QC Area Day Trips
Spice up your workouts
Summer means play time, and we’re not talking about recess. An outdoor adventure can be great for your overall health. We’ve picked some of our favorite out-of-the-way Quad City area venues sure to stretch your muscles and spice up your ho-hum workout routines.
Maquoketa Caves State Park Maquoketa, IA
“Maquoketa Caves is probably Iowa’s most unique state park,” reports the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, and visitors often agree. Its caves, limestone formations and rugged bluffs provide hikers a chance to “step back” into geological time thousands of years. Wear old clothes and bring your flashlight to explore the six miles of trails and numberless caves at the park, located seven miles northwest of Maquoketa. Artifacts once found in the caves tell the story of human habitation, perhaps for thousands of years. Trail highlights include the dramatic “Natural Bridge” which stands nearly 50 feet above Raccoon Creek, the 17-ton “Balanced Rock”, and “Dancehall Cave.” A trail in the western area of the park takes hikers past a restored prairie, an experimental oak savanna restoration and a wildlife food plot. The remaining caves are all different sizes and shapes. Some can be explored by walking while others can best be seen by crawling. More information on the park can be found at http://www.iowadnr.gov/parks/
Out of the armchair adventures build bones
Hiking in Loud Thunder, spelunking in the Maquoketa Caves, or going off-road bicycling in Sugar Bottom – they’re all great places to get in some crucial weight-bearing and core-building exercises. And weight bearing is just the kind of exercise you want. As you stomp along the trail or wriggle through the cave, you’re working to beat gravity every inch of the way. As you do that, your muscles and tendons pull against your bones. Your bones respond by growing more cells and becoming denser and, well, bonier. When you add the bumps and jolts of running or jumping, your bones really pack on the density.
Bones made dense from weight-bearing exercise are strong bones. They are less likely to break. And they won’t become brittle and prone to fracture as in cases of osteoporosis or its precursor, osteopenia. “The health benefits of weight-bearing exercise are hard to overstate,” says Tuvi Mendel, M.D, Orthopaedic Specialists, PC, Davenport. “Weight-bearing exercise drives calcium into the bones. That’s why astronauts living in zero-gravity conditions quickly lose calcium from their bones unless they simulate weight-bearing exercise while in space.”
Like most exercise, it’s also good for you in a myriad of other ways. “From cardiovascular health to weight control to helping the mind stay active and avoid depression, exercise is great medicine for life,” says Dr. Mendel, himself an avid off-road bicyclist. “Plus, the kinds of paths you can travel here in and around the Quad Cities area offer genuinely fun adventures.”
Loud Thunder Hiking and Mountain Biking Rural Rock Island County
One of Dr. Mendel’s favorite venues for both hiking and offroad cycling is Loud Thunder Forest Preserve, Andalusia, IL. Loud Thunder offers eight miles of challenging single-track mountain-biking trails and a six-mile loop trail. It’s also a favorite for avid hikers. “Off road or mountain cycling isn’t just for extreme sports fanatics,” explains Dr. Mendel. “If the trail gets tough, I get off the bike. I get just as much of a workout hiking up the hill. “Cycling is great because it’s a strenuous, non-impact outdoor activity that builds significant core and leg strength,” he adds. “While mountain biking is a scenic alternative activity, be sure to combine it with regular aerobic and resistance training, along with a good stretching program.”
Dr. Mendel also suggests cyclists check out Sugar Bottom near Iowa City. Sugar Bottom’s more than 10 miles of trails offer serious challenges to off-roaders.
The Hennepin Canal State Trail Colona and Northwest IL
One of the best-kept secrets in northwest Illinois is the Hennepin Canal State Trail. For walkers, cyclists and equestrians, this scenic trail is packed full of local history and lovely scenic byways. It features 155 miles of fairly level surfaced path stretching from Colona to Bureau Junction, IL. The entire canal system, from the Mississippi to the Illinois River, is on the National Historic Register, and it is part of the Grand Illinois Trail.
For hikers, you can walk along the old towpath, originally intended but never used by animals for towing boats along the canal’s main line and feeder routes. The path provides 155 miles of one-foot-after-the-other fun. Because you’re right next to the canal, you’ll get a great view of its locks and aqueducts, not to mention the animal life. The going is level and easy at the Hennepin — but be sure to make several stops along the way if you’re hiking the canal’s entire length.
For cyclists, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources Web site reports the Hennepin Canal’s completion of the new trail surface; mountain bikes are no longer a necessity. East-to-west, the trail is surfaced from Bureau Junction, near the Illinois River, to Colona on the Rock River. There is a Feeder Canal to Rock Falls, 29.2 miles long that’s also completed. Bring your own refreshments as only three areas along the corridor have water (Locks 21, 22 and the Visitor Center). Be sure to yield the right of way to horses. For more information and maps, there are a number of informative Web sites if you search “Hennepin Canal.”
