Riding Nebraska’s Cowboy Trail - Trail’s End… Not Quite
/Day 10 - Valentine - Trail’s End... but not quite
We rode to the trail’s end and then there was no more.
Refreshed after showers, dinner and a good night’s sleep, we were up early and on the trail by 0700. We whizzed along the paved trail till there was no more trail and took a quick photo opp at the Valentine Cowboy Trail Park... then we whizzed back. It was a little under a mile each way.
We’re done on the Cowboy Trail… or are we?
We congratulated each other, stowed our bikes in our room once again and walked down to Ron’s Quik Lube and U-Haul. We had an 0800 pickup time for a truck to get us and the bikes back to Norfolk to pick up our car. We arrived at 0805 and noted immediately the ‘Closed’ sign on the door. No Ron in sight. Uh-oh.
Ron’s Quik Lube and U-Haul… the truck was there, but no Ron.
Riding or walking back was not an option. We tried calling Ron’s number, but we could hear the phone ringing unanswered through the door. We called U-Haul. They called the same number with the same results and tried two alternate numbers with still no results. She suggested waiting around or we could go to the nearest U-Haul dealer (only 46 miles away) and pick up a vehicle there.
As a last resort, I called the local police department to determine if Ron’s was closed permanently, maybe on vacation or perhaps just late. ‘No, they’re open, but it’s Monday. Think he’s just late’, said the friendly officer. Around 0830 a very, very grumpy fellow finally showed up, obviously put out that we were there and waiting for a truck. He groused and groused and moaned and groaned, but we finally got the truck and headed back to the hotel to load up. It was a very big, empty truck with two little bikes lashed in the front and not much else.
Big truck for two LITTLE bikes and a few pieces of gear, but A 15-footer was the smallest truck available.
We drove the 200 miles to Norfolk, secretly praying that the Kia would still be there and have all its tires. No worries! The car was fine except for a coating of dust and bird poop deposited liberally on its hood and windshield. We unloaded the truck, loaded up the Kia, returned the truck to the local dealer and headed back to Valentine in our own car. No pedaling required! A 400 mile round trip day and we were tired.
The Cowboy Trail was done, but the GART (Great American Rail-Trail) in Nebraska was not quite finished and we hate leaving things undone.
Trail miles: 1.0 Actual miles: 1.5
Day 11 - Gordon - Rushville
Looking at the GART trail map, a tiny little section of the trail dubbed the Cowboy Trail West is a finished, acknowledged part of Nebraska’s rail-trail. It’s only 15 miles long, but with the car, we’d have to ride it back and forth 30 miles, so we decided to make it easy on ourselves and ride half way one day and return to Gordon, then half way the next day and return to Rushville.
Nebraska’s Cowboy Trail - ~200 miles long between Norfolk and Valentine.
The Cowboy Trail West between Gordon and Rushville begins 100 miles west of Valentine and is only about 15 miles long. Should be easy!
It’s 100 miles from Valentine to Gordon, but we gained an hour en route leaving Central Time and entering Mountain Time, arriving at 0830. This is Sandhills Country... rolling hills, grassy, sandy expanses of ranch lands, dotted with tiny, tired little towns. The sky looked dark and ominous and we could see rain falling in the distance, but as we traveled west, the sky lightened up.
We mounted our bikes at the trailhead in Gordon. That old west wind began howling once again and played against us. We made it about 5.5 miles up the gravel trail and it took us over an hour, sweating and laboring all the way. Turning around, we reluctantly returned to Gordon in less than half the time it took us to ride out. We could feel the 25 mph wind at our backs propelling us forward. We wished there was a bike spinnaker or we could bike-sail wing-on-wing. We could have really flown then.
As the temperature passed the mid-90s, it was too hot to bike any more. We drove to Rushville in frustration, and secured a very ‘rustic’ room at the Nebraskaland Motel. The room’s little window A/C worked hard and noisily to keep our room less hot in the 100F+ temps outdoors. We’d try the trail from this end in the morning.
Trail Miles: 5.5 Actual Miles: 11
Next time we WILL complete the Nebraska section of the GART and then enjoy becoming tourists in western Nebraska. Places to go and things to see! Join us.