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Neon to Nature is an online tool that will help you find walking and bicycle trails throughout Southern Nevada. There are over 1,000 miles of trails here in the valley. Each trail listing includes trail information and photos, along with detailed map descriptions of the trail’s location, length, and various amenities.

The Neon to Nature app is available for your Android device on Google Play and for your iPhone on the Apple App Store. Download the free app for your mobile device to find trails near you! 

Greene County Ohio Cycling Classic

Super proud of these two!!  The lady earned her second century (the first was at the 2015 Classic) and the handsome gent earned his first metric century.  I highly recommend this area for biking any time of year but especially each July when Green Trails sponsors four days of rides.  It is an affordable event whether you are camping as I did in 2015 or staying in a hotel as I did this year. The registration fee covers camping, most meals, SAG support, etc. The unique plus is that you reside in one place during the entire event and ride out in a different direction each day.  Each day's destination is enjoyable (city of Dayton, Wright-Patterson Air Force Museum, village of Yellow Springs, etc.). A nice by-product of the event is that over two of the days you will cover 50+ of the 320 mile Ohio to Erie Trail that crosses Ohio diagonally from Lake Erie to the Ohio River.

Las Vegas Bike Share

Cannot let 2016 end without letting everyone know that Las Vegas Downtown has a Bike Ride Share program with 21 locations and 180 bikes that have been available 24x7 since Sept. 30th.  Use this link to view the bike locations: https://rtcbikeshare.bcycle.com/  Explore the menu at the top of this page to see all the FAQs.

For you tourists, remember that Downtown is the Fremont Street area (not the Strip, God forbid that the big casinos would want you out riding a bike around instead of gambling away your money). Currently the cost is $8/24 hours for members or you can get a 30-day membership for $20. Can't beat that!

Slippery Elm Trail

Hello!!  The big gap in posts was due to lack of time to post, not lack of time to bike. Although I wish I could have biked twice as much, I have added 1180 (in 2012), 1294 (in 2013), 493 miles (in 2014) to my odometer, and 248 so far this year. I'll try to find time to fill you in on past rides but for now I'll report on my latest trail, Slippery Elm, which is found in western Ohio.

My cousin, her husband and I rode the 13 miles from North Baltimore to Bowling Green on 6/18/15. After a nice lunch in this sweet little college town we rode back to our cars at the North Baltimore trail head. Luck was with us as we totally dodged an early morning and late afternoon drenching. The trail is paved and very flat, passing through agricultural land. There were a few wild cherry trees that provided occasional shade.  They also were dropping carpets of cherries that threw up a red muck on the undersides of our bikes. The path was well engineered. There was no standing water despite more rainy than sunny days for the past six weeks. The path is starting to show its age (20 years old). The cracks have been repaired and are of no consequence to bicycles but I'll bet the ride is a bit bumpy for inline skates, skate boards, razors, etc. Here are a couple of links to more information if you are interested: ohiobikeways.net/slippery.htm and WoodCountyParkDistrict.org

Riding the CA South Bay Bike Trail

The week between Christmas and New Year’s provided the perfect opportunity to explore Santa Monica and the South Bay Bike Trail (this link is the best description of this trail that I was able to find). The traffic between LV and LA is difficult to endure so we don’t go into CA very often and this was our first visit to Santa Monica. In the past we have concentrated on the great museums but from now on I think our excursions will definitely combine biking and museums. We absolutely loved our little visit. We enjoyed lovely warm weather for December (better than in LV) as you can see from my pictures and, even though it was during the Christmas holiday, we avoided the summer crowds. California has tons of inviting bike trails and we are anxious to explore further. Have you ever biked in CA? What trails do you recommend?

