The Idea: Recapitulate the original purpose of the Hennepin Canal - connecting the Illinois River to the Mississippi at the Quad Cities - by riding it from its eastern end in Bureau Junction to where it empties into the Rock River at the western end at Timbrook Field in East Moline, and continue on from there to the Mississippi River and across into Iowa. And then, of course, turn around and reverse the trip back to Bureau Junction.

6/24/2022 - Timbrook Field in East Moline IL to Davenport Iowa via the Arsenal Bridge, then back to Geneseo Campground - 44 Miles

I’d gotten to Lock 29 at Timbrook Field on the Rock River, but that was only the first part of the trip planned for day two. The next stage is planned was to ride from there up to the Mississippi Riverway Trail, and cross the Arsenal Bridge to get to Iowa.

On The Road

The first part of this was the section in which I was least confident. Using the cycling directions in Google Maps I’d laid out a course to get from Timbrook Field to the Riverway Trail:

This would put me on public roadways and take me thru towns I’d never heard of before - Carbon Cliff and Silvis - despite a lifetime in Illinois. I routinely ride on the road, so that didn’t bother me in and of itself, but two segments of Google’s route put me on four-lane sections of road, with no clear alternative around them.

The first portion of this came up quickly - about a mile of Illinois Route 84 offering the only clear means to cross the Rock River. This was a four-lane, 55 mph roadway that I was not excited about using, even for the single mile that I would be on it. And I am a staunch proponent of the idea of taking your lane under most circumstances. In this case, however, I was honestly relieved to see that it had a very wide shoulder, and despite my usual predilections, I took to that shoulder and stayed to the far right side of it, watching my mirrors and my radar readings closely all the way across.

Safely across, the rest of the ride took me thru Carbon Cliff, which Wikipedia says is named for the coal mines that appeared on a bluff on the west side of the town. This is actually what I would have expected - Illinois was and is a coal-rich state, and you can still see the slag piles outside of some of the towns, odd conical mountains looking out of place on the prairie. But as I distantly recall from high school, much of it is especially dirty burning, even for coal, so the industry fell out of favor quite some time ago. Carbon Cliff is also apparently notable for being associated with the somewhat ironically named musician Jude Cole.

You remember Jude Cole right?

Neither did I, really, but Apple Music did offer up a couple of songs that sounded familiar, and the guy has some connections - Keifer Sutherland among them - and appears to have done fairly well for himself for a guy from a tiny town. Of course, his biography says he was born in Moline rather than Carbon Cliff, but odds are good that Moline was where the closest hospital was back in 1960 (and probably now, too).

I learned all of this later, of course. In the moment I was too busy watching the road, my mirrors, and the radar to take in much by way of the sights. Once I was off the four-lane section, though, things got better. The roadway widened again to allow access to I-92, but that was a brief interlude that was, thankfully, not too busy.

From Carbon Cliff the directions took me thru Silvis and into East Moline, home of the John Deere Harvester Works.

In fact, the course that Google gave me took me right alongside the plant. It was a little like begin back home, as two separate combines pulled on to the roadway behind me as I worked my way along Harvest Way. I assume this was some sort of test drive for them after coming off the line.

Great River Trail

Once past the Harvester Plant I quickly found the cycling path that would hook me up to the Great River Trail. I missed the first access point, and ended up following the trail to Beacon Harbor Park, adding a little bit of distance to the ride. But once I was there, the Mississippi was finally in view:

I’ve seen the Mississippi many times, but it never fails to impress - it’s a big river, even this far north. And, as one might expect, it is a constant companion for much of the ride along the Great River Trail. The trail flows through multiple parks along the way…

…and heading westward along it offers increasingly larger views of the new I-74 bridge, which apparently was just formally opened this past December.

I wasn’t aware of that at the time, but it is a visual draw nonetheless. The path I was taking also took me far enough along to see where they were taking the old bridge down:

And of course, you see rivery sorts of things along the ways, like riverboats…

…and tugboats:

Growing up we would often see the tugs and barges on the Illinois river. Then, as now, I find myself idly wondering why they are called “tug” boats when they clearly push the barges from behind. Maybe just no one liked called them “push boats”… ? (Though apparently they sometimes are called just that).

Getting across to Iowa via trike is a two step process, at least along the route that I took. First, you have to cross to Arsenal Island, via this bridge, apparently sponsored by the Quad Cities Bicycle Club, which appears to be an active group, with a calendar full of group rides and events.

Arsenal Island

This bridge gets you on to Arsenal Island itself, which is aptly named:

Well, it’s aptly named now, given that it is the largest government owned weapons manufacturing arsenal in the United States.

