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| Escape Route: Washington Park, Waterloo, Iowa. |
I probably should explain. I have a very limited work schedule at the Cedar Valley Bicycle Collective. Monday and Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings are the only times the shop is open. Soon I will be teaching a course there on Thursday evenings, but that all means I have a lot of time on my hands at weird parts of the day. that is- when I'm not busy with family transportation duties. Soon a part of that will change, but that's another story....
The morning was wide open time-wise, and the weather was cool, but the winds were light. It was in the upper 50's and I wore my Twin Six vest, but otherwise I did no other special clothing for this ride. I expected it would get warmer along the way. If I was a little chilly I'd just have to ride harder and later I should be okay, was the thought there.
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| Bike path along the Cedar River at Evansdale, Iowa. |
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| A splash of Fall color near the Cedar Valley Nature Trail entrance. |
Much of the first hour of the ride was spent on bike paths to get me out of town. This is a nice benefit of living in Waterloo, Iowa. We have a TON of paved bicycle paths. I chose to exit town via Evansdale and then off on the Cedar Valley Nature Trail to get me to some rare Black Hawk County Level B dirt.
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| Sun dappled CVNT |
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| Weiden Road. Rare Level B in Black Hawk County. |
Dirt roads in Black Hawk County are hard to come by. Sure, we have a lot of little stubs of dirt that dead-end into arterial highways and Interstates, but just natural stretches of dirt? Well, you've got Petrie Road's West end, McKellar Road, and the Southern mile of Weiden Road, and that's about it.
Once in awhile I'll take a flyer down McKellar Road, but I hardly ever ride Weiden Road's dirt, and that's a shame because it's really good. No elevation change to speak of, but it is fun nonetheless. I guess the only reason I don't ride that part of Weiden Road much is due to the fact that it dumps out on a County blacktop on the South end. There is no good way to connect to gravel and move onward without riding about two miles of pavement West to Foulk Road, and that's what I did.
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| Follow that wagon train! |
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| A wagon full of soybeans awaits deposit into a grain bin. |
I followed a tractor pulling a couple of wagons out of Washburn, Iowa where there is a grain cooperative. That could only mean one thing- Harvest time is in full swing. I was wary of any traffic, as some ag equipment is so large now that you have to get off the road to allow its passage. But on this day everything I saw was manageable.
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| A farmer doing work off in the distance in a harvested soybean field. |
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| Rest Stop: Miller Creek Bridge on Quarry Road. |
I reached Quarry Road and decided to take a short break at the Miller Creek Bridge. I had been having an excellent ride so far up to that point. The gravel, which has been heinous down that way all year, was crushed to bits by the heavy machinery driving on it of late. So, I was pleased to find that the gravel was not bad, and in many places it was actually excellent.
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| One of the old rock quarries that Quarry Road takes its name from. |
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| The skies finally cleared up a bit after my rest stop. |
I was very thankful for being able to ride on this day. I finally tore myself away from doing writing and computer gazing long enough to get out and actually ride in the morning. This is a small victory for me. I need to do this more often.
The harvest activities were evident everywhere I looked. Dust hung in the air and trucks, tractors, and pick-ups were traversing the very dusty gravel roads going to and fro to get to fields and grainaries. I'd say about 80% of the soybeans are out now and about 20% of the corn crop is out where I traveled.
Give things a couple more weeks and the prairies will be barren again for the Winter to come until Spring arrives next year.
Hopefully my riding will not coincide with the super-busy times of harvesting. That's not a fun time to be out in the countryside. You just get in the way too much and traffic is nuts at that point during the season. Fortunately the harvest scrum doesn't last very long!
5 comments:
Great write-up, GT! Glad you were able to get out. The roads are incredibly dusty and I started to wear a buff out there. It's fun to see the bustling harvesting scene around this time of year. But to your point, I'd like to stay out of there way as much as possible. We're out there having fun. For them, it's an orchestrated effort where every minute counts.
@Tomcat - Thanks! Good call on the buff! I may use one next ride I do if we don't get rain as they say on Wednesday.
Agreed on the farmer's activities. They have business to attend to!
Very nice post. Reports of when areas are harvesting should be noted on the local news. I have said this for years. It would go nicely along side weather and traffic. Heck, maybe it could act as an additional signal to folks who do gig work or alert area mechanics to be more at the reeady.
Odd quesstion as the mention of a buff: do you or anyone else also cover your ears from the dust whether from the gravel or the harvest debrie? Maybe I am alone in the level of soot collected daily around and in the ear when riding these routes.
@teamdarb - Thanks for the comments. I think a weather update on harvesting areas would also go a long way to explain why allergies and upper respiratory issues arise with some folks who spend a lot of time outdoors, or have windows open in cities, towns, and villages. I know my wife suffers greatly due to there being a lot more dust in the air during harvesting here.
Ear covering? No, but I can see where that would be a valid thing to do for many people. I cover the upper 20% of my ears with a buff or head scarf/bandana to keep the Sun off my ears, but I never considered the dust aspect.
Soybean harvest in the Red River Valley of the North is producing copious amounts of dust. This along with gravel road dust from trucks makes for respiratory issues. All of the dust makes visibility more important when I am biking. I attempt to remain clear of areas where I can see harvesting activity. I will try the buff in the days to come to mitigate inhaling as much dust.
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