Riding in Death Valley

Seems like we’ve been almost too busy lately to bike and I have even less time to write about it. Still we do try to sneak in a few excursions here and there. One, last November, included our first time to bike Death Valley. We love that park and have visited several times, but this was our first time to take the bikes. There are plenty of long runs with more challenging grades than you would expect. Then factor in the strong, steady winds that occur many afternoons, probably because of the extreme temperature changes between night and day, and you’ll have a pretty good work out. Although there is but one short bike-only trail for roadies like us, usually the narrow roads are not crowded and most of the time cars can easily pull into the opposite lane to pass. We visited during the 49ers Encampment last November and even then the road traffic from our Furnace Creek tent site to Badwater and back (35 miles) was not unbearable. By the way, the annual November encampments are one of the best values around for your “nature entertainment adventure” dollar and I highly recommend joining them for a couple of days some year. This non-government commercial site for Death Valley has many additional links that help when planning your visit. Note: I do NOT recommend biking Death Valley during the summer months (usually May - Sept).

Missoni Bicycles for Target

For a country locked in the economic doldrums, it is hard to understand why people go crazy over fads and fashion, unless they have fallen prey to the same "flip" mentality that powered the collapse of the housing market here in Las Vegas and elsewhere. Yesterday's news about people standing in lines for hours to be the first to get into Target so they could buy various items in the Missoni for Target collection that went on sale, about both the Missoni and Target web sites crashing from the heavy traffic, was hard to believe. Then I heard that one of the items was a bicycle. When I investigated I found out that there are several "fashionable" bike models that are available at a variety of stores - Missoni is just the latest of this ilk. Sometimes I'm afraid I'm unAmerican anymore. To think that I've only been concerned with price, size, weight, durability, a comfortable seat - and I have not given 2 seconds of thought to fashion.... I'm probably too old to be reformed. At least I can get a chuckle out of a fashionable bicycle. If you want to see what this sensation looks like, visit BikingInDallas.com

Folding Bike

Last summer Max bought a folding bike. Here is a slideshow of Max folding up his bike and stuffing it in the trunk for transport to a trailhead on the Towpath Trail in Ohio. It is pretty slick. Now I have to decide if I really want to be able to fold a bike, too. I'm not sure yet. (If you are interested, after viewing the slideshow you can take more time to view this annotated set of photos in Flickr.)

Happy New Year

Blessed by lovely weather this week, I reset the odometer for a new year and managed to log an initial 45 miles of short commuting trips. Can you guess what one of my resolutions is? For you locals (Las Vegas), hope you have investigated the RTC Club Ride program. What a great incentive to take the time to green up our environment. (I'll let you know if I win anything this year.)

Bike trails in North Las Vegas

We don’t have to go far to find multi-purpose paths where motorized vehicles are not allowed. Right here in North Las Vegas there are 24 miles of paved trails in Aliante that are open to the public as well as the (currently) 5.5 miles of paved trails along the Las Vegas Wash. This will soon be almost doubled when a new trail opens along the Las Vegas Channel from Deer Springs Way to Craig Road. Eventually the two trails will meet, cross I-15 on a dedicated bike bridge and continue to Pecos and Lake Mead. These trails are great for walkers, joggers, skateboarders, roller-bladers, wheel chairs, strollers and cyclists. This recently published story in the Northern/ Aliante View includes a map and more details.

Google Maps adds Bicycle Routes

Have just discovered (thanks to my hubbie - I really don't have time to think recreation this month) that Google Maps has a great feature (can it be new? or maybe we just never noticed it before) that shows bike routes anywhere in the country. Go to Google.com, click on Maps along the top left corner, then when you see the USA map, open the More options in the top right corner and click Bicycling. Then start drilling down anywhere in the country.

I experimented with NLV first and it seems that the light green lines are bike-friendly/bike-lane streets and the dark green lines are dedicated bike trails. I also discovered that Google will give directions between two points using either car, public transportation, walking or bicycling. And you can adjust these little maps if you want to go by an alternate route.

Using this knowledge I explored other trails and areas I am familiar with. Everything rings true unless a route has two designations (i.e. path in a state or national park) and in those cases the bicycle designation seems to take second place (doesn't show on the map). No matter, this will be a great first step in planning any future trips.

It's a New Year

Middle of February, local temps hitting the 60s during the day; looks like the heavy rains we had last month will not repeat any time soon. So time to dust off the bike and begin a new year. Started by pumping the tires (they were at half pressure after five months of hanging from the garage ceiling) and resetting the odometer (I had forgot to take it with me on a few trips over the past three years so the total miles were not correct anyway). But where are the instructions? Never mind. Cateye instructions can always be downloaded from their web site - nice feature. After about 15 minutes of experimenting I finally figured it out and accomplished the task - zeroed out all the whole numbers - but could find no way to reset the tenths - so I start out the year with a 0.1 mile overstatement.

