When it came to doing the second GTDRI, it was an exciting time to be in the gravel scene, such as it was. Mid-Westerners were excited about this new thing, and any new event was highly anticipated. There was a buzz around the Death Ride, but it never really manifested itself in numbers. That would be the case with this version. I had a lot of interest in the ride, but in the end, we had only six riders attend the ride.
Again, I think the entire vibe and perception about this ride was misconstrued in so many ways. But whatever. I was excited, and I remember going down to Marengo with a lot of anticipation and concern about the weather. It was forecast to be rainy with occasional thundershowers. I ran into some pretty heavy rain coming down that morning. The plan was to meet at Doose's Cafe at 6:00am and get riding by 7:00am.
With no sign-up or registration, I never knew who might show up. I knew David Pals would be there, and he had word that Matt Maxwell, a Trans Iowa v3 rider, would also attend. Matt was the "model" for the GTDRI webpage header that year. Jeff Kerkove took a photo from the suite of images that David Story had taken for Trans Iowa v3 and modified it to what you see above. By the way, for anyone that cares, it's P Avenue South of Traer, Iowa where that image was taken.
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| Rolling out under grey skies from Marengo on GTDRI 2. From L-R: Matt Maxwell, Emily Broderson, and Paul Metermann. |
It was, as I have mentioned before, always a ride that had surprise visitors and a late addition. This time the surprise was Emily Broderson. She was the lone woman rider in the first Trans Iowa event. There are certain women who impress me for different reasons and Emily was a woman that left a big impression on me that day. First of all, she showed up alone to a ride where she probably was going to be the only female, and she knew that. That she had a flask of Wild Turkey that she shared with all of us was another reason why, but it is hard to put into words what it was about her. I do know she didn't shy away from tough conditions and an adventure, that's for certain!
Paul Meyermann was the late rider addition, but honestly, he was a surprise to me as well. Paul was a quiet, industrious fellow who had been instrumental in clearing trails at Camp Ingawanis for mountain biking. He was primarily all about mountain biking and racing MTB. So when he showed up for a gravel grinder, I was a bit taken aback, But perhaps this was an influence of Jeff Kerkove, who trained for MTB endurance racing on gravel, which Paul would have been familiar with. That may be what he had in mind by showing up for this.
Paul would later on succumb to an illness and die. He left a mark in trail clearing and creation that many in our local area have no idea about to this day, and to my mind, that is a shame. So, a shout out to Paul Meyermann here for his work to make MTB better in the Cedar Valley.
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| Up at the top of the hill is David Pals, then Paul Meyermann, Matt Maxwell, and GT in the foreground here. Image by Corey Heintz. |
Oh....and it rained. Hard. We were a bit concerned about how much time was being eaten up by traversing clay-mire on Level B Roads which were very steep and really slick. I went down as did Emily, as I recall. Our bicycles were jammed with mud, and had to be hoisted up or pushed along with wheels locked up from all the mud caked on the wheels.
As David and I continued to be concerned that we wouldn't have time for the full 120 mile route, the rain did not let up. Plus, it was thundering all around us, although we never saw any lightning. This made us uneasy. So, we both knew that there was a shelter at the end of a stretch of three nasty Level B Roads at Columbia Wildlife Refuge just a bit Southeast of Tama, Iowa. It was there that we stopped to wait out the storm.
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| (L-R) GT, Emily Broderson, Matt Maxwell. Image by Corey Heintz |
Once we arrived at the refuge site we were so soaked that seeking shelter was not a big concern, plus the lightning and thunder seemed to have moved on by this point. Only a light rain had continued to fall.
So, we cleaned up the bikes as best we could, rested, ate a bit, drank some of Emily's Wild Turkey, and contemplated our next move. David was pretty set on cutting a big part of the Western end of his course off to allow us to make it back to Marengo before dark. At this juncture I was just a rider. This was David's course and I didn't mind what he decided. We'd already had quite the adventurous ride up to that point anyway!
I think it is worth noting the bicycles in the image above here as they represent the varied takes on what to ride on gravel with. First you have my Salsa Dos Niner. 29"ers were a big deal on the early gravel scene. David's Fisher Ferrous 29"er, (not pictured) was another representative of this from the time. Then you have, again what I call the most popular gravel rig of the 2000's, the Surly Cross Check which, in this case, was Matt Maxwell's choice. Emily chose a Surly Long Haul Trucker set up 1X, a unique choice which I don't recall seeing much of back in those days as a gravel bicycling choice. Another oddball choice was Corey Heintz's Surly 1X1 set up with Gazzolodi DH tires on Large Marge rims. His bike ended up being "the right bike" for the back half of the ride due to the 1X1's ability to float on the mushy gravel. Not pictured is Paul Meyermann's Specialized FS 26"er. Full suspension 26"ers were used at times and we used to see them back in the day on gravel as a choice for riding.
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| Emily (L) and Matt Maxwell at an old Casey's in Toledo, Iowa. |
We finally decided to cut off about 30 or so miles and then we left for Tama-Toledo to find a convenience store. The image above shows the stop which was at an "original Casey's Convenience Store". For anyone not familiar, Casey's is a big chain of convenience stores which are spread across the Mid-West. Based in Iowa, we had the older stores in the chain, which were all about the size of a double-car garage and were covered in a corrugated steel painted this drab beige color.
They were phased out in favor of larger stores right about at this time, but we did use the original Toledo location for this ride. Shortly afterward, by the next year, I think, this was shuttered and it remains an empty building along HWY 63 to this day.
Another brief mention here about bikes. Note Corey's big tires on his green 1X1. Also, notice that Emily is using a mustache bar on her Surly. That's Paul's FS Specialized in the background.
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| (L-R) Paul, David Matt, and Corey. Emily is obscured here behind Matt. |
Leaving Toledo going West it became apparent that were would be fighting mushy, wet conditions all the way back to Marengo. It also got very hot and humid about this time. That hit me hard and there were some stragglers as well. This made for frequent stops to gather the group up. That slowed our progress down and then I flatted.
I was running an early tubeless set up using Bontrager's new- at the time- TLR stuff. My valve failed and I ended up sticking in a tube. This took quite a while more. The shot above is one I took as I rested from my labors a second. As I recall, Corey, on the right there, was pontificating on some subject for several minutes at that point. David later dubbed it the "Ditchweed Sermonette". If ever I do a recorded music album that name is finding its way onto a song or as the title to the project!
It was at about that point when we were scrambling around the twisted roads Southeast of Belle Plaine that we had a check and were a bit confused by the route David had planned out. Ironically, this exact same confusion with roads had a big part in a future Trans Iowa only a couple of years later when a weary Joe Meiser called me in the dead of night with a question about this same intersection.
Later when we had arrived at Marengo most of us retired to David's home and had pizza and beers. This would be not an uncommon theme for early gravel events where "hosts" of the rides would either provide breakfast for pre-ride or post-ride meals and beverages. I can think of several events that did this back then.
While the route had to be shortened and we had miserable conditions, I think this was one of the most fun gravel rides I had done up to that point and it remains one of the most memorable ones I have been on.
Next: Things Change
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