Since it was nice out last night I decided to check out the new bike trail in Carl Junction. It’s called the Thoms Station Trail and I became aware of it when Grant and I discovered the bridge while kayaking. As I understand it, when the Ruby Jack trail is complete it will connect to the north end of this trail. The south end of this trail is also planned to connect to another bike trail in NW Joplin that I haven’t checked out yet so I guess when all that is complete it will create about 40+ miles of continuous trail.

I had trouble finding the trail head because there really isn’t much info online about the trail or where it is located. The trail is very short, in fact it was less than 2 miles roundtrip, but it’s also still under construction. So if you are looking to spend more than 15 minutes on the trail you might be better off walking.

Here is the trail head – it’s on Allen Street in CJ between Summit and Main. It’s a rather awkward lot and would be problematic for more than 2 or 3 cars.

It’s a typical rail-to-trail setup…nice level grade with gravel.

The Center Creek bridge is certainly the highlight of the trail. I am told it is the longest non-car bridge in the state, but who knows if that’s true. Either way, it’s about 400′ long and fun to ride across.

The section crossing the river utilizes the original railroad supports.

The bridge is a nice spot to stand and enjoy the view of the river. And in this case the fall foliage and nice weather!

Currently the trail ends just past the bridge at Briarbrook Drive, but as you can see construction has started to continue the trail further south.

A nice opening along the trail as I was heading back to the trail head. This would have probably been a nice spot to view the tornado a few years ago!

Sometimes after work when the weather is nice I like to go for a bike ride. Lately my route of choice is to ride up old 66 through carterville and webb city, and then jump on the Frisco trail and ride it to the south end…which ironically is at North Street. It’s about 20 miles and takes an hour and a half if I don’t stop.

I usually plan to stop and enjoy the scenic area near the bridge over Turkey Creek, but I don’t think I ever have. By that point in the ride I am in a groove and just want to keep going. I like the frisco trail a lot and I think it’s a valuable asset to area residents.

The Maple Leaf Bike Ride is coming up on Saturday, Oct 10. I would like to encourage everyone to come out and participate. Last year me, shelf-life, mom, and dad all did it and had a blast. I would also like to point out that I had the distinction of finishing dead last in my distance category (74miles).

Here are a few reasons I think you should do it:

• Riding bikes is fun!
• Proceeds go to the construction of new area trails!
• Those are really the main two reasons I can think of.

There are routes for riders of all abilities… anywhere from 15mi for the casual rider up to 100 miles for the people with legs of steel and $6000 bikes. Mom and dad did the 35mile route and thoroughly enjoyed it. I like the 70-80ish mile routes. Regardless of which route you choose, it’s lots of fun to get out and support area trail projects!

Here is the website with all the info and online registration:
http://www.carthagemapleleafride.com/

Saturday was the Gorilla bike ride in Pittsburg, KS, which coincided with their town festival “Little Balkan Days” (anyone know what a balkan is??). Though not exactly ‘easy’, the gorilla ride is significantly easier than the Tornado Alley for serveral reasons. A- It’s a few miles shorter and B- it’s totally flat.

It was a nice 68 mile ride and went past such landmarks as Big Brutus and the mined land conservation areas and we passed through the Kansas towns of Weir, Scammon, West Mineral, McCune, and of course Pittsburg. My only real complaint about this ride compared to others I have done was that the rest stops seemed really far apart. Aside from that I thought it was great and I really enjoyed myself. My ‘rents also participated on the shorter route.

So that only leaves the Maple Leaf ride next month and my season of biking will be more or less over until next year!

Saturday was the big TA110 bike ride. The route was more or less the same as last year, equally as hard and equally as hot. There are a lot of these types of events, but this is probably one of the harder rides, in that the route is designed to be hilly.

Items of note include the fact that I was apparently in much better condition this year. I made it up every single hill, including the wall of death in Seneca and the never ending stairway to hell on OK-10 north of Grove (last year I had to push up at least 5 or 6 of the hills). Also I shaved an hour and 20 minutes off my previous ride time!

I figure the real reason I was so much faster this year was just that I was wearing spandex shorts. At first I was a bit nervous and awkward about sporting the banana hammock but once I was going I just enjoyed the fact that I didn’t have shorts bunching up everywhere. I kept feeling that people were staring at my junk but in retrospect they were probably just staring at the fact that I was doing the hardest bike ride around on a hybrid trek 7100 retrofitted with race tires.

All in all it was a great ride and I had a lot of fun. These bike events are a blast and I’m very much addicted to them…now I’m looking forward to the Gorilla Century in a couple months. I’m still not quite ready for a full century route, but I can feel it getting closer within reach!