Prairie Spirit Ride Reports

Did the whole trail and back Wed (6/15). 13-hr total time is not great on a perfect mild day with perfect trail conditions. The trail was firm from end to end. Saw three bicyclists outside the city limits. Most activity was within them on this weekday.

The wildflowers were blooming big-time with more on the way. Although I have good references for identifying them, there were so many this time I got them mixed up. Also, there were too many varieties of each kind plus many were in...

Found this on an external site. Lots of nice pictures.

http://www.eons.com/groups/topic/2622039-Prairie-Spirit-Trail ...

9/14&16. Finished my two separate-day ride of the PSRT yesterday (72 & 32-miles w/short turnabouts, side-trips, and a lunch in Garnett). The shorter ride Friday gave me more time to enjoy the early-fall country settings. Super!

The trails surface is firm. The department has done a great job of 1) filling its cracks, 2) posting surface-change advisories at the trailheads, and 3) fencing off the damaged bridge in Iola. I took the shorter detour there (west on Oregon Rd, and then so...

Thought a 50+ miler would be good to get in shape for a century later this month. I had a spare day before I started giving finals, everything else was graded soooo.... to the BatBike, Robin!

Got to Garnett about 9:00am. Weather was beautiful. About 63 degrees and just a hint of a cloud here and there. Saw a couple unloading, they didn't seem inclined to talk so I kept to myself. Unloaded, took a couple of pictures, and I was off.

The trail is in great shape as...

mtanders and I met Steve and coverjim at the Ottawa depot at 9:30 in the morning. It had rained the night before but the clouds did not look too threatening. It was, however, to be a day without sunshine. Average temperature was about 47 degrees.

Setting out we quickly arrived at the trailhead and stopped so that Steve and mtanders could pay their fees since they had not picked up a year pass like coverjim and I. We did talk about how the outlets for Fish and Game licenses didn�...

April 8th - Cloudy and foggy to start - tried to go with the wind and avoid rain. Soggy towards the north, drier condidtions farther south. Tornado watch cut the ride short. Did not run into anyone else the whole day until geting back to Garnett - a couple going out to ride maybe to Scipio Road if the westher held out. Saw a snake that I could not identify. Good day, trail in good shape - no major washouts or problems. Other than visibility north of Welda where pastures was buring on both ...

We managed to ride these days, way short of our mark to get to Iola and back in a weekend. Our first time riders did remarkably well to get to Garnett. Surely there has got to be better accomodations other that the Economy Inn? But it appeared to be the only game in town. And it is what is is. Other than that, it was good. Trail conditions great and clear. The wind played a big factor in both down and back. Picked up wind from the southwest about noon that slowed the group on Saturday. ...

I've been meaning to add a link to this nice ride report. Also a lot of interesting information on the rest of the blog.

It's winter, if I didn't read about cycling I would forget what it was.

http://getspoked.wordpress.com/2010/09/02/prairie-spirit-trail...

Came across this report of a runner doing the entire trail so I thought I would add it to the posts here.

http://runnerfreak69.blogspot.com/2010/11/prairie-spirit-trail-run-51-miles.html...

One day ride on 8/27/2010
Iola - Stayed overnight at the Best Western. Retro style motel that is adequate for a one night stay. Clean - Limited breakfast that opens at 6 AM for those who like to start early. Best thing about it, is that the southern terminus of the trail is right at its doorstep

Trail is paved about a mile in Iola. Road crossings are well marked all along the trail.
The first fee box I found was at Carlyle. I did not see any in Iola, but may h...