Eastern Iowa Mountain Biking

As a person living in Iowa it is evident that Iowa is a very flat state with little interesting landscaping to the naked eye. Iowa has the contraception of being the “Corn State”, when really after looking deeper a person can find that Iowa has some very distinct and interesting land features that exemplify needs of many recreational needs.

One sport found within Iowa that contains a very small population is the sport of mountain biking. The sport of mountain biking is growing with great leaps across the country and comes in many different types. Mountain bike supporters across the country are building new trails and donating money to local mountain bike corporations. Along with many local volunteer groups there are also many professional trail building companies that come together to build some of the highest quality mountain bike parks across the world. With the largest proportion of mountain bikers and supporters being in the more mountainous states like Colorado the amount of professionally built trails are centered there. With bike parks like Trestle, Copper, Keystone, and Jackson Hole taking in large amounts of bikers a year, little credit is given to the mountain bike trails within some of the more flat states throughout the country.

Many different types of mountain biking have emerged after the last 30 years presiding the invention of the sport of mountain biking. Some of these different types of mountain biking include cross country, single track, endure, and downhill/free ride. These different genres of mountain biking range from steep downhill terrain with large drops, rocks, and jumps to the more mild side like single track and cross-country mountain biking which is much more flat with challenging up hill climbs and sections of moderate to challenging technical features like logs and rocks.

In states with geographical features similar to Iowa cross country and single track mountain biking are very popular and have largely grown in the number of miles of trails. In just the Cedar Rapids area there contains up to 12 miles of single track trails and another 10 miles of trails within a 30 minute drive. These parks include those of Beverly, Squaw Creek, Thomas Park, and Sugar Bottom. These linkages of trails range in difficulty beginning with the green trails and going all the way to expert trails being the double black diamonds. This type of trial labeling in mountain biking is similar to that of skiing. The trails in the Cedar Rapids corridor like others around the country provide a healthy, active, and recreational life style within the community.

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