Our first-ever Indiana Rails to Trails ride took us to the Cardinal Greenway, a planned 140-plus miles following abandoned Chessie System (Chesapeake and Ohio, now CSX) tracks. As of this writing, the trail reaches 65 miles from mile marker 62 in Richmond to 127 in Marion. We started in Muncie's Mansfield Park, just north of Mile Marker 100, and traveled south to 80.5, a tad short of the little village of Economy.
The trail's in good shape throughout this section, well-maintained and clean. Markers, at half-mile intervals, are engraved on large boulders (see photo) with the Cardinal Greenway logo. In the nineteen-mile stretch we rode, most of which runs parallel to an just east of US 35, we passed five trailheads (see the map). All trailheads have a gravel or paved parking area, restroom facilities and a bench for resting; there's water at the Losantville trailhead between miles 83 and 84.
Just north of Losantville and the US 36 crossing there's a grocery on the west side of US 35; plus a liquor store, bank and pizza joint within the town limits. Up near the Medford trailhead (mile 97, there's a bike shop. The Mansfield Park trailhead is in a quiet corner of Muncie, far from Ball State, but a couple of minutes' work with your preferred navigation app can turn up restaurants and stores in this medium-sized city.
The highlight of this route (see the MilerMeter details), at least for this rider, is the section where the Greenway passes through a corner of the Red-tail Nature Preserve in a corner of Prairie Creek Reservoir. This section is heavily wooded and in a stretch where the trail veers far enough from the highway -- more than half a mile -- that there's no hint of traffic noise. Through this section, the bike trail shares the high ground of the old roadbed with a bridle path, so visitors should be aware of horses: they are sometimes skittish about bicycles.
The Cardinal Greenway proved a nice ride, with some very pretty stretches to offset a few sections that were a little too close to the highway.
Just north of Losantville and the US 36 crossing there's a grocery on the west side of US 35; plus a liquor store, bank and pizza joint within the town limits. Up near the Medford trailhead (mile 97, there's a bike shop. The Mansfield Park trailhead is in a quiet corner of Muncie, far from Ball State, but a couple of minutes' work with your preferred navigation app can turn up restaurants and stores in this medium-sized city.
The highlight of this route (see the MilerMeter details), at least for this rider, is the section where the Greenway passes through a corner of the Red-tail Nature Preserve in a corner of Prairie Creek Reservoir. This section is heavily wooded and in a stretch where the trail veers far enough from the highway -- more than half a mile -- that there's no hint of traffic noise. Through this section, the bike trail shares the high ground of the old roadbed with a bridle path, so visitors should be aware of horses: they are sometimes skittish about bicycles.
| Elevation-wise, the lowest point in this stretch is near the 99-mile marker at 964 feet; and the highest point is 1161 feet south of Losantville, between the town and the Indiana 1 underpass -- about 200 feet of relief. Like any railroad roadbed, grades are rather subdued; the steepest in this section is about 100 feet of gain in two miles on the return trip. |  
|
The Cardinal Greenway proved a nice ride, with some very pretty stretches to offset a few sections that were a little too close to the highway.
copyright © 2016-2018 scmrak
No comments:
Post a Comment