2016 Jim Schmid bicycles Rail-Trail Hall of Fame 52-mile Prairie Spirit Trail – Ottawa to Iola, KS

rail-trail hall of fame logoThe 17th member of the Rail-Trail Hall of Fame – Prairie Spirit Trail.

Link to trail sign photos taken by Jim Schmid while biking the Prairie Spirit Trail in 2016.

The Kansas Prairie Spirit Trail is 50 miles of crushed limestone screenings outside the town limits. In the towns you have asphalt. I biked the trail north to south from Ottawa, KS to Iola, KS. It really paid off to equip my recumbent with 1.75 Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires. I’ve ridden over 700 miles of dirt and limestone on this trip and these tires handled great with no flats. I was in the West during April and May and biked all 8 of the western Rail-Trail Hall of Fame Trails. So far I’ve biked 20 of the 30 Hall of Fame rail-trails. Time to head home and take a break. I was excited about heading home so I biked this Trail out and back in one day. Kansas really knew how to welcome me. On this trip I had been riding at higher elevations in 50 and 60 degree weather for past two months. It was 92 degrees and humid today. I was glad to get in my air conditioned van at the end of the day and start the 1,000 mile drive home back to Black Mountain, NC.

Map-of-Prairie-Spirit-Trail-June-3-2016

This was the last trail of my big western swing. I was out for 62 days and drove 9,866 miles, biked on 27 trails (10 of them Hall of Fame trails) totaling 2,095 miles.

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