On The Prairie Sunset With Mom & Pop

Today Mom, Dad and I rode our local rail-to-trail the Prairie Sunset. This was Mom”s first rail-to-trail and her furthest ride to date. I wasn”t expecting Mom to be able to do the whole ride but she surprised me (and herself) and rode the entire trail out and back for a total of 16.44 miles. She has just recently started riding and 5 miles (on pavement) had been the farthest.
We got a fairly early start to try and beat the heat which we did for the most part. We had a pretty strong cross wind to deal with the entire ride though. As for wildlife we spotted many birds, dragonflies and 2 deer. It was a good ride and a fun time.

A couple high notes about the trail…
The Cecile Kellenbarger Memorial Covered Bridge was recently completed and is a very nice feature.
In Goddard they are replacing their paved portion of the trail with concrete.
And on a sad note…. a cyclist recently died from injuries he received in a 2 bicycle collision near the trail. Story here.
The old trail work truck appears to have been vandalized. There”s not a glass window or lens left intact.