“We really want to make eastern Iowa and Linn County kind of the epicenter for mountain biking in Iowa,” said Ted Doscher, Project Planner for Linn County Conservation. It’s a bold goal for the county, which anchored by the city of Cedar Rapids (population 137,000), but the latest trail development underway just 30 minutes north in Central City suggests Doscher might just pull it off.
As Doscher spoke about his plans for Linn County, he referenced many well-known trail systems, saying, “We wanted something similar to Coler,” which is in Bentonville. He also referenced the Castle Hub in Bentonville, and even the Galloping Goose trail at the famous Cuyuna Lakes Trail System in northern Minnesota. Doscher has clearly done his homework, traveling the region to draw inspiration from the best MTB trails in the heartland.
Thanks to that world-class inspiration, the newest gravity trails built in Linn County are already turning out to be winners.
‘The community is hungry. We need something better.’
Wanatee Park, located on the outskirts of Cedar Rapids, has long been home to a few mellow cross country mountain bike trails. But after the devastating August 2020 derecho—a historic windstorm that hammered Cedar Rapids with 140mph straight-line winds for nearly an hour—the county had to rebuild many of the trails at Wanatee. They took the opportunity to build a small jump line with 7-8 jumps and a skills park with a three-tiered drop feature and beginner and advanced lines…