Country Views: Fields Of Flowers

Big sky day in Iowa

Yesterday was another in a string of awesome, lower humidity days. A very welcome respite after the inferno we endured last week. I had heard from my friend Tony that Northern Black Hawk County was mostly "hero gravel" with spots of deeper patches where the county is still trying to fix the blowouts created from last Winter. So, I figured I'd better go investigate that, and see some roads I haven't been on all year.

I drove out to the North edge of Waterloo and parked at Gates Park where the city put in a small gravel lot a few years back. From there it is a short mile to Moline Road and gravel not long after that. I can be on gravel within ten minutes from parking, which is nice. Sometimes I ride all that way from the house, which adds about 3-4 miles, one way, of city riding. I wasn't interested too much in doing that since just this past Wednesday a guy got hit and run on his bike not more than a block from where I live and ended up in critical condition. These things have a way of spooking me. I'll probably get over it, but yesterday....no. I was not going down that street. 

A truck going down a road I was about to cross. It's really dusty out in the country now. Recent rains notwithstanding.

 Moline Road was the "out road" on the old 3GR route I used to do every Saturday morning. I haven't used it in over a year since I ran into a big, what I think was a Great Pyrenees, dog that was pretty vicious. I have avoided Moline and used Sage Road since then. But I've heard that there has been no sign of late of the big, yellowish, hairy beast, so I figured I'd risk going the old way again.

Initially the gravel was as my friend Tony had reported. Very smooth, fast, and punctuated occasionally by short patches of deeper fresh gravel. Then I came upon Dunketon Road and after crossing it I rode on a fresh patch of the deepest gravel I've ridden on in quite some time. The Tamland was squirrely and fishtailing all over. Not a lot of fun, but it wouldn't be the last patch of that!

I'd forgotten how many places on Moline Road were lined with trees.

I saw several fields filled with wildflowers of yellow and purple. 

I rode past the place where the big hairy mutt had pinned me down a couple of years ago and saw nothing but a nice lady in the yard who gave me a wave. Hmm..... Maybe that mutt has been neutralized or is gone. Don't know- don't care. All I know is I was able to pass by peacefully.

So, I rode on past Denver and up another mile, then West. I rode only a mile of Ivanhoe and then peeled off South again on Killdeer since I had to get back to the house to get some things in order for my son's birthday celebration. He turned 16 yesterday.

Barns for Jason #1

Barns For Jason #2

The road I turned on was probably the fastest and smoothest so far. In fact, there was still evidence of frost boils and some dirt. It's a section of road with some big, roller coaster style hills that are fun to roll. Then you cross the Denver blacktop, and it is mostly down hill for quite a while. The thing was, South of the Denver blacktop the gravel was all fresh and very deep. Tony mentioned that Bremer County had laid the gravel down like this. He was right about that on this section! I came off a pretty good sized hill and hit the loose stuff and was basically at the mercy of physics. Good thing bicycles like to stay upright! The back end was loosey-goosey as I'd ever want it to get and the front wasn't far behind! Sorry about the technical terminology there, but that's the only way to describe it!

About two miles of the loosest gravel ever here. (And another Barn for Jason)

I worked my way back South and East until I made it back to Moline Road again, then it was a short jaunt to the truck. It was a very enjoyable ride and I think it possibly may have been one of the nicest days of the year.

Now I have to just get the Bubblegum Princess done up for the weekend, grab some gallons of water for the water stop, and get some good sleep tonight and tomorrow night then it will be off to the GTDRI. I felt pretty good during this ride, but as Mrs. Guitar Ted said to me later, I haven't been getting in many long rides at all this year. It will be a tough go to do 92 miles in the hills of Poweshiek County, but it is what it is.