Corn and soybeans are the two major crops in this area and now that the planting is nearly completed, the farmers are busy spraying the crops with fertilizer and insecticide. We did two more newspaper interviews and met with two more county conservation board administrators today. The two rail trails that we rode on today were the Comet Trail and the Pioneer Trail. Like many other rail trails, segments of them are completed while other parts remain to be done. Often one or two farmers who own land adjacent to the abandoned rail line have bought their little piece from the railroad prior to the conservation boards getting their funding together.
Some farmers are resistant to the idea of a trail, forcing the biker and hiker traffic onto a road.
What we see happening, however, is the rail trail creating an economic resurgence to an area that once depended on railroads. We try to spread this message in our travels and interviews to hopefully promote trails and clear up misunderstandings. Today's ride brought us to the town of Hudson, just a few miles from Cedar Falls and Waterloo. We will be riding mostly on trails for the next 100 miles or so.