A 10th Birthday and Hello, Indiana
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JustALittleFurther.com is celebrating its 10th birthday this month. We were in Tasmania in October 2012 when Gentry launched the Just A Little Further website for the first time. Since then the website has grown exponentially. We’ve shared our travels, our highs and our lows, some hacks and some how-to’s. It’s been quite a ride and it’s still not over. We still blog regularly and the website is chock full of sights we’ve seen and adventures we’ve experienced along the way. Enough celebrating… back to the GART!
Finished with riding the GART in Ohio, we crossed into Indiana. We’d planned a rest day, but since the weather was fair, we decided to continue riding for a few more days. The mornings are cold now. By mid-morning the temps are still in the 40s, fine for walking, but cold for riding bicycles. We stopped at a local dollar store and invested in two hats that would fit underneath our helmets and a couple pair of stretchy gloves that would fit under our riding gloves. Definitely not a fashion statement, but maybe we’d keep warm.
The Cardinal Greenway is Indiana’s longest rail-trail and extends about 62 miles from Richmond to Marion with a gap at Gaston. According to the Rail-Trails guidebook, the trail follows “along the former CSX railroad corridor… [taking] its name from the Cardinal, the passenger train that once ran the route.”
Cardinal Greenway - Richmond to Economy - 37 miles RT
It was cold as expected and we dawdled around reading the New York Times and drinking coffee hoping it would warm up a bit. We bundled up in layers and donned our new hats and gloves. The trail is paved, fairly level, and quite pleasant to ride. Huge boulders marked the trail distances every 1/2 mile. Ohio’s brisk wind followed us to Indiana and we were glad for the new hats and gloves.
Wildflowers were prolific in some areas. Purple New England asters and goldenrod and the fluffy cat tails surrounded the Jacksonburg rest area.
Rest areas were frequent along the trail. Most had benches and some had covered shelters with picnic tables and porta-potties. Bike tools were available and David checked our tire pressures when we stopped for a break.
Cardinal Greenway - Economy to Muncie - 34 miles RT
We’d seen mention of the Economy Cemetery on the maps.me route and reckoned that was maybe where folks might choose to bury a disliked, skinflint uncle when he kicked. Evidently that wasn’t the case.
It was cold and windy again. The trail ran parallel to US-35. We were all bundled up and with all of our layers, hat, gloves, and an extra pair of leggings for me, we stayed warm enough. We’d read about ‘quilt barns’, but this is the first time we’d seen one. Akin to the decorative hex signs on barns we’d seen in Pennsylvania, quilt barns celebrate the traditional quilt making heritage of the area and commemorate the pioneer women who quilted. Evidently quilt barns are not unique to Indiana. In fact, 43 states and 3 Canadian provinces also have quilt barns. They provide some interesting roadside color, dress up the barns, and preserve tradition.
The route took us through farmlands and pastures. We passed over roads, under roads and across roads. We especially liked these classy underpasses.
Cardinal Greenway - Muncie to Gaston - 34 miles
We parked about halfway between our riding points at the McCullough Park Trailhead and rode north to MM117 on the outskirts of Muncie. The trail was rough in parts with big ruts, holes, and frost heaves that threatened to loosen dental fillings. It was good to return to Blanche, warm up, and have a snack before continuing on to Gaston.
A bridge was under construction and we took a 2-mile detour through Riverside Park on the White River Trail.
We maneuvered around a cloverleaf, the first one we’d ever encountered on a bike trail, then crossed over a trestle bridge and then under another trestle while a train passed overhead, then finally connected again with the Cardinal Greenway.
Towards the end of the trail we rode through the Michael Ellis Rotary Park and were impressed with the 10+ Life Trail exercise stations placed along the path.
The trail ended in Gaston. A 15-mile gap picked up the Cardinal Greenway again in Jonesboro. We’ll ride that tomorrow. As is the norm, we reversed directions and headed back to Blanche.
Jonesboro to Converse - 35 miles RT
We’ve been consulting Atlas Obscura along our route and started our day by taking a quick detour to Alexandria to see the World’s Largest Ball of Paint. It was located in an unlikely place… a small barn on the side of a private residence.
According to the Atlas Obscura article, in 1977 Michael Carmichael encouraged his young son to paint a baseball with blue house paint… a ‘weird hobby Carmichael had invented while working at a paint shop’. The family kept adding layers of paint to the baseball and it grew and grew until Carmichael built a barn specifically to enclose the ball. It dangles from a beam on a huge hook that can hold its 2.5 ton weight, the result of 27,000+ coats of paint. We didn’t realize that we needed an appointment to see the ball, but we were told we could peek through the windows. That worked for us.
Once calming down from the excitement of the morning, we made our way to Marion, parked Blanche, and rode 7 miles back to Jonesboro where the Cardinal Greenway Trail ended abruptly… the other end of the gap. It was an interesting ride with lots of road crossings, some very busy and difficult to cross. One section of the trail, however, climbed above the neighborhoods and roads and tracks below and led us over seven covered trestle bridges away from all the traffic below.
The best part of the morning ride, however, was heading in the opposite direction on the Cardinal Greenway to Sweetser Switch Trail and on to Converse Junction. The Cardinal Greenway continued for 3.5 miles past cornfields to its end where it connected to the Sweetser Switch Trail. What a sweet trail it is.
Paved, smooth, and level, it is a particularly well maintained 4 mile long trail with several rest areas and two modern purpose-built covered bridges with picnic tables inside.
At Sweetser Depot, several rail cars were on display including a caboose with ‘College Bound Garfield’ aboard. We learned later that this is one of 11 Garfield statues located in Grant County, Indiana to honor Garfield's creator, Jim Davis, who was born in Marion, Indiana.
The Sweetser Switch connected seamlessly to the Converse Junction Trail, a 2.5 mile long trail that ended in the little town of Converse.
On the return trip, we noticed a large rock painted silver placed in a park on the side of the trail. Our curiosity got the better of us and we stopped to reconnoiter. Folks in Sweetser obviously have a good sense of humor.
Back at Blanche, the bikes all loaded up, we reckoned it was time for that break we’d been promising ourselves. We began singing ‘Kokomo’ as soon as we hit the road. It might not be in the Keys, but it was definitely where we wanted to go.