Ride Report

Just completed the full length this weekend from Valentine to Norfolk starting last Thursday afternoon. We stayed in Ainsworth, Atkinson, and Neligh in each towns camping areas and had a great experience.

We road two hard tail 29’s and a fat bike with 4.8” tires all set-up tubeless. During the third day we has a side wall puncture on one of the hardtails that we were able to get sealed by laying bike on side so sealant could get to side wall but had no other tire issues.

We had a really good time and with the right equipment this trail is really fun. It is a shame it isn’t utilized more.

I am so thrilled to hear you had a great ride,despite a few difficulties.

We rode Valentine to Norfolk and back in 2017. We had no flats, we had a great time and met wonderful people.

In complete agreement with you. This is a great treasure and it needs to be utilized more.

Would be nice if it were totally finished from Chadron to Norfolk, but even so, I would ride it again.


Glad you has a good ride.

Thanks for posting your positive experience. Maybe it will encourage others to get out and ride!

Good ride report Jess, although I've got to say that your original post saying from Chadron to Norfolk got my attention before it was corrected. I do it out and back each year and am planning on late Aug. Were you able to stay on the trail for the entire ride other than the detour between Neligh and Oakdale? Did you pick up a lot of goatshead thorns, even though only one caused a problem? I had none in '18 but LOTS in '19. Just wondered what to expect this year. Thanks!

I also completed the CBoy Trail last month. I rode from Norfolk to Valentine 6/21-6/24. I continued to Hot Springs SD using highway 20 in NE. Highway 20 was VERY quite and I never felt uncomfortable off the trail. I loved the 6 foot wide shoulders on all the highways I rode in NE. Nice to see taxes being used on roads!! I did ride the additional 15 mile stretch that was added outside Gordon. I lucked out on weather. Only had a storm burst just outside O'Neil where I flew into a garage ASAP. I rode tubeless 650x47 tires and amazingly had zero flats/punctures. I alternated camping with a motel option and called bars and grocery stores ahead of time in towns I planned to stay-in or eat a meal in. I brought 3 freeze dried dinners just in case and ended up using only one of them because I just wanted to. So no issues with finding water, food (or beer). There were a couple of times I had to exit the trail due to bridge outs but was able to ride 95% of the trail (yah!). Folks I met were fabulous. I did take a mask and hand cleaner and for what it's worth I found most grocery store employees masked and customer not so much. As I went west the amount of Covid was slim to nil but I still did not want to take chances. When I hit Valentine I tried to find a Cowboy jersey or shirt to reward myself but found nothing. Even stopped at Chamber of Commerce and struck out. I agree it's a shame that this trail is not utilized more (I never saw another person on the trail) or marketed better. I do hope to come back and with friends!!

The outages on the Cowboy trail are marked at this website: https://maps.outdoornebraska.gov/Trails/

And were accurate when we road 7/9/20 to 7/12/20. HWY 20 was a nice option for the outages.

We probably ran over a few goat heads evidenced by some slime residue on our tires, but we never had another tire go flat during the ride. The one mountain bike tire that went flat was easily sealed when we found the hole and turned rim sideways so slime could get to the hole.

The aggregate seemed a little heavier from Atkinson to the west. The trail from Oakdale to Meadow Grove had some pockets that were pretty rough but passible.