Iowa Bicycle Festival

JEFFERSON, IOWA - The local cycling club in Greene County hosted the first annual "Iowa Bicycle Festival" on Saturday, June 26th.  The event included a number of displays, a bicycle and RAGBRAI bus parade, bicycle tours of Jefferson and a number of other activities on the courthouse square.  The cycling club in Greene County is quite active, putting on a number of events throughout the summer, and as always they did a good job organizing this first annual event.
     With a strong southeasterly wind forecast for the day, I thought it was about time to work in a long ride among the shorter trips I'm more accustomed to taking down the trail.  Plus I thought it would be fun to ride from Dallas Center all the way to Jefferson without ever leaving the RRVT.  I departed from Dallas Center just before 7 AM, and arrived around 11:30 or so.  Total mileage was just shy of 60 miles.  I was thankful for the nice tailwind today!

Departing Dallas Center.  Conditions were cloudy and quite humid.  I did get sprinkled on a few times, but nothing significant during the entire trip.

At the depot in Redfield.

A tunnel of trees between Redfield and Linden.  This section of the trail has a slight grade and makes for a good workout.

Heading north out of Panora.  By now, the wind had switched mostly to the south making for a nice tailwind.

Prairie silos in Yale.  They have a great trail head here, including a relatively new restroom facility that someone built as part of their Eagle project.

Pedaling through Herndon.  The small marker on the left side of the trail marks the spot where the North Loop of the trail, running east from here to Perry, will connect up hopefully by the end of this year.

Winkleman Switch, just south of Jefferson.  This was a former livestock shipping point on the Rock Island Railroad, plus a "helper engine" was kept here to help trains make it up the rather steep grade of the Raccoon River valley further ahead.

Rolling into Jefferson at the former RI depot and now trailhead.

Festivities on the Courthouse square in Jefferson.

Plenty of things to see and do around the courthouse square in Jefferson.  There is a new cycling shop, "All Abilities Cycles" located right on the square.