I'm on the fast track now! The Wabash Cannon-ball trail

        I don't often find myself on the south fork of the Wabash Cannon-ball trail, because it's wide open country riding for the most part, and in the dead of summer it's brutal, with the scorching sun beating down most of the ride.  Wednesday, however, was absolutely gorgeous; about 75 degrees, so this was my chance.

     I've heard this trail made from the old Wabash rail road goes through the tiny town of Whitehouse, and all I hear about from other cyclists is hitting up the ice cream shop that's right along the route.  I guess we all have to have some kind of prize at the end of our journey...

     But I've never seen it, so I really didn't know what all the rave was about... maybe it was just a topic of conversation; with trails being mostly trees it hardly seems practical to say "did you see those trees"...

          But speaking of trees... check out this lonely pink tree.  I never saw another drop of color the whole ride, but this pink tree was all I needed to get my fix:)

                                        

      I've had to deal with this obstacle course many times in the past because the north fork starts here as well, and I swear they did it just to drive me crazy, because simply riding in a straight line is already an obstacle for me as it is.  A friend suggested I invest in knee pads; Hmm...:)

     But as I was taking this photo, it hit me... it crosses a functioning train track, and while the road next to it has a crossing gate, the bike trail doesn't; so they need to force riders to practically come to a dead stop to avoid an accident.  Of course, I still almost end up in a heap on the ground just trying to make it through this thing...


                                        

     It was a little over 7 miles from the start to downtown whitehouse, and we actually made it all the way there with out stopping to take pictures:)  But when we got there, next to this old train depot, I found my second pink tree; so I guess I got a bonus after all!

     And that almighty Ice cream shop really did exist, so now I can actually say I've been there:) 

          But it soon sunk in that not unlike the ride there, I was now looking at over 7 miles of solid riding to get back to the start, and the ride back had the wind in our face, but we managed anyway; after all, it was a beautiful day and I'm still riding:)

Have a great weekend:)

Christine:)