RRVT News
“Last link” is completed! You can now ride your bike on paved trail all the way from Jefferson in west central Iowa to the Des Moines River downtown in the capital city. City’s trails director says it’s a 70-mile stretch.
DES MOINES, May 27, 2009 – It’s old news, really, going back to early last November, but it’s a good time now for a reminder as the summer cycling season begins: It is now possible to ride your bicycle on a paved recreational trail all the way from Jefferson, at the north end of the Raccoon River Valley Trail, to the Des Moines River downtown in the capital city.
The last link that had been missing — an 8/10 of a mile stretch just southwest of the Des Moines Art Center — was paved in the late fall.
“We finished up about November 1,” said Richard Brown, rec trails director for the City of Des Moines Parks and Recreation Department. “It was right before the snow started flying. ”
He said new signage and seeding along the new stretch of trail is planned this season, but people began riding on it last November as soon as the surface was solid.
From Principal Park baseball stadium at the confluence of the Des Moines and Raccoon Rivers and heading west, trail users can use the new Meredith Trail, loop Gray’s Lake if they want, then catch the Bill Riley Bikeway west through Waterworks Park. The Des Moines metro trails continue west before connecting with the Clive Greenbelt Trail, then the Raccoon River Valley Trail which goes on 56 miles to Jefferson.
So, has anybody figured out just how long the ride would be between the Des Moines baseball stadium and Jefferson?
“It’s exactly 70 miles,” said Brown. ”I took time to calculate that, because I knew the Des Moines Cycle Club is promoting the ‘Tour the Racoon’ this summer, and I knew people would be curious.”
In mid-winter, he said he hadn’t yet heard of anybody doing the full 70-mile end-to-end ride yet, “but I don’t doubt that someone might have.”
The completion of that trail link is expected to vastly increase the number of Des Moines metro area bicyclists and other trail users who head west and north on the RRVT.
Article Published: 02-06-2009
