7/29-An A-Maize-ing Day on Bike Paths

Parting shot from Perry

I’m now on Segment 5, “Maize”. This segment is 791 miles. Today was all about the a-maize-ing bike paths. Practically out the door I was on the connector to the High Trestle Trail. 

Very well signed

Through a park

It was another smooth flat trail, like the Raccoon River Valley Trail. 

I saw one fawn leap across the trail, and about 27 bazillion bunnies. 

Just one of so many

Morning in Iowa!

I went through a few towns before getting to the infamous High Trestle Bridge after Madrid. 

Getting close!

The bridge came into view. Just as I took this photo…

One of the 27 bazillion bunnies photo bombed!

There was a lookout where you could get a good view of the bridge. 

The river

High Trestle Bridge…check! Movin’ on. At the next town, I departed from the High Trestle Trail, and joined the Heart of Iowa Nature Trail. 

It also connects several communities. 

This trail wasn’t quite as straightforward as the High Trestle. There were places where there was a bit of a break. One spot you had to go out to the highway for a couple of miles, but there was a bike lane. It brought me into the town of Huxley. That was at mile 29, and my last refueling opportunity until coming into Marshalltown (mile 70).

At Collins I had to go out to the road again. This time there wasn’t a bike lane. It wasn’t for long. This lead to the most interesting part of the day. It was about a mile or so of gravel, then I turned onto this…

You can see by the sign, it is the Heart of Iowa Nature Trail

A bit more nature than previous parts

Who even knows this exists?

Then there was this bridge in the middle of  nowhere. 

Grassy double track on both ends

Sketchy stairs to the observation deck 

Slowly being overgrown

I thought this was funny. There is no hard surface. 

This part was about 4 miles long. A wee bit swampy in a few places, but otherwise a nice distraction. 

Of course, no day is complete in Iowa without a few miles of gravel roads and rolling hills. 

Again, it was just a means of connecting to another trail. 

This little “alley” came to a tunnel under Hwy 330. 

On the other side of the tunnel it was the paved Hwy 330 Trail. 

As you might expect, this trail ran parallel to the Hwy. I could see the exit signs for Marshalltown, but wait, we had one more trail to do. The Linn Creek Recreational Trail.

While on this trail, I thought, I think I’ll just stay in a hotel in Marshalltown instead of camping at the Riverside Campground like I planned. I even looked up a cheap motel, and routed myself there. But, as I was riding, I told myself, suck it up buttercup. You are getting too soft! I stopped the routing, and continued to the campground. 

It’s nothing special, but has the necessary amenities. Besides, tomorrow I will go to Cedar Falls. Overnight, and all day Friday is forecasted to be thunderstorms. I’ll probably stay two nights in Cedar Falls, and not ride during the thunderstorms. Probably a good idea. As of today, I’m averaging 49.3 miles per day. I can afford an extra day.

7/28-Kinda Like Childbirth

Okay, the guys that read this blog might not get the analogy I’m about to put down, but here goes…

Today’s ride was kinda like childbirth. The morning was spent laboring up and down the gravel rollers. 

The pavement ends for the next 20+ miles

For the most part, the gravel was okay. Except for a few miles where they had put down fresh stuff. That was not so good. 

Pretty thick

Wanda handled it well though, so I just looked forward to the next turn, in hopes it would be better. Usually, it was. 

The morning was definitely Iowa corn and beans at its very best. It was pretty quiet except for the crickets and the soft whoosh whoosh of the wind turbines. Even they were barely moving. 

Finally there was a change of scenery as I entered the Whiterock Conservancy area. It was still gravel, but there were trees and curves! I stopped at the first campground to take a break, and camel up on water. It would have been a nice place to camp. 

Back to the analogy…climbing out of the valley was like delivery. It was a steep gravel climb, but the last one for the segment. Relief to be done with the “major” climbs for the day. At the top, I stopped at this sign. 

I looked at the route on my phone. It continued on the gravel road (rolling of course). But, I could see that the Main Loop Trail would take me to the route, possibly more efficiently and fun. There had been numerous dust bombs (vehicles) on the road. I decided to do the trail. 

It was really quite easy to ride

Nice view here

Down, and back to the route

It turns out, the route did eventually get on the Main Loop Trail. I don’t know why it didn’t get on where I did. 

End of the Main Loop for me

It popped out onto the Steve Garst trail. 

It was a cool trail that eventually became paved. 

Pond

At the end of the trail (sort of). There was a picnic area and this cool bridge. 

Maybe these are the rapids of Coon Rapids (the town)???

I climbed out of the park to the second campground of the day, Riverside. It, too, was not too bad. Nobody was there, but it had all the necessities, including showers. But, it was not quite noon. 

Now was that time post childbirth where you just have to keep going. Oh, the truly hard stuff was done, but it was a long road. 

As flat as Iowa gets

I was supposed to turn on F Ave, which was gravel. But, I knew I had a detour coming up because the first section of the Raccoon River Trail was closed. Sure, I could have made the turn, and done more gratuitous miles of gravel roads before making the detour. Or…I could just stay on this lovely paved road! I followed the alphabet of cross roads to Neola (would have been N Ave) Ave, aka Hwy 4. I had a short bit on 4, then turned onto a final gravel bit to avoid the closed trail section. 

Yep! Closed! Thanks Ben for the heads up!

And it was paved from here

Now was the fruits of all that labor! The Raccoon River Valley Trail. 

Perfection!

I stopped at Just 1 More in Jamaica. It was the only on-route restaurant option for the day. I was pretty hungry. I had a chicken salad sandwich and some potato salad. 

Kinda funny looking water tower. 

Now I had just 10 miles to go to Perry. First I went through Dawson.

Cute little depot building

Then I crossed the trail namesake river.

Raccoon River

Nice trestle bridge

Couple miles later, I was rolling into Perry. This is the end of Segment 4 (Plains). 

I’m staying at the only digs in town. The historic Hotel Pattee. 

National Historic Landmark

All the rooms have themes

I think Telital is a play on words for Tell it All

Wooden trench coat

There is a room called the RAGBRAI room. The lady at the desk said it’s pretty nice. 

Wanda isn’t allowed in the room. They provide bike racks on the first floor. She’s locked up there.

So, today’s ride started out hard, but ended up with the reward of the awesome baby…I mean bike path!