2021-03-11_5:13pm - South to Cherry Lake

South to Cherry Lake

This evening my daughter volunteered me to help impartially confirm scores at Tama-Toledo’s virtual youth archery (see NASP) state tournament. So, I had to be at the Tama branch of Lincoln Savings Bank by 5:30 PM, and LSB isn’t far from Cherry Lake, so naturally I walked. Cherry Lake is a favorite walking venue for me, for many reasons, and on this walk I also wanted to take stock of pedestrian conditions along the route.

I took only two photos along the route, one in Tama looking north into Toledo, and one at the west end of Cherry Lake. The first photo shows one of only three streets that connect Tama and Toledo. That street has no curb or shoulders and is almost entirely a 35 mph route. One of the other connections is US Highway 63, and only two of the three cross US Highway 30. There are NO sidewalks that cross the Tama-Toledo boundary, so there’s no safe pedestrian/bike route between the “Twin Cities” apart from the STC Rec Trail on the extreme western edge of the cities. That’s appaling, and sad, especially considering the family/youth destinations near the Tama-Toledo boundary:

• STC High School and Elementary, and most STC athletic facilities
• the Tama City Park and softball fields
• the Tama-Toledo Family Aquatic Center, and adjacent outdoor basketball court

In the vicinity of my first photo I also recorded two additional waypoints and they appear as cyan markers on the map below. These mark the north and south ends of my route where there are NO sidewalks. That’s right, there’s a segment of my route almost 0.55 miles long with NO pedestrian or bike route.

Unlike most of my route photos, the other along this trek doesn’t mark a “barrier” or “problem”. I shot a 180° panorama at the west end of Cherry Lake just to show how great the trail around Cherry Lake is. This particular location is one I know well. If you vist the corresponding waypoint you’ll see why. If you would like to learn a little more about the location without visting, I invite you to check one of my geocache listings, titled Together.