Cardinal Greenway 2.0

June 6, 2012  PEDALS adventure:  Today we traveled south to Muncie to ride the Cardinal Trail.    We’ve been hearing that the trail is excellent, with many options.   Technically, we rode part of the Cardinal Greenway when we took our Gas City/Jonesboro thru Marion trip last summer, but it is not yet a continuous rail-to-trail from there to Muncie, the heart of the Cardinal Greenway.  We decided to start at the Cardinal Greenway Depot Trailhead @ 700 E Wysor St because it said online that the restored Depot housed the  headquarters of the Cardinal Greenway….it was an excellent choice.  We found a very knowledgeable worker and purchased a detailed map for $2…the one online is very confusing.  She recommended all the trails for different reasons, but we decided to take the south trip, with a goal of 9 miles to Prairie Creek Reservoir.

 The path was excellent and had a good canopy of leaves, so much was shaded.  As would be expected with Rails to Trails, the ride was generally flat with just gentle inclines.  The beginning of the trip was residential, with numerous stops for cross streets, but soon we were in the rural area, with several benches and informational signs along the way.  Of interest was the Round Barn marker, giving background about Indiana’s round barn era of the early 1900’s.  A round barn can be seen from the trail, but we took a short side trip to see it up close (and for a photo op).  We did make it to the Prairie Creek Reservoir, but one has to venture off the trail into the Red Bud Nature Trail and on surface roads to find it.  The “path” on the map around the reservoir is not much more than narrow hiking path, not appropriate at all for bikes.  During a snack break of grapes, cherries, a banana and trail mix, we looked up the road ¼ mile and 2 huge deer were sauntering across the road.  Not too sure how big they were, but they were BIG from far away, so they must have been large!  After finishing the snack we turned around and headed back to the Depot Trail Head.  A nice picnic table  and pit stop at the trailhead @ 96.5 mile marker gave us  a needed rest. We highly recommend the trail and there are several trailheads along the way where one could park and start.

Ride stats:  18 m (RT), Time: 2 hrs. 2 min, ODO: 242 miles

Notable Nature Sightings:  2 deer, a heron, a possible female Scarlet Tanager, blue jays and of course many cardinals!!

Epilogue: On the way home, we took a side trip to Gaston to check out the Gaston Trailhead, which is currently the northernmost trailhead connected to downtown Muncie.  It is a great trailhead too and the lunch (breaded tenderloin..yum)  at the recommended Mill Street Inn (breakfast served all day) rounded out the day.