I'm going to make a big push this year to bike more than I did in 2009 AND have a higher percent of commuting miles (as compared to recreational) than I have had in the past. Happy to report that the first 25 miles were all productive as I kicked off the year with rides to church, library and school this week.

Very sweet to be back in the saddle. A few head winds gave me just a little challenge (to make up for being such a wimp and biking the valley floor).

2009 Trail Review

Here is a close-up of the four trails that I rode in 2009: the Paseo del Bosque in Albequerque, New Mexico, the Towpath Trail, around Clinton, Ohio, the Mohawk-Hudson Bikeway near Albany, New York, and the Cape Cod Rail Trail on the east coast near Boston, Massachusetts. This 4-minute video will show you better than I can describe what these trails are like. Enjoy!!

Thanksgiving 2009

I am thankful for a hobby like biking. As I look back over 2009 and smile remembering the good times we had biking with our family, I need to acknowledge that we are blessed to have the health to be able to enjoy this hobby and a family that shares our pastime with us. As the grandchildren get older and can ride longer, it is such a joy to share a trail and a day of fun with them this way.  I feel like we are creating memories for them that will last long after we are gone.  When they ride bikes with their children, they will feel us there with them.


We work at maintaining a healthy life style, one of moderation, of eating a variety of good food but not too much, of exercising through enjoyable outside activities to stay fit.  But at the same time we recognize that the basic good health that we have been blessed with is a gift from God and our parents.  We hope that by sharing fun hobbies like hiking and biking with our children and grandchildren that we are passing on some of the keys to an enjoyable life.


While we were in Ohio at the end of the summer we biked over 25 miles with two of our girls (8 and 9) around their neighborhood and on stretches of the Erie and Ohio Canal Towpath trail and along part of the Olde Muskingum trail.  Then, at the end of our visit with family in New Hampshire, we enjoyed four and a half days at Cape Cod MA and biked 10 miles of the wonderful Cape Cod Rail Trail located there.  It was so easy to rent the trailer bikes needed for these little ones (2, 3.5 and 5 years old) and their parents so we could all bike together.  This was my third visit to Cape Code in four years and one of the main attractions of the cape, in my estimation, is the suburb bike trail.  Oh yes, I love the ocean and beaches too.  But this is one of the few places where I can enjoy both quality beaches and quality biking the same day.  AND be close to my grand-kids.


I'm happy to recommend all these trails to you as I wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving.  May your day be filled with family, fun and food that will meld together to create fond memories that will always bring a smile to your heart.



Erie and Ohio Canal Towpath, near Clinton (left) and Cape Cod Rail Trail (right)

NM: Paseo del Bosque trail

At the end of July we headed east to see the family. Packed the bikes on back of the Jeep. As a break from the long drive we decided to try the Paseo del Bosque Trail along the Rio Grande River in Albuquerque, NM. We were not disappointed. This city is very bike friendly. This map is pretty good; you can google for better. We stayed near Old Town, on the old Route 66, and biked from the Central Ave. trail head the next morning. Started out going south (the trail has a nice loop at the southern end) and then headed north for awhile before turning south again to return to our car, 30 miles in all. The trail is in good condition, paved all the way. The one disappointment is that you rarely see the Rio Grande because the trail is on the levee and is separated from the river by fairly thick stands of cottonwoods. There is a lot of interesting iron-work sculpture along the trail. Take a snack with you – no eateries along the trail.

