Lucky Days - Hiking the Cedar River Valley, Iowa

Colorado or Bust, Days 49 through 55:

Hiking on bike trail, especially on rail trails, can be monotonous.  The trail is flat and straight, and there's usually not much to look at.  Unlike hiking trails, railroad tracks were all business.  Getting from A to B.

Well, every now and then the 'business' provided some interest, as with the historic depot buildings, and this unusual direct grain loading elevator:

Then there are the places where the logistics of the terrain and the meandering Cedar River required the railroad to cross it.  I crossed it four times in this set of days.  One was not on a rail route.  Here are the views.

Otherwise, for entertainment, you just have to look to the little stuff.  Down in the weeds, so to speak.  Thus the search for four-leaf clovers, and the sighting of this naturally growing … weed.

Other stuff, just miscellaneous, just for fun:

Then there was this weed:

Ragweed pollen.  When I was a kid I was terribly allergic to this.  At age five at my Dad's company picnic I took a hayride in a field full of it and almost died.  Fortunately, and inexplicably, I grew out of it very suddenly at age 20, and the stuff no longer bothers me.

Through Waterloo itself, the trail doesn't follow railroad grades.  It goes through George Wyth State Park.  Some nice "Nature".

And through downtown, where there was no evidence of anything resembling "Nay-chirr"

Okay, I'm making fun of urban hiking, because cities are not my favorite places, even when they're this nice.  Waterloo is nice, as cities go.  Go have a look.

Here are the GPS Tracks of the days covered in this report.  Quite a mess-o-hiking.