ISO The Red Prairie Trail Where the Buffalo Roam.

A few weeks ago I glanced at the 2020 Edition of the Greater des Moines Regional Trails map that the Bicycle Collective puts out.  The small folded map available at bike shops hand out and the kiosks on Gray's Lake offer for free.  Something in my memory about "37 changes" for 2020 when I obtained mine most likely at the Bike Expo.  Not that I need one but I like to have them to hand out to new members of the cycling community.  A small section shows the entire metro region and for 2020 there is a new trail connecting Mitchellville to Lake Red Rock.  What really caught my eye was the "anticipated completion summer 2020."  Well, summer ends in less than a month, let's see for ourselves.

Red Prairie Trail in yellow.  Do I ever see loops when this is completed.

We loaded the Fisher tandem into the CR-V and drove to Prairie City.  A short drive from Des Moines and right off of Highway 163.  Once there it was time to find it.  No Joy.  Searched by the elevator assuming that the trail would use the defuncted rail line.  No.  Headed east on old 163 where said railroad used to be.  Nothing.  So we gave up.  Obviously, a typo on the map.   Plan B: ride elsewhere.  Had we more time and had eaten lunch we would have taken the county highways to Monroe or Mitchellville but alas...

Since we were already in the area we chose the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge renown for its herd of bison.  We parked at the first pull off kiosk where parking was available and took off on the tandem.  There are like lanes on both sides of the road.  From where we parked it was 4.5 miles to the Visitor's Center.  

Love the color of the beans this time of year.  We remove the wheels from the tandem before turning it upside down and placing it in the center of the CR-V.  All doors and windows can shut once loaded.

This would be our first venture on the tandem since May when we did the Kewash Trail so it took a bit of time adjusting to it.  Having recently putting a few thousand miles on singles and lately brand new high tech roadies the tandem took sometime to get reacquainted.  Wow, the handlebars are wider!  The brakes are weak!  OMG we are hitting 30 mph without effort!  Going to get a hill workout!  That was within the first 1/2 mile.  By mile 2 I had the gear shifting on hills working properly.  How long have we ridden this bike?  29 years.

The road was smooth, the bike lane clean, traffic very very light.  Shame it was such a short trip.  Sadly, the visitors center was closed, covid.  Also sad was the fact that the gravel trails were meant for pedestrians.  Oh well.  We could have taken the "auto route" but the dust clouds from SUVs on those gravel roads was not inviting.  Journey back to our Honda.

From a distance with the naked eye this looked like an average Iowa herd of cattle.  But there was a lookout point with a pair of binoculars and I took this photo by placing my camera to one of the eye ports.  These are buffalo.

In Prairie City at the park and start of the Plainsman Trail. Mary and I plus our new friend.

Took this photo almost as an after thought.  Did a U-turn on the grass with the tandem.  Crunchy.  Drought!

It was decided that a treat at Casey's was in order so we blasted past our vehicle and headed into town.  Here we stopped at the bison statue and then rode on the Plainsman Trail in Prairie City.  Not much of a trail but nice for the people of that town.  Perhaps it will be connected to the red prairies Trail.

Further Reading

Construction as of 2019

Progress on the trail