Country Views: Ride To Indy

Not a super early start, but early enough....

Saturday was forecast to be pretty darn pleasant. Upper 80's but minimal wind and no chances for rain until late into the evening. So, I earmarked the day about the middle of last week as a day to attempt a long ride. I had cues made for the ride- but not the kind of cues I would normally make. Just some handwritten notes I dashed off in a hurry. (This will come back to bite me later, stay tuned...)

I had my clothing laid out the night before, and I went to bed really early, (for me), so I did not set an alarm. I was pretty sure I'd wake up early enough to get a big ride in for the day. So, at about 5:30am, I crawled out of the sack, ate a little something, had a cuppa, and slipped out the door by 6:40am to ply the gravel roads of Southern Black Hawk County and beyond.

The first 30-ish miles I had committed to memory, but it wasn't too hard. The opening bits I've ridden, maybe hundreds of times by now? Maybe. At any rate, once I had escaped the city, I only had to make two turns to get out of the county and into Benton County. By the way, this is kind of an odd thing, but there are five counties here in this area that all have names that start with a "B". Weird..... Anyway.....

Another odd thing I noted was that there were huge flocks of Red Winged Blackbirds South of town. One had, at my guesstimate, about a 1000 individuals. They just kept coming out of the ditches with seemingly no end in sight. Smaller flocks numbering around two dozen individuals were also seen in several places early on into my ride. The only thing that broke up this parade of Red Winged Blackbirds was a hen pheasant and a fledgling chick that flew across the road in front of me.

One of the larger flocks, but not the largest, of Red Winged Blackbirds I saw.

Time for a 'nature break' along Quarry Road.

I eventually had to make a big Eastward push on Quarry Road where I came across some pretty fresh gravel tire tracks. N.Y. Roll? Tomcat? One of them, I bet. They seemed to keep going past where I ended up turning South at on Foulk Road, so I didn't see anything of bicycle tire tracks after that for a while.

Barns For Jason #1

Barns For Jason #2 A rare ceramic brick round barn.

Getting into Benton County, I started coming into an area I had never been in before. So, of course, I saw a few new-to-me barns. In one case it was a historic barn that is listed on the Iowa Culture app which you can download onto your phone. (Thanks to the reader here who suggested this to me recently) This round barn is one of three "McQuilken Round barns" sold by James McQuilken in his role as a representative of the Johnson Brother's Clay Works and was originally used as a cattle barn.

Barns For Jason #3

Pleasant View Cemetery

I came across an ancient cemetery, and by the looks of it I'd say there was once a church there as the gravestones were all pushed back along the fence lines. But I could certainly be wrong about that. Then shortly afterward I made another discovery.....

There was something familiar about this view......

I considered a jig-a-jog in the road ahead and memories started creeping back. As I rounded the sweeping right to left hander, I suddenly remembered. We had been on this road a couple years ago for a Guitar Ted Death Ride Invitational! It was where we had seen a C Maintenance road we thought looked great. Anyway, I knew where I was for about a mile or so before that old route went back West and I kept truckin' Southward.

The only Level B road I was on Saturday. 

However; you might say that the Old Creamery Trail is essentially a one-lane Level B Road!

I reached the junction of the road I was traveling South on and the Old Creamery Trail which runs from Dysart, Iowa Southeast to Garrison, Iowa and then back Northeastward to Vinton, Iowa. I joined the trail about a mile East of Dysart where the trail starts. I ran it all the way to Vinton.

Someone left a mostly burned up heater here on the ledge. I did not take it.

Barns For Jason #4

In Vinton I had to stop at a Casey's General Store, (natch!), to resupply on water and I was going to contemplate getting something to eat too, but I was interrupted mid-pour by a man who stopped with his wife to admire my dirty bike. He then took note of me and realized he knew me. "Hey! Are you Guitar Ted?" It turned out that Tim is a reader of the blog here and he and his wife Carla (sp?) were there on a day trip to escape their home near Ames. Tim told me he rides gravel too and has a nice loop around his area. Well, we chatted for a bit, I then excused myself, and after I had filled the bottles I felt the urge to get going as I had over-stayed my time there, in my mind, so I high-tailed it up the road. Yep.....I forgot to get anything to eat. (This would be item #2 that would come back to bite me.)

Barns For Jason #5

So, I was nearing 50 miles into this ride just after I left Vinton. I had been burning up the road too. The course wasn't particularly hilly, and the rail trail kept climbing down to a minimum. Although I pedaled WAY more than I prefer to. At least on hills you get to coast. Anyway, even with the extended break in Vinton I was still only at about 4 hrs on the ride. MUCH faster than I typically go!

Add in the lack of a substantial food upload, the building heat, and having to climb out of the Cedar River Valley, I now was feeling a bit of leg fatigue. Then I made a wrong decision based on my incomplete cues. (Remember that from above earlier?) Then I started to get a mild head ache. Okay.... I stopped and ate some stuff I had, but it was not enough and too late.

Crossing I-380

Rest stop at Mile 64.

I managed to get back on route, despite my cussing myself out and dealing with a mile of busy county blacktop to get back on track. Okay, I settled in, but it was becoming increasingly apparent that I was going into a bonk. Bad! I decided to get at least a metric century in and then find a decent spot out of the Sun to rest a bit off the bike. All this time I had not been off my bike long and I had not sat down at any time to rest. And I was still waaaaay ahead of schedule even though I was slowing down purposefully so as not to do more damage.

This is the third time I've seen a crew baling 'square bales' this year. Weird!

I left the first rest stop, still getting in way over 60 miles before noon, and I was just shell-shocked. I was sore, tired out, and had a mild head ache going. All I wanted to do was go to sleep. I figured I had better stop again, only about five miles up the road, and eat more. I had some almond butter and dried fruit, so I ate that, then I made a bad decision and went a mile off course.

That also was accompanied by a nauseous feeling from my gut. Okay. That was all I needed to know right then and there. I was not clear headed, was feeling ill, and was very fatigued. Time to call in the rescue squad. I was about five miles from Independence, Iowa, so I called Mrs Guitar Ted and made arrangements to have her pick me up at, what else? A Casey's, of course!

This herd of Holstein-Friesians was smarter than I. At least they knew enough to get out of the hot Sun! 

Dirty!

Well, I was just shy of 75 miles in the end. Not a bad day on the bike. Not what I had envisioned, but a good day. I learned a few things (again) and I will decide better next time out. Now I have a big cleaning job ahead of me, so I better be rested up for that!