Mineola to Dumfries~

 Time to try out the Wabash Trace Trail again.  It would be my second ride here this month!  Mari Jo had been reporting it as having many soft spots on the sections near Silver City.  Leaving north from Mineola, I knew there were only a couple areas that might still be soft or slippery.

Mineola Trail head~

As you can tell from the photo above, the trail surface was bone dry.  So dry it was dusty in places.  The limestone almost felt like effort, after my rides on the hard surface trails of Lake Manawa!  It would be so easy to get spoiled if there were more hard surface trails to ride in our area.

Keg Creek Bridge~

There were some good wind gusts too, so between the wind & the uphill grade, I felt like I was gaining almost no ground at all.  I was determined though & took my time, thinking of the calories I was burning!  I passed Margeritaville on my way north, going on past Dumfries to the underpass before turning around.

Dumfried Underpass~

I dismounted & walked Smokey around the usual spot spot at Cowboy Pass.  I couldn't beleive how deeply it was trenched from the bike's that had just ridden on through...  After all, how hard is it to just go around on the grass?

Margeritaville~

I had Margeritaville to myself for a few minutes, before the couple I'd seen on electric bikes last time I was here, came by.  They kept going, but soon another rider stopped & sat at one of the picnic tables on the far side.  About that time, a big gust of wind came up & blew Smokey over!  The bike was fine, but I decided to head back.

View toward Mineola.  Luthern Church at the top of the hill~

The fields look so gray now, soon they'll be planted & we'll be seeing the pale green of new growth.  I'd looked forward to those four-miles of downhill grade, but the wind decided to blow right at me!  I actually had to pedal to make forward progress...  Not the usual easy/fast four miles back I'd hoped for!  

Almost back to the parking~

The wind is usually blowing pretty strong across the trail here, today was no exception.  I was still a bit stiff from my 15+ mile ride on Monday, so this 8-miles at least worked the kinks out!  It was nice to be on the trail again, but I'm looking forward to when I can ride out from Silver City.