About a day and a half later, still in Iowa, I made it to the Raccoon River bike trail. A bit down the way, I found the 500' bridge over the Raccoon River that I had read about online:

Most of the 35 miles of bike trail I rode stretched through early spring farmland...

Eventually I made it into the woods.

next set: Weird Terra Cotta kilns
last set: Just getting into Iowa