Country Views: Dry and Rough

Escape Route: Church Row Historic Neighborhood

'Picture perfect' is a term which has become something of a cliche', but I don't know how else to describe this recent stretch of weather we've had. Low humidity, light breezes, and copious amounts of Sunshine. Temperatures scratching the 80's with lows at night into the 40's. Glorious!

And who could let this stretch of weather get away without a ride in the country? I know I couldn't! So, on Friday, I saddled up the Noble GX5, headed North, and let grand ideas of a big loop dance in my head. Nevermind the fact I haven't had any sort of consistency in riding longer distances yet.

Leaving North I ended up on Burton Avenue. This is, more or less, a long climb out of the Cedar River Valley. Sure, you get rollers but always with the downhill side shorter than the climbing side as you head away North out of town. Sometimes this is no big deal. Then when the wind is out of a Northerly direction, it can be a pain. The wind was light, but it was out of the Northwest.

The leaves have fully emerged from the tress now. This is the Cedar River near the John Deere Foundry.

The corn is mostly in now. Next up will be the finishing up on the bean planting.

The first mile and a half out of Waterloo is chip seal on Burton Avenue so at this point I am feeling confident. I was climbing and the legs were feeling okay, I guess. I take forever to 'warm up" to riding at times so I never know how exactly things will be on a ride, sometimes for the first half an hour or more. 

That creamy colored gravel is fresh, deep, and very loose. I rode in the margin next to the ditch!

This is a view from.... Well, you can read the sign for yourself!

I rolled off the chip seal and suddenly the bike was dancing underneath me and wanting to swap ends. Fresh gravel! Really fresh gravel! It must have been laid down that very morning. There were no car tire tracks on it yet. This wasn't what I was expecting at all! 

Fortunately there was about a foot to two feet wide space next to the ditch's edge which had not been covered with the fresh, cream-colored gravel. I stuck to this tiny ribbon which sometimes would disappear under fresh gravel to come out again several yards later. And remember, this is a mostly uphill stretch.

 

The chunk persisted all the way up past Mt Vernon Road and I was feeling not so great. I stopped to reconsider my grandiose idea for a big ride and swallowed my pride. Remounting, I decided to head one more mile North and then head East on Bennington Road.

The roads were really dry heading East. I was back on older gravel, so it did not have the moisture in it like the fresh rock had. The few vehicles I saw were really kicking up some big clouds of dust. Farm implements were as well. Not a good sign with a stretch of little to no rain in the forecast here.

Wait....What?! I haven't noticed this before!

It looks as though they've done some grass seeding at the old one-room school house.

I decided to ride as far as Sage Road. The intersection with Sage Road and Bennington Road is where Bennington Township Schoolhouse Number 2 is at. This relic of Iowa's past was almost lost when it fell out of service and was being used by a local farmer to store hay in. Finally some locals decided to restore it and now it stands as one of the two remaining country school houses in Black Hawk County and the only one on its original site.

Freshly planted fields were everywhere.

Sage Road was not laid over with fresh rock yet so it was quite nice coming back South. The dust was awful though, and the Noble got a good coating of it!

I stopped at the Big Rock and took a quick break, then I headed back to Waterloo, glad to have not put myself through the wringer. It was a 'just right" ride on a "just right" day. These do not come around all that often, so I was glad I was able to take advantage of this chance.