There is a theme of Celebration Rides this summer, i.e.
celebrate something “older” with something new!
In honor of our 33rd wedding anniversary, we decided to
investigate a trail on our “to-ride” list, The Nickel Plate trail in Indiana.
The Nickel Plate is a long trail (by Indiana standards) with
two distinct legs, Peru to Cassville and Peru to Rochester. We decided to try the southern leg, Peru to
Cassville and save the other for another day.
In reality, we only did 6 miles of the trail to Bunker Hill before we
turned around---the round trip mileage of an “11 mile” ride is more than I care
to do. I’m not yet prepared to spend an
entire day on my bike seat!
The best trailhead for parking for the southern leg is
just south of the Wabash River in Peru,
so we went north for a short distance when we hopped on our bikes. The Nickel Plate Trail bridge over the
Wabash River is great and it was nice to be able to stop and look at the river
without worrying about on-coming cars.
Considering the recent rains that had fallen, the Wabash was not
particularly high, a consequence of the rain being absorbed by the
drought-stricken fields. We soon turned
south and experienced an unusual rail-to-trail phenomenon…..and long-term
incline.
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| WABASH RIVER FROM NICKEL PLATE BRIDGE IN PERU |
We (or at least I) like Rails-to-Trails because rail beds
were created to have very little ”grade” (or at least very gradual) to conserve
the energy it would take the engine to pull the train. This translates into very flat trails for us
(me) to ride. The Nickel Plate trail had
a distinct long-term grade, a consequence of moving away from the Wabash River Valley
(according to Tom). It was not a super
hard ride, but it lasted long enough for me to look forward to the promise of a
downhill return ride.
The path is very heavily wooded and shaded at the
beginning. The remnants of a dam (as was
described on Rails-to-Trails.com) complete with flower bed was easily spotted. Our
goal was Pipe Creek, near Bunker Hill, IN.
Eventually, the gead leveled out as we exited the wooded area and entered farmland. Still, the scenery was nice, and there was a
nice bench for resting around mile 5.25. We reached Pipe Creek bridge and were met with
a VERY HIGH BRIDGE over a very low creek.
We turned around soon found ourselves back at the car….after shaving 15
minutes off of our ride time due to our increased speed from the return trip
being downhill!
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| VIEW DOWN THE NICKEL PLATE TRAIL |
After a great anniversary meal at the BK Root Beer stand
(complete with frosted mugs), we scouted out (by car) the northern leg of the
Nickel Plate from Peru to Rochester. We
crossed the path several times at Denver (yet another Indiana town named for
another city in the country/world) and definitely want to try that leg on
another day. Pairing it with a boat
trip on the historic Wabash Canal in nearby Delphi sounds like a plan to
us!!!!!
So in summary, we traveled the world (at least the western hemisphere)
for our anniversary, visiting Peru, Bunker Hill, and Denver, all by way of
Rochester and Mexico…and all without leaving our state…..ain’t Indiana great?
The stats: 12 miles (RT ), Time: 1 hour
5 min – 40 minutes out, 25 minutes back ,
ODO: 379
Notable Nature Sightings:
none
OK, you will seriously never believe this but you probably rode extremely close to my father's farm. He attended Bunker Hill High School. He was baptized in the Pipe Creek near the Pipe Creek Church of the Brethren, AND I've heard many a driving-tale about the Pipe Creek Bridge. Also, my great-grandfather was killed on that railroad track. It's a gross story--remind me to tell you sometime. It's a small world. Ain't Indiana great?
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