Thursday’s goal was to ride our tandem bicycle from Seymour Smith Park to Towl Park and back along the Big Papio Trail in Omaha, Nebraska.
Big Papio Trail Seymour Smith Park Sep 2009
Our Metro Area Trails Map shows this to be about 5 1/4 miles each way, or a 10 1/2 mile ride round trip. We did just a bit more after returning to Seymour Smith Park, which explains the difference in our total miles for this bike ride.
We selected this route not for it’s scenery, but to add another section to the trail sections we have ridden in Omaha. Maybe eventually we will have ridden every inch of the Omaha trail system, that would be an accomplishment for us.
Okay, I inferred it wasn’t extremely scenic, yet Seymour Smith Park and Towl Park are quite nice, and riding along the Papio is pleasant.
Big Papio and Keystone Trails
Across the Papio we were frequently able to see the Keystone Trail. We waited long enough in this spot for a chance to get this picture of this bike rider on the Keystone.
Caught on the Big Papio
The weather was pretty nice, not much wind, no rain, and temps in the 80s, which was really a bit too warm for a break in the sunshine. Notice the rear view mirror on our tandem? This mirror was broken about an hour later when we attempted to negotiate a too sharp hairpin turn off the Center Street bridge. Wish that they would avoid creating any trail turns with tight turning radiuses. Hmm, spell checker doesn’t like that, radii is correct.
Okay, I mentioned our little tumble, and perhaps I should add that I managed to take most of the force of the fall with my left knee, though Vicky was bumped a bit and has a few sore spots. Our tandem is okay, though the mirror is history. I lost a bit of skin, and my knee felt a bit uncomfortable and peculiar the next day, but after “popping” my knee yesterday, it feels much better.
On a side note, Vicky wants to create a better first aid kit for taking on our bike rides. Not a bad idea. Luckily she had a few alcohol pads with and cleaned me up before we rode on.
Excuse my ramble, which threw this post completely out of sequence, let me get back on track…
Cash for Clunkers
Detracting from the scenic value of this Nebraska trail is this possible cash for clunkers destination. Not a pretty sight, is it? Scattered around it the United States are about 690,000 vehicles like this. I imagine many of them were driven in to the dealers, and any one of these would have been appreciated by those unable to afford a car, at least before the vehicle destruction process began.
The trail had quite a few underpasses, which became sort of fun after a bit. We’d ease our way down them, I’d yell back at Vicky “Get ready to do some work!”, then, when it looked like the right time, we’d pedal as fast as we could, attempting to maintain our momentum till we reached the top again. This (the uphill portions) is where we reached most of our higher speeds on this ride. Most of these uphill stretches we were able to accomplish without downshifting from the rear 8th gear and front mid-sized gear.
Note: For some reason, I almost always keep the front gear in it’s mid-sized sprocket.
Big Papio Vicky Under the Railroad Bridge
A bit down the trail, we found this nice shaded top of the hill spot under a railroad bridge spot for a break. It was a good place for a few extra minutes, and we had a few sips out of the water bottle as we paused here.
While resting here, I had a quick glance at a creature dashing across the trail. It could have been a woodchuck, at least it looked like one. Vicky missed seeing this one.
Big Papio Trail Interstate 80
Taken from the same spot as the previous picture, but looking north, this shows Interstate 80, and a couple bike riders heading up the Big Papio trail.
Big Papio Trail Beyond Towl Park
Towl Park, our destination reached! Time for crackers and pop, and a discussion as to whether or not to continue north, across this bridge and up the trail.
We decided against that, after all, we had ridden that a time or two, and we were a bit more than 5 miles from the car already. We left in a bit, heading back south, and we did our tandem tumble in a few minutes, Vicky did a bit of maintenance on my left knee, and we rode slow for a while to make sure both of us and also our tandem were in working order.
Arriving back at Seymour Smith Park, we rested a bit at a picnic table near the Soap Box Derby Hill, had another can of pop, and Vicky ran to the trash can and back with our garbage.
Not Tired Yet
We weren’t really too tired yet, and decided to go a bit further south down the trail to the next highway, then do a circle or the park.
Just for curiosity as to how we’d do, I shifted to the biggest front sprocket on our tandem for the rest of the ride.
It turned out that was pretty nice, and using the highest gear ratio possible, we were going quite nicely. Maybe on our next ride we will keep the big sprocket in front in use.
Ride length? 12.2 miles
Average speed? 9.9 mph
Top speed? 19.3 mph
Miles on our tandem now: 137
