Brown Season: Chance Meeting

Escape Route: Waterloo alleys

The last week plus was pretty rough for me. I caught a nasty head cold, which was mainly in my left sinus cavity, and the resulting week of living on the couch or bed, using copious amounts of tissues, and gulping down Hall's cough drops like candy was not a lot of fun. 

Towards the end of last week I began to make gains towards health and every day was much better until Friday came and I felt almost normal. Good enough that an 80+ degree day was not going to get away from me without seeing some gravel.

Now, I was cognizant of my health and I knew I hadn't been out on a longer ride for quite a while. So I did not plan anything "big", or at least I didn't think I had. Besides the Summer-like heat, there was also going to be a really strong Southerly wind blowing. In fact, we had Red Flag Warnings out for fire danger. Turns out I rode in temperatures which hit a new record high for the day at something in the mid-80's and the winds were constant at 25mph gusting to near 50mph at times.

Fun..... I think.

I used the system of bike paths to get out of Evansdale. Here you can see white caps on the Cedar River.

There was a gap to the right I could sneak through!

My plan was to ride the paved trails network through to Evansdale, hop on the Cedar Valley Nature Trail, and then hit up a tiny bit of gravel and Level B Roads outside of Washburn, Iowa. This would keep me sheltered from the wind in many places, and it was relatively flat, so hills wouldn't add to the misery of pushing a single speed into a heavy wind. 

I wore a complete Summer kit for the first time in 2025. I was wondering how my legs got so white..... Oh well! Time to work on getting some color into that skin! And you read tha6t right. I was on a single speed. The Honeman Flyer, to be exact.

The CVNT trail was supposedly under construction and when I arrived at the trail head there was a big "Road Closed" sign and some orange netting. But I spied a gap to the right and that was my "invitation" to come on through. Which is exactly what I did, of course.

Weiden Road.

Rottinghaus Road leading to Gollinvaux Road

I crossed the Cedar River and immediately spied two men walking down the bike trail toward me. A momentary thought crossed my mind which was along the lines of hoping these guys wouldn't give me grief for passing the barricade. One of them did speak up just as I passed them.

"Mark?!"

I turned the bike around and the two men were smiling, so this wasn't a bad confrontation, which I was relieved about, but who were these guys? It turns out they were brothers, and one of them knew me via Ben Witt because he lives in Northfield, Minnesota now. He was down visiting his brother, and they just happened to be revisiting their old childhood haunts which were related to the railway that was once through here and was now the CVNT.

What a wild chance meeting! I chatted with them for several minutes, one of them got my picture to prove to Ben they had met me, and off I went on my adventure again.

Weiden Road going by the "Washburn International Airfield". (That is not the real name oi this grass field aeroport!)

Weiden Road's Level B Section.

 

Heading South on Gollinveaux Road was brootal. That wind had to have been gusting more than not, and my legs were getting fried. It was downright hot as well, which I was definitely not acclimated to either. This all reminded me of Kansas. I rode the DK once with a head cold and suffered mightily. This reminded me of that hot, windy day.

I stopped in the shade of some roadside trees near some grain bins which kept me out of the constant blast of wind. I needed to rest and reset. After some water and about five minutes I pushed off again, but my legs were really worked from that effort into the wind.

McKellar Road and then back to a tailwind!

The ride was about two and half hours out and back. I sure was not ready for all that Sun and wind! It really knocked the stuffings out of me and I paid for it with a couple of sharp cramps when I got home. An electrolyte drink fixed me up so I had no further issues there, but yeah.... That may have been a little too much coming off an illness!

But I was stoked to have gotten back on it again and to have met the guys on the CVNT on this day. What a treat! That doesn't happen everyday!