Country Views: Hazy & Hot

 Escape Route: MLK Trail

Another quick one to get some more miles for BRAN gravel coming up. This time it was hot again, but hazy. I left a little after noon. The wind was out of the Northeast. A weird direction without rain and cool temperatures. Summer kit, of course, and on the pink BMC once again. 

I wanted to head out East to see this part of Black Hawk County again. I haven't been out this way in a while. Typically when I leave Waterloo to do Eastern Black Hawk County gravel I'll use the MLK Trail until it ends out at Tyson's plant. 

Then it's a bout a half a mile North to get to Newell Road and gravel heading East. This road climbs slowly and in fact, the entire way out to this point is more gain than descent. It was also all against the wind! 

The gravel kicks in right off the mark when you leave the road in front of Tyson's

Wind rows of cut hay waiting to be bailed. 

The crops are just peeking out of the ground now but I was surprised to see a fresh cut field of hay. Seems early for the first cut here in Iowa. This will bring out the round bailers soon, no doubt. There is one other agricultural activity happening all across the countryside now as well. I'll get to that later in the story here. 

The fields are looking more and more like no-till practices are being used. (Note the glacial erratic)

I could smell the hay in this field before I saw it!

A few years ago, our friend in Pennsylvania, Dave Pryor, was extolling the virtues of no-till planting to us, (N.Y. Roll and I, that is). Well, it seems the practice is catching on here in Black Hawk County, as I'm seeing more fields being planted through the trash. 

 I came across another freshly cut hay field and it smelled so strongly I caught wind of it before I could see it. Love that smell! It's probably not good for you folks with allergies though, I would imagine. 

The blue sky shown through for a moment or two, then it went back to hazy. 

 

A few cattle grazing peacefully

This area has a lot of field stones piled up here and there. This was an impressive pile on Pilot Grove Road

When I left for this ride, I was indeterminate about where I wanted to go. No big surprise. I generally feel no real sense of where to go until I find myself on certain streets which helps dictate where I will end up going. This ride was kind of like this for most of the route. I had zero intentions of going South on Pilot Grove Road until I got there at the corner of Newell Road and Pilot Grove. I just turned right, and well..... I'd figure it all out from there. 

That other ag activity I mentioned? Sprayer rigs. They are crawling all over the countryside now. 

 

I got dusted by a dump truck. You can see the dust trailing off to the right here. 

I meandered down to the corner of Pilot Grove and Osage Road. There I took a brief rest stop. Then I rode West on Osage Road a few miles until I got to Ordaway Road and I took that South. This dead ends into one of the old routes for Highway 20 in the area. 

Old Highway 20 East of Raymond. It's not bad when the shoulders are graded like this. 

The gravel part ended here on Young Road headed West toward Elk Run Heights

I went this way and that, finding a weird route back to Elk Run Heights which, honestly I kind of like it. The wide gravel shoulder on old Highway 20 is fast and smooth, so that mile to two miles wasn't terrible. I then have to use a shoulder on a County Road (South Raymond Road), for a half mile to a right on Young Road. That gravel takes you to just south of Elk Run Heights. 

It used to be that going into Elk Run Heights was a bit of a nightmare. The road North of the access to I-380 was  an old highway. Narrow, with no shoulder. There were no sidewalks of any kind to get you off the pavement. Pedestrians and child cyclists had carved a bit of a single track into the dirt adjacent to the pavement. That eventually petered out and you were forced into traffic. 

Now there has been an upgrade. The road has a full sidewalk several feet from the edge of the new road which now has a curb. This goes all the way up the hill by Casey's Convenience store where it goes Left, and eventually turns into a new bike path to Evansdale. It's about a thousand times better than it used to be when none of what I just described as new existed. 

Anyway, a good ride was had. More miles in teh bank. I hope to make a few more deposits before I leave on Friday.