Trails in Nebraska?

[carpaltunnel]

Any Nebraska trail bikers who can comment on the fairly new Steamboat Trace trail?
http://www.nemahanrd.org/trail.htm

Thanks!

[MomOnBike]

DH & I rode it a few years back. We did an over-nighter starting from Nebraska City, where we left the car at a friend's house, and spent a night in the B&B in Peru. I wasn't in very good shape, and we were taking our time. It was a nice little late summer/early fall vacation for us.

Details, as I remember: Getting to the trail head from NC was hilly, but the trail itself is pool-table flat, it's right in the flood plain of the Missouri, after all.

Don't miss the sandstone carvings just south of Peru. They almost make the trip worthwhile all by themselves.

Brownville has (had?) a pretty nice little ice cream shop. Brownville, BTW, keeps trying to turn itself into a tourist destination, with mixed success, so offerings are a mixed bag - thus the overnight at Peru. The trail can probably be easily be ridden in a day, if that's your goal.

Trail surface was the limestone stuff. Dusty, but a nice surface (when it's dry).

Durn, now I've made myself want to go back...

Living where you are, have you ridden the Wabash Trace? http://wabashtrace.connections.net/ We rode a bit of the Southern end once, and I want to do the whole thing some day.

[carpaltunnel]

Yes, we've ridden it several times, the northern end that is. Most of the time we hop on the trail at the entrance near Lewis Central school in Council Bluffs. It's crushed limestone. A bit dusty but that's ok. Lots of variety and great scenery. Some hills but not terrible.

A few times we've ridden on Saturday a.m. to Silver City, where a tiny cafe serves breakfast. It's a bike destination on Saturday. I don't know about other days. It's just across Main Street from the trail, so you can' t miss it. Cousins who live near Glenwood usually drive over and meet us and we drink coffee and yack. They serve until either 9 or 10 a.m. - I forget which. There's a tiny thrift shop in town.

We hear fun things about the Thursday night taco run, to the Minneola Steak House, but probably never will do it. We did bike down there one Sunday after church last year, thinking to have lunch. People were going in & out, and cars were parked in front, so we went in and sat down. As soon as we walked in the door, a woman at one of the tables looked at us and burst into laughter.

After 10 minutes or so of being ignored, a waitress came out of the kitchen, took one look at us, wheeled around and went back in the kitchen. Minutes later the owner came out. He said, "Folks, I'm closed today so I can't fix you any food, but I'd be happy to make you some tea or sell you a soda." We looked around at all the other tables, filled with people, eating, drinking, watching tv. "Family reunion." he explained. He brought us a pitcher of tea and we looked the menu over for next time, drank our tea, cooled off a little, and headed back.

Once we rode from CB to Malvern Iowa and back. That was our longest ride on that trail.
We also think about doing the whole thing. I believe it would take us three days. I've also thought about biking to the end, then taking the Amtrak back home, if that can be done. Have you done any planning? How would you do it?

Brownville is now trying to position itself as the largest used book store in the US, patterning off a town in England, I believe. The Antiquarian, Omaha's largest/oldest used book store, is moving there soon. Or maybe all ready has.

[MomOnBike]

No, I haven't done a bit of planning on the Wabash Trace, well, aside from a general thought that it would be a fun trip. We'd probably start from the South end, tootle up to Omaha/CB take in some culture, or something, there, then ride back downstream to the car.

I didn't know that Amtrack home was a possibility. Now you have me thinking....

Right now, though, I'm planning our Katy Trail trip. It was postponed last year for Younger Daughter's graduation, and this year 'cause RAGBRAI is a nice flat recumbent-friendly route this year. Maybe next year for the Katy Trail - with Wabash for a warm-up. Or something like that.