No End In Sight For Gay Lea Wilson Trail's Dead End

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The Gay Lea Wilson Trail is a popular way to get around the east side of Des Moines and suburbs like Altoona, Ankeny and Pleasant Hill. But Bondurant is cut off from the trail, and it looks like it will stay that way for a while.

Current Situation

The Gay Lea Wilson Trail’s east fork comes to an abrupt dead end just south of Interstate 80 on the east side of Altoona alongside Mud Creek.

Altoona resident Curt Meier wants to know why.

“You’ve got two fast growing communities in central Iowa, and being able to connect those and being able to get back and forth between those two towns that are growing, I think there would be a huge demand,” Meier said.

DSM Bike Notes took Meier’s question to local leaders to get the answer.

Altoona Public Works Director Scott Atzen said his city extended the trail as far north as possible, but had to stop at I-80.

Bondurant’s city limit is on the other side of the interstate. If the trail kept going toward Bondurant, it would eventually connect to an underpass that takes cyclists beneath Highway 65 and into town, connecting them with the Chichaqua Valley Trail.

“One of our favorite trails is the Chichaqua,” Meier said. “Right now we have to take part of a road – not a highly traveled road – in order to go that way.”

Facing Challenges

The City of Bondurant recognizes the benefit of extending the Gay Lea Wilson Trail.

“It’s definitely in our long-range plan,” said Katie Klus, Communications & Events Coordinator for the City of Bondurant.

However, Klus said the trail is in line behind other projects that are further along in planning, like the city’s new civic campus. When the trail does become a more immediate priority, Klus said crossing I-80 will be a big challenge on multiple levels.

“Once you get into the interstate system, that’s another level of government and a bigger level of government. So that just means that it’s going to take a lot more time to get through all of those processes,” Klus said.

Beyond getting necessary approvals, Klus said the crossing would come with a major price tag, whether it’s a bridge or a tunnel. She said funding from outside sources will likely dictate when the crossing is built and whether it goes above or below the interstate.

Since the trail extension is at least several years from happening, Klus said the city has not acquired any land or identified a specific route.

Opportunities Ahead

If the Gay Lea Wilson Trail is ever extended to Bondurant, it would likely be part of a major addition planned for the community: Central Park.

“We would like it for sure to touch that. We just haven’t solidified how it’s going to get there quite yet,” Klus said.

The park would be built near the southeast corner of Highway 65 and Grant St. S. It would be home to a 36-acre lake among other features. Like the possible trail extension, Klus said there is no solid timeline on when the park could be built, but she hopes they could happen around the same time.

Extending Gay Lea Wilson would also foster greater connectivity to the Chichaqua Valley Trail and bring more people not only into Bondurant, but also smaller communities along the route.

“I know myself personally, I have gone to tons of little towns on a bicycle that I probably wouldn’t have had any reason to drive to,” Klus said.

“Being able to have the trail let us easily get to Chichaqua and get out to Mingo and Baxter and those towns, that’s been our favorite,” Curt Meier said. “I just think it’s in line with everything going on in the metro, it’s just connecting these towns.”

The bottom line: Bondurant wants to make the Gay Lea Wilson Trail expansion happen, but its time just hasn’t come yet.

The Guy On The Bike

As I was out taking pictures of the Gay Lea Wilson Trail, I ran into Alan Grimm, who was riding the three-wheeled bike you see in the picture above. He was kind enough to stop and give me this thoughts about extending the trail, but more than anything, I was just impressed that he was out there!

Alan’s hands were shaking, but not from the cold. He told me he has Parkinson’s disease. He said he can’t walk, but he can bike.

“This is fun here, this makes my legs work!” he told me.

And then I felt pretty lucky to be out there shivering as I walked back to my car.