Reply to Trail conditions

My family and I did the cowboy trail over Labor Day weekend we started in valentine and went to Norfolk we were lucky to have a camper to use and stayed in basset the first night, used the fairgrounds in basset as they had hookups, we continued to O’Neil for the 2nd night and stayed at carney park, the last night we stayed in Norfolk at Ta Ha zouka park. Every place we stayed at night was great. We were lucky to have great weather, I felt like the trail was pretty well maintained. I would say the mopac trail by Lincoln/Omaha is a pretty similar trail to compare the cowboy trail too. To me The worst part of the trail was going from Johnstown to ainsworth we all got a few flats in this section, which really made the day difficult. Would def recommend using tubes with slime in them and make sure you check the insides of your tires for thorns breaking off inside your tires. Bring extra tubes, if I do the trail again I would honestly bring prob 6 extra tubes just for my bike alone. I would also get tubes with some sort of thorn resistance and get a tire liner. The bikes we used were mostly trek hybrids and mountain bikes. I think using a road bike would be pretty challenging on this trail. My family really enjoyed riding this trail and had an excellent time would def recommend to anybody considering it!

Thanks for the trip report, glad you and your crew enjoyed the trail. Sorry to hear about your goathead woes, that has been a difficult area of the trail to keep those under control. I recommend tubeless if you can, or using a slime filled tube. If you do pick up some goatheads, leave them alone and keep riding. I find the thorn will act as a plug and help seal the puncture with the aid of sealant. YMMV.

With so many issue with the thorns, can't the trail maintenance folks find a permanent solution to the goat head thorn problem? Spray them in spring or detour them from going over the trail somehow? Certainly there is something to get rid of these problem thorns so people aren't stranded with a flat if they come unprepared or can't fix the flat. In googling how to get rid of goathead, it looks like you can attack them with a post-emergent herbicide, but burning them is also effective enough to kill the plant and seeds, also tilling the land to prevent the seeds from germinating in the future. I think the trail maintenance folks should consider doing something along the stretch of trail where they are the worst.