Bloomington Bluffs
This route is about 50 percent on bike trails and 50 percent on neighborhood streets and low traffic bike routes. The ride leader will be riding with the “B” paced group. Faster riders are encouraged to ride ahead at their preferred pace.
This route has about 130 turns on the queue sheet, but they are pretty easy to follow especially if you use the voice navigation on the Ride with GPS app on your phone. The Bloomington roads are wide and smooth and most of the intersections on this route don’t have stop signs. This means much of the ride “flows” from turn to turn without many stops. You probably won’t see much traffic, but please be aware of any “Yield” signs and observe the right-of-way rules.
This is a beautiful route that passes next to many parks and golf courses. The Nine Mile Creek Regional Trail is a mixture of wide board walks and pavement. It twists and rolls along Nine Mile Creek and is a pleasure to ride on. Please slow down if the board walk is wet or when passing other trail users. And bird watchers will love seeing all of the Pelicans, Snowy Egrets, Swans and Great Blue Herons when riding over Long Meadow Lake on the old Cedar Bridge.
There are no food stops for the first 30 miles, so please make sure that you bring enough food along to get you that far. There will be a brief restroom stop at the Big Rivers Trailhead at mile 11. The first food stop will be at the Burger King or Shell station at mile 31. The second stop will be at Turtle Bread at mile 45.
I will have a limited supply of route maps or que sheets at the ride start, so please download the route onto your GPS bike computer or the Ride with GPS app on your phone. To print a map and cue sheet, click the GPS Route Link, then click on More in the black box above the ride name, then Print Map & Cue PDF then Print Official