Meadowlark Trail, Early Fall

I rode down the Meadowlark Trail south of Lindsborg today and took a few photos along the way.

The trail condition is mixed. The first mile is in great shape, and the new, fairly smooth surface that was laid earlier this year is a pleasure to ride on.

The rocks in the next mile are a bit challenging, but better rocks than mud. Also, the first mile used to have rocks like this, so I think it’s part of the process of improving the trail for both bikers and hikers.

It looks like some work is being done on at least one of the old bridges (they are so cool!), but it wasn’t clear to me what exactly was being done.

So, overall the first couple of miles are in pretty good shape, and of course the views and scenery are excellent as always.

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to ride the full length of the trail. I typically go all the way down to Shawnee before turning around. Instead, around the 3 mile mark, I came across extremely deep tire ruts that made the trail impassable.

I “portaged” around one section, rode on for a bit, crossed another and then realized it was going to be bad for quite some ways down the trail.

At first I thought the tracks were the result of some work that had been done, but as I progressed down the trail they very much began to appear to me to be the result of vandalism. I find it hard to believe that a trail volunteer would harm the trail this much. But I would rather it be poor judgement or an accident than purposeful vandalism; guess I’ll never know.

Anyway, I did have a great ride, and got some pretty cool shots. I recently got a few new Lightroom presets and so tried a different one on each image. Hope you like them!