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cycling Cowboy Trail Norfolk to Valentine


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DM from Columbia, Missouri on 7/20/2015 9:41:55 AM:
We plan to bicycle the Cowboy Trail in September, 2015. I am looking for information regarding current trail conditions. Any comments will be helpful. Thanks!

 
Anonymous on 7/20/2015 1:18:47 PM:
I'm riding it now in July 2015. The bridge 40 miles out of Norfolk is still closed so you'll have to use the hwy for a stretch. The trail itself is pretty lose and slow going. Definitely rideable but not as nice as other RTs such as the Katy in MO. Its a bit overgrown in places. I don't think many people really use it. I'm about 35 miles from Valentine at the moment and have seen nobody since leaving Norfolk.

 
Anonymous on 7/20/2015 2:33:48 PM:
Thank you for the update. We are very spoiled as we live near the Katy and ride it often. Sounds like the Cowboy Trail will be a great adventure! Have you camped along the trail at all? We are hoping to go out and back and camp along the way.

 
Ray on 7/21/2015 9:02:56 AM:
Camping: last summer my son and I camped at the city park in Neligh, and we were happy with it. We even had entertainment - a baseball game in the adjacent field. Nice little town.

 
Kim from South Dakota on 7/22/2015 10:53:17 AM:
We rode the trail last week-end. Its very nicely surfaced from Norfolk to Meadow Grove with new pea sized gravel.It appears to be an older gravel surface after Meadow Grove but we didn't travel too far outside of that town to know. Water is available in towns only via local C-stores/small pubs. Saw no other bikers from Battle Creek to Meadow Grove. Cell phone worked. Needed bike repairs and went to Clevelands Bike Shop in Norfolk and got all fixed up! The convenience store on the main highway in Meadow Grove had a variety of home baked pastries which looked delicious!

 
jedwards from Topeka, KS on 7/28/2015 5:50:32 PM:
Rode the trail last week (July 20 to 24) but went from Valentine to Norfolk. Trail conditions were good to very good on all except a 6 to 7 mile segment about 5 miles outside of Valentine. Surface was OK, just a lot of vegetation growth on the trail ... some of it tall. Our group of 4 had no flats over the entire 197 mile trip. There were plenty of places to fill bottles and get snack items mid-day, all except Wood Lake which has nothing if you plan on going through there on a Monday. Overall, great fun, great hospitality along the way and no problems with the surface except as mentioned above.

 
DM from Columbia, Mo on 8/3/2015 10:56:30 AM:
jedwards, What type of bicycles did you use on your ride from Valentine to Norfolk?

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