Lake Macbride, Iowa City

As we were traveling to start the day we stopped for coffee at Coffee Revolution in Davenport, IA. The shop is a little bit of a drive south of I-80 but easy to get to. The shop had lots of branding items and gifts. In fact it seems that if you are a regular, you are considered a revolution-ary. Very good coffee! In less than an hour, were were north of Iowa City heading towards the park and lake

Lake Macbride is located just north of Iowa City near the town of Solon. It had been around 50 years since I had been visited Lake Macbride and all I remember about it was the beach. When we arrived nothing looked familiar but it was still a great view.

We set in at the Anglers Point boat ramp with plenty of free parking. We paddled east under the highway and back west then north past the beach. The weather was beautiful with only a mild breeze. We also watched some long distance swimmers training. Each swimmer had a SUP paddling behind them.

To form the lake, there were two interesting features. The earthen dam that holds most of the lake has a trail that you can walk or ride on. The other feature is the natural spillway. Boaters and hikers were actually walking out to the edge of the spillway. We did not.

There was a lot of traffic on the lake but there is a 10mph speed limit as well as a 10hp limit. So there were not many wake issues. If you have a bigger boat, then Coralville Lake is a good choice.

We paddled about 5 miles then decided to head in for the day.

Links: Iowa Parklands, Solon Beef Days