Preceding the current Arsenal was Fort Armstrong, which was established after the War of 1812 as a set of western frontier defenses. There is a marker for the site directly along the path:

But despite the current and former military features, the island’s history shows it as former native land, and the army seizure of it involves it as part of the disputed territory resulting in the Black Hawk War. On the island, and it’s occupation but the army, Black Hawk was quoted as saying:

This [island] was the best one on the Mississippi, and had long been the resort of our young people during the summer. It was our garden, like the white people have near their big villages, which supplied us with strawberries, blackberries, gooseberries, plums, apples and nuts of different kinds. Being situated at the foot of the rapids, its waters supplied us with the finest fish. In my early life I spent many happy days on this island. A good spirit had charge of it, which lived in a cave in the rocks immediately under the place where the fort now stands. This guardian spirit has often been seen by our people. It was white, with large wings like a swan's, but ten times larger. We were particular not to make much noise in that part of the island which it inhabited, for fear of disturbing it. But the noise at the fort has since driven it away, and no doubt a bad spirit has taken its place. - Black Hawk

Realizing that much of this occurred around and during the presidency of Andrew Jackson, he of the Trail of Tears, makes it all unsurprising, but no less sad. Incidentally, fans of US History will be well served by following that link for the Black Hawk War. It’s a long article, but the war, which I suspect is little known outside of northern Illinois, involves a vast array of names that you’ll recognize from later history, including such minor historical figures as Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, among others.

Arsenal Bridge/Government Bridge

Not far past the Fort Armstrong site you will come to the bridge crossing from Arsenal Island into Iowa. This bridge is known both as the Arsenal Bridge and - perhaps more widely as Government Bridge.

It’s an impressive steel structure, over 100 years old, serving multiple paths, with rail at the top, automotive traffic below, and foot and cycling to the side. This is the crossing that Rails to Trails originally identified as its crossing point between the Illinois and Iowa sections of the Great American Rail Trail. The current map has been updated, however, to include both the Government Bridge and the new I-74 bridge discussed above, since that also has a pedestrian and cycling bridge on it.

Even though it’s not the only way to cross any more, it’s still an interesting way to get there, and this history buff prefers the 100+ year-old option:

Davenport

Davenport is one half of the Iowa pair of the Quad Cities (Moline and Rock Island are the two on the Illinois side. Wikipedia also describes East Moline as part of the Quad Cities, but wouldn't it then be the Quint Cities? But I digress…).

I had originally planned to stay for only a few short minutes on the Iowa side and then turn around, with a goal of writing about how the air on that side of the Mississippi just seemed heavier, more oppressive than the air in my fine state of Illinois. I have family who live over there in Iowa, and this is a fond refrain that I will use with them if the opportunity presents. It’s never not funny (to me).

But the reality was that I had planned to have my lunch somewhere along the Mississippi River, and while Google Maps had suggested that there were several restaurants available, looking for them while riding found that they mostly seemed to be a block or two away from the river as opposed to begin right along it like I’d hoped. It’s absolutely possible that I’d missed something along the way, but since I was pausing on the Iowa side I thought I’d take a gander at downtown Davenport on the map to see what was available, and it appeared there were multiple options within a short distance of the trail.

I settled on The Barrel House:

The menu was exactly what I was looking for, burgers and beer being prominent components. And as a bonus, there was outdoor seating, which I always prefer in general in the summer, but it was especially nice because I could keep my ride in sight while I quaffed:

Bent River Wheat with Val in the distance

I enjoyed their variation on a blue cheeseburger, along with a Bent River Island Time Wheat, an excellent local beer I’d never had before. In fact, there may have been two of those cross my table. And, again trying to learn from day one, I sat back and relaxed for a while.

So, for better or worse, Davenport was just too pleasant and accommodating for me to make my joke about the oppressive nature of being in Iowa. But don’t let the Iowa members of the fam know, okay?

Heading Back

I’d stopped for lunch around two in the afternoon, and while I was taking my time, I wanted to be sure to get back on the trail early enough to be ahead of the area’s Friday rush hour before I got back onto the road portion of the return trip.

I succeeded in this, but only just. I did find the direct route off of the Great River Trail that I had missed on the way in, which helped. Still, things were definitely getting busier as I re-approached I-92, and I found myself spending a lot more time than usual (which is saying something) watching my mirrors. Fortunately, it was uneventful.

I did stop at a Casey’s in Carbon Cliff on the way back to buy a couple of bottles of water. Again, trying to learn from before, I wanted to be sure I had enough water for both the return trip to Geneseo Campground and I planned to fill them to bolster my supply for the trip home the following day.

And, once I got there, it was nice to be on the trail itself again:

Once I was back at the campground, it was all a simple case of making up some food with the JetBoil - Chicken Teriyaki and Rice this time, which turned out to be the only mediocre meal of the bunch, with the chicken coming out just a bit dry. But I suppose it’s possible that I didn’t use enough water.

The Vintage RV folks appeared to have hired either a band or a DJ, which played a little past the 10pm quiet time, though that seemed reasonable enough for a Friday night. I gave thought to going up to listen for a bit, but, well, I didn’t want to. I’m a solitary person by nature, and when I spend time alone - as I am on this trip - instead of becoming satiated I tend to get progressively better at being alone. So instead I fired up the iPad, where I’d downloaded Doctor Strange and The Multiverse of Madness ahead of the trip for just such an occasion, popped in my AirPods, and packed it in for the night.