Brown Season: Turkey Burn

Escape Route: Sergeant Road Bike Trail South.

It used to be that we cyclists around town would organize a post-Thanksgiving Day bicycle ride dubbed the "Turkey Burn". I realize a lot of other "turkey burn" rides happen, and we were not the originators of that idea, but I bring it up because it used to be a 'thing' and now it doesn't seem to be. I find that odd, but whatever. I don't have to wait to have someone else do a Turkey Burn ride, not when I can just do one myself. So, that is what I did.  

Now, normally the Turkey Burn ride was on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, but I didn't have to accommodate anyone else, and I wasn't working, so why not just do this Friday? It was sunny, in the 40's, and Mrs. Guitar Ted had to work. So, I planned on the bagging of a little road coming out of Voorhies, a bit of Eagle Road that is gravel, and a stub of Quarry Road off the Western county line. 

While the day was bright and sunny, it is less than a month from the Winter Solstice, so our daylight is more of a constant twilight, and the low angle of the Sun makes everything weird. I have a harder time seeing now during this time of year than during others. Plus, the good light only lasts a few hours. You have to get going while the gettin' is good! Not to mention that the coolness of mornings makes riding out in the country a bit less appealing. Especially with the strong winds we've been having. 

And speaking of winds, they were up on Friday. 17-24mph out of the West-Northwest. I had a great push Southward on some old, familiar roads to get down to the Voorhies area to bag those roads and bits I had seen I'd missed while double checking the maps recently. Temperatures were in the upper 30's/low 40's and with that wind, it was pretty brisk out in the open. Fortunately I didn't have to battle headwinds too much on this ride and the return home route actually made things easier. I'll get around to that in a bit.....

The roads South of Waterloo were really fast Friday.

'Merica. Holmes Road looking South near Hudson, Iowa.

I hadn't been down this way since right when harvesting started. So I had no idea what to expect. The recent heavy mist/light rain event allowed traffic to push down the gravel and make the roads into a sort of 'cheap cement'. The dust/dirt and stones get wet, compacted, and when dry, form a smooth surface that can be really fun to ride on. The moisture content was still high enough that the roads were holding together, so I hit the jackpot in that regard. 

Future technology now on the farm.

Eagle Road looking East. That's Voorhies off to the right in the distance.

 

 

 Going South was just too easy! I knew I'd have to pay the piper at some point. When I reached Griffith Road I had to go straight West for a spell and that was a primer on how much slower a speed I was going to have to adjust to. The wind made the going a slog, but I did not have any really long stretches into the teeth of the wind, fortunately. 

Then I realized when I passed the intersection of Quarry Road and Lincoln Road that I hadn't written in cues to account for the two miles of Quarry Road from Lincoln Road to Hicks Road. So, I had to modify my route on the fly, which wasn't hard to do, really, to get that in. This made it so I approached Voorhies from the West instead of from the East, but it all worked out so that I got the little bit of Voorhies Road that was gravel. 

The funny thing is that the DOT maps had this stub of gravel coming out of Voorhies marked on the map as "Front Street", but the signage in the field said otherwise. Another reason not to trust any online maps. Little things like that could really throw you a curve ball on a ride if you were expecting the maps to line up with reality.  Which, they don't a lot of the time. 

An old building in Voorhies with the town's name on the fascia. Looks like old railroad depot signage.

This harvester's job is finished until the next harvest season.

Voorhies was incorporated as a town in the very late 1800's when the Chicago and Northwestern railroad line came through here. The US Post office at Voorhies received its commission to operate in 1910, and the village was never much more than a small spot in a rural landscape. When the rail travel days waned in the 50's due to automobile use the village suffered decline. The post office was decommissioned in 1957 sealing the little town's fate. It is pretty much nothing more than a grain elevator and a few homes now. The railway was pulled up years ago. 

Lincoln Cemetery about three miles West of Voorhies near the Black Hawk County line with Grundy County.

 

Grundy Road, the border road between Black Hawk and Grundy counties. Looking North here.

After leaving Voorhies I went West on Eagle Road and found Lincoln Cemetery on the South side of the road near the Western border of Black Hawk County. Named for the township it is located in, this cemetery was located at the top of a big hill which gave a commanding view of the area around it. From here I went North on Grundy Road to catch a half mile stub of Quarry Road off Grundy Road to the East. 

Another curious road ending. This time its Quarry Road in Western Black Hawk County.

The grain bin makes the trailers and tractor look like toys.

The case of Quarry Road's Western bit is another example of Black Hawk County's dead end road weirdness. I've seen plenty of short bits of gravel on this quest which were well maintained, but almost every time this was due to a residence or farm at the end, or near the end of the road. Quarry Road was well maintained, even showing recent grading and fresher gravel, but there was nothing on the road. No residences, no farms- nothing. 

My theory is that the well mown grassy area at the end to the North of the road is going to be a wind generator site. I had heard that a certain competitor to the main wind generator utility in Iowa was looking to put in some wind generator sites in Southern Black Hawk County. This could be one such proposed site. This competing company was being slowed in progress towards installing generators by some red tape/legal action, which would explain why nothing had happened yet. Just a hunch there.....

Then it was back due North to Griffith Road East and then slanting Northeastward on Eldora Road. This road traces, near as can be done now, the old Native American trail picked up by European settlers when they came here which roughly shadows Black Hawk Creek's run to Waterloo and the Cedar River.

I ended up with about four and a half hours out on the Fargo Gen I that day. A good hard ride with heavy wind to deal with. More importantly, I bagged a few more miles of unridden roads to bring the quest that much closer to its completion. 

Stay tuned......