Bike Church

One of the great things about bikes, besides letting you concentrate on the simpler pleasures of life, is the great quality people it attracts. Most of them are very sharing and caring people who will stop their ride to help out someone on the trail who needs directions or help fixing a flat tire. Here is a description of how volunteers at UC Davis help each other with bike repairs and more. This little 3:50 video is fairly current (filmed in May 2008). Do you know what a bike church is? You really need to watch this and find out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zK5lK925vDA&feature=related

Tour de France

Today is the beginning of the 96th Tour de France – the most famous and grueling bicycle race in the world. This race lasts for 23 days and stretches over 2100 miles through six nations, climbing up and down Pyrenees and Alps mountain roads as well as over flats. You would be hard pressed to get through the month of July without seeing news clips or reading something about this race in the newspaper. People line the race routes each day. Some of the most incredible images to me are of the spectators running from the curbs, seemingly in front of the racers, to wave signs and flags. If I were a racer I would surely swerve and fall but the Tour riders just barrel on. The Tour, like all sports over the past 10 or 20 years, has been marred by the use of drug enhanced performance. The attraction of any sport is to see natural talent in action, to witness the awesome endurance of a well-trained body. To those who favor using any means possible, including drugs whether safe or with unknown long-term consequences, to increase stamina, endurance and balance, I say “form your own leagues and tours.” I want to see baseball, basketball, boxing and bicycling by athletes who don’t need more than an aspirin or Aleve for their normal aches and pains. If they suffer injuries that require more potent stuff, they should be benched until the drugs have run their course. The Tour de France officials this year are taking greater measures to eliminate the cheaters but it seems many will still take the chance that they will not be caught for many years (blood and urine samples will be held for 8 years and new tests devised within that time span that detect illegal drugs can remove any titles won this year). I predict that this will be the basis for years of contentious and negative publicity and will not really restore public confidence in the sport. The other major news about the Tour is that Lance Armstrong, after winning seven Tour de France races and then retiring in 2005, is back in the race. Expect to hear a lot of speculation about why he is doing well (or not). I don’t profess to understand the intricacies of the Tour but it is always fun to watch and marvel at the powers of those who participate. Last July I spent a week biking up and down the hills around the Finger Lakes in central New York State. It took every ounce of my will power to finish each day in the saddle (and one day I didn’t - the rain got to me and I finished in the sag wagon). One thing the Bonton Roulet gave me was even more empathy for the riders of the Tour de France.

States I've Biked In

visited 15 states (30%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or another interesting project

I rode with my kids when they were growing up but then the bike hung from the garage ceiling for many years while I did other things. Riding a bike was always one of those things I was going to do when there was more time. Well, that time finally came in 2006 when we took the plunge and bought a bike rack so we could carry the bikes with us on our annual trip east to visit family. The plan was to stop at various Rails-to-Trails and bike a few miles every few days as a way to break up sitting in the car day after day. We had a blast riding on the Cape Cod Rail Trail and several others in Massachusetts, the Towpath Trail in Ohio, a piece of the KATY trail in Missouri, several trails in Denver and Boulder City in Colorado, Moab and St. George in Utah, and lots of rides in and around Las Vegas. In all we covered 512 miles that year. In 2007 we road more miles around Las Vegas and we took our bikes to Europe and road several bike paths along the Moselle and Rhine rivers, mostly in Germany. Our miles grew to 626 that year. In 2008 we again headed to the eastern US and hit more rail trails and scenic routes as well as spending a week on Prince Edward Island (PEI) in Canada where we biked about half of the Confederation trail. Our mileage really grew in 2008, to 1409 miles. So, although biking over 2500 miles in three years is really not much to a serious and dedicated biker, that is far more experience in the saddle then I ever thought I would acquire. I'm anxious to share what we've learned about touring with bikes, and to learn even more from others who share this interest.

Getting ready to roll

I am a turtle; love to ride but plodding - like to look around rather than race to the finish. I'm relatively new to cycling; rode 500 miles in 2006, 625 in 2007, and 1400 in 2008. Took my Giant to Europe in 2007 and rode some stretches of the Rhine and Moselle Rivers during a 9-week stay. The only multi-day organized ride I've participated in so far was the Bonton Roulet in July '08. Think I prefer independent traveling with my bike on the car rack and hitting the various Rails to Trails that I pass on my trips around the country. I'm serious about commuting by bike as much as possible (couple of times a week to work, library, church). I'm going to use this space to share some of the trails I have experienced and create a wish list of opportunities for the months ahead. Would love to hear suggestions from my readers or compare observations on a particular trail.