Day 81-La Porte City to Coggon (35 Miles)

The cold temperatures actually proved to be pretty comfortable as I was plenty warm throughout the night. The only thing that kept me from sleeping completely like a rock were the loud yelps of a pack of coyotes nearby. I slept in until 9 am and didn't leave the park until just after 10.

I learned from the other campers yesterday that I wouldn't have to return to La Porte City to cross the river on a county road as the Cedar Valley Nature Trail had a crossing right by the park. Better yet, it took me all of the way to the town of Brandon which was on my path. After walking to the Cedar River and admiring its size I started running on the crushed limestone trail that goes all of the way to Cedar Rapids. Despite it not being nearly as well taken care of as the Pioneer Trail, it was very nice to run in a gauntlet of trees once again.

Getting back to the originally planned route in Brandon I took county roads through the towns of Walker and Troy Mills before reaching Buffalo Creek Park just west of Coggon. The campground wasn't near as nice as the one last night, but it had a shelter and a good place to get into Buffalo Creek. For the first time in what seems like two weeks, it was actually warm enough to go for a swim. I imagine the high was near 70 and there wasn't a cloud in the sky all day.

After learning the only semi-restaurant in town was the Casey's gas station from some other campers setting up their site, I decided that this would have to do for dinner. I walked through the small town before settling on two slices of pizza, two donuts, and two Arizona Arnold Palmers-the dinner of champions. It started getting dark and cold on the walk back to Buffalo Creek at only 7:30. Summer is definitely over.

The Cedar River