Cycling Advocates
Ride to Pro Walk Pro Bike 2006 |
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| Daily Trip
Log |
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from Vancouver B.C. to Madison, Wisconsin
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Picture of Vancouver, BC  |
| from to Austin,
MN to Cresco, IA |
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Date: 2006-08-30
Distance: 98 Kilometres
Cycling Time: 5.05 Hours
Average Speed: 19.30 kph
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Trip Distance since Leaving Vancouver
- 3,520 Kilometres |
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Thoughts
for the Day
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And now it is Iowa |
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It was another pleasant cycling day, warm and
sunny. Headwind, but not too strong, was a negative. We started early and
were off the road before the hot part of the day took hold. Not quiet light
now when we leave in the morning. |
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The route out of Austin included County Roads
3, and Highways 56, 63 into Iowa and then Highway 9 into Cresco. We had
planned to take a couple of county roads into Cresco instead of Highway
63 and 9 but a bridge construction stopped us..
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At least, we did manage to get to a pleasant
village, Lime Springs, a delicatessen, and the local park for lunch. At
the delicatessen, a delivery driver asked the store attendants if the bridge
was still under construction. Thanks for that or else we would have had
a few kilometres of gravel cycling |
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Some of the roads were very quiet. Highway 63
was not. There were no paved shoulders. The gravel shoulders were extremely
poorly maintained. In some cases the drop-off was dangerous for bicycles
to cut off the road to accommodate motorized vehicles. There were plenty
of large trucks driving too fast. In Iowa the trucks are required to have
a headway of a bout 100 metres. In practice only the good drivers practiced
that. |
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Minnesota uses a set of three rumble strips
that cross the traffic lanes before any intersection of county or highway
roads. |
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The route passed through a town or village every
10 or so kilometres. Each town seemed to have some character to it. Corn
and soybean were the most prominent crops in the fields today. |
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Cresco, IA |
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This town has a well defined main street and
downtown. A county seat, the streets are lined with interesting brick buildings
from the turn of the last century. Obviously, this has been a regional town
and wealthy in the past. Bank buildings are very prominent. Churches vie
for space. The streets are lined with mature trees. |
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Cycling
Facilities
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| Adams, MN |
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In the west end of Adams a marked snowmobile
trail came into town by an electrical transmission line. Why was this trail
not developed for bicycles?
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Adams had a non-traffic lane beside the curbs
on the main street facilitating cycling through the town.
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| Cresco, IA |
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Bike Lane and Bike Path |
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The road adjacent to the main highway through
town has a one-way bike lane with Bike Route signs along it. By the grocery
store, the bike lane joins into a bike path which seems to go to the western
part of the town. The bike lane seems to be on an old railway line. |
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There was not a map to indicate the route of
the bike path. |
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| Highway #56, Minnesota |
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From County Road #3 out of Austin to Adams,
the highway had an excellent paved shoulder of a bike lane width. It made
the cycle so much more pleasant considering the number of high speed trucks
that wiped by. |
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| Highway #9, Iowa |
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A bike lane width paved shoulder made cycling
very pleasant on this road. |
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| Off-Road Bike Paths or Rail-Trails –
Minnesota |
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Internet map of Trails |
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http://www.minnesotamonthly.com/sponsoredSection/biking/trails.html
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Shooting Star State Trail
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http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_trails/shootingstar/index.html
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In Taopi, a trailhead was encountered by
chance. A paved path started there but no indications of where it was
going. There was no trail map at the trailhead. There were no signs on
the road indicating that a trail ran parallel to it. It was going east
but where to was unknown.
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Were we aware of the trail we could have taken
it from Taopi to LeRoy. |
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| Off-Road Bike Paths or Rail-Trails –
Iowa |
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Internet Listing of State Trails
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http://www.iowabikes.com/majortrails.html |
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We wanted to take the Wapsi – Great Western
Trail from the Minnesota state line to Riceville. The problem was to get
to the Minnesota trailhead. There were no indications on the Minnesota map
on how to get from Taopi to the trailhead on paved roads. Also, there was
no indications here the trailhead was. No trial map was available on the
internet and no local information available or signs on the regional roads
to guide you there. |
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| Cycling in Iowa |
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Internet Bicycle Map |
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http://www.iowadotmaps.com/msp/pdf/bikemap.pdf
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Print copy of the map is available. The map
is quite useful in trip planning and easily readable. |
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