Trans Iowa Course Recon Report #1

I got out and did a little course recon in an area I've never been to before. That's always fun! I noticed a lot of yellow license plates with red letters down this way. Hmmm.......

Anyway, these shots are from between Checkpoint #2 and #3 mostly. Here's a shot of the road leading into Checkpoint #2. Some of the roads near here were cobby, rough, and the surface was pretty churned up by the recent release of frost. I suspect that'll change before T.I.V6 and especially when the maintainers come out.

There are some big, steep valleys in this section, but most climbs seemed to be longer and less severe than some we had last year.

Note that the road here shows lots of frost "boils'. These will likely be all healed by next month. The road looked fast otherwise, but as I said, the county maintainers may screw that all up with fresh gravel between now and late April.

Who knows?

Oh yeah!  B Maintenance road! This one looks like it is recovering very quickly from the recent snow melt. (There was still snow in the ditches in many spots)

This road was soft, spongy, and had some water here and there, but these roads look like they drain well. Unless we get heavy rain right before T.I.V6 this will likely be a fast section. If it's wet......look out! There are about 6 miles of B Roads in throughout this section of the course.

I wanted to show the next image so you all would know that there are some mind numbingly flat sections in this course too! This is pancake flat for a few miles with gentle rollers here and there.

The gravel in this section was fast and really dry. Oddly enough, some sections had puddles in the road in the valleys earlier on. Shouldn't be too surprising that the flat sections were the driest.

There was a wicked wind out of the Southeast today too, so that helped in the drying process.

But that isn't the end to the hills! Oh no! They kick back in again with a vengeance. Take a look here. This looks like a launch pad to the sky!

All in all I got to see a hair over one sixth of the course today. It looks great with no real issues at all. I have found an excellent spot for Checkpoint #2 and Checkpoint #3. Things are coming together pretty well.

d.p. may have more recon news next week and I will also be out again looking at some uncharted roads for us.

Stay tuned! We'll be back with more recon reports real soon...........