Flat spot

 In an all too common situation, it was unseasonably warm for December. So I took a nice long ride to relax away my cares. Cares? Like too many thieves at work, a nice random $2100 bill for my sewer lines being repaired, or ongoing delays in wrapping up my parents' last details, no big deal. Nothing a few miles won't erase, for a bit anyway. 

This is what the flat spot on the top tube is for!

Speaking of flat spots, can you see where I entered and exited the canyon at Ledges?

La Ruta

Deal with it!

Need to do a better job of editing my pics🙂!

Fraser Calling

 Took a little spin down to the town of Fraser on Sunday, just to see the sights. This is a true river town if there ever was one. I can barely imagine how it would have been to show up in Fraser back in its hay day. A skinny guy on a bike? Amid the river folks, the coal miners, the hillbillys and valley dwellers? At one time this was a very busy place. There were more black people here, per capita, then anywhere else west of the Mississippi. Mostly a coal mining town, but paddlewheel river boats did travel the river between Des Moines and Ft. Dodge, and so the crew and passengers would be varied and wild I'm sure. Not sure it's the best calling card ever, but a B Level road that is also a dead end, as one of the ways into town, is probably a good indicator? that trouble can be found. The natural spring at the edge of town has saved me several times on some hot summer rides. People come from miles around to fill containers with this water. There is nothing left to indicate that it ever existed, but there was also a huge, coal fired power plant down there too. The smoke stack was probably 200 feet tall! Lots of history down in that neck of the woods! Do yourself a favor and go to YouTube, search "Dwindling Giant Fraser Iowa" and watch the whole thing. Fascinating to say the least.

This road was formerly a rail road line, leaving a little village called Incline.

This stretch of blacktop was featured in the 1996 movie "Twister" A tanker truck drops out of the tornado here. There is a farm right behind this spot that was also featured, and not to mention "TWISTER HILL!"

It says, "Freshness never expires"

Why Fight It?

 I was desperately wanting to go ride a little bit Sunday, but the wind was really obnoxious  and daylight was fading. So I had this great idea to go out and ride all of the gravel roads in our city park, McHose Park. I had never thought of doing this before. This would be the perfect quick ride, easy cruising, sheltered from the wind, and a chance to look at some of the old cross country trails that we built way back in the days! We had about4½ miles of pretty nice trail built out there at one point, until some college kid from Ames broke his collar bone and the city forbid the rest of us from riding them! The first races were promoted by my friend Steve Steward and were raced under the moniker of "Mud Sweat And Gears" My roles are dual, build trail and design shirts (remember the days of collecting shirts from EVERY RACE you entered?) This handful of 3 or 4 races, coupled with the city not wanting to get sued, lead to the trail development at 7 Oaks, which was actually better by far. We tried to convince Jim Hallihan (the head honch at Iowa Games) that mountain bike racing was a real thing, and that we had a good system in place to host a "first ever" event, but he would hear none of it and laughed it off, saying it was "a fringe sport, nobody else does it." He ate some crow for that attitude, as the year following 7 Oaks did indeed host the inaugural Iowa Games Mountain Bike Race. It was subsequently moved to Petersons Pits for better proximity to Ames and the rest of their Iowa Games festivities (and because 7 Oaks was a tough trail and was seen as un-rideable to most casual cyclists) Fun times back then.

Back In The Saddle Again!

 It has been too long since I even felt like posting on this blog, but even longer since I knew how! I got locked out due to a weird crossover between Blogger accounts (thanks to Guitar Ted for helping me figure that one out!) 

So, as my first post back, I'm going to put up some images from my "Birthday Ride" from this year. Annually, for the last decade, I have ridden the amount of miles that correspond to my age for the year. This year, like most, I padded it with a few bonus miles. This was a perfect day for a good long ride. Many factors contributed to this being such a good time. Firstly, it is always fun to explore new gravel and this was about 50% new. I have always, and I mean always, been curious about the road that became my turn around point. It terminates at Highway 17 where the bridge over Saylorville Lake is. I have looked at this road on maps, looked at it on satellite images, can't even drive by there without looking over at it! So, that curiosity is all satisfied now and was well worth it. Secondly, the weather was ideal. Warm but not hot, windy but it was a straight headwind out, perfect tailwind back, and the dust was awesomely dusty! "In Dust We Trust" "Dusty=Trusty" Even the sunlight in this later part of the year has a nice quality.

I am shocked at the total amount of climbing. 13000+ feet! That is a lot I think? For flat old Iowa anyway. I love having a watch that will record it all and will display so much information. Mine is an Amazfit T-rex. It is very easy to navigate the screens while riding, and uploads all of the data to my phone without hesitation. It tracks sleep quality while off the bike, steps during a day (which I'm not sure why this is such a big deal? I walk10000+ every day at work with ease.) 

So, here are a few images from the day. Have to say, at 55 I feel great, and am thankful to be able to go out on a whim and put down a 63 mile ride. What a blessing to have the desire to pursue healthy habits. 

What The What!

Is this working again? Looks like it. More to come. I have actually been riding and recording routes now, so at least there will be visual evidence. I have a GPS watch that I'm in love with. Never thought of myself as someone who likes to look at data and graphs, but it is very interesting. Did a63 miler on Tuesday this week, I guess I'll put that one up as soon as I get some images shared between devices. Until then...