravel that will never break down unless semi’s drive over it, for years). These sections that are very uncomfortable to ride over. Then you get to the corn and soybean fields, do not go this way unless you like pushing your bike through soft sand and more of the large gravel chunks. Then you head towards Peru and the Trail is growing in nicely with weeds in the middle and you get to Peru hoping for a nice rest stop and someone has vandalized the bathrooms and it looks like it’s been that way a long time and you cannot go past this point towards Brownsville, barriers all over for that way. But the first 9 miles was very nice.
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