Country Views: Labor Day Ride

Escape Route: N.Y. Roll's truck in Dysart, Iowa

August was a total bust for me and riding. Either it was blazing hot with "feel like" temperatures over 100°F, or it rained every day, or both on the same day. This has to be one of the hottest, wettest Augusts in memory. 

N.Y. Roll and I were supposed to go on a ride on Saturday, August 29th, but of course, it rained.  Bah! So we rescheduled for Labor Day, and as it turned out, it was one of the best days in weeks here. 

N.Y. Roll devised a route in Tama and Benton Counties he called "B Road Culture", in reference to these counties being in the top-three for dirt road mileage in Iowa. It was to be 40 miles, and we started a little before 9:00am from Dysart, Iowa, a small town about 23 miles South of Waterloo. 

It was cool, with a breeze from the Southeast, and threatening skies when we left. In fact, it looked like rain was coming in. I was game as long as it was a rain event with no lightning. 

Note: There will be a LOT of images in this post and more than a few "Barns For Jason". 

Heading out of Dysart. You can see the dark clouds in the West.

 

This wasn't looking good. Yes....N.Y. Roll went without a helmet on purpose. 

N.Y. Roll asked if I wanted to join him in a helmetless ride. I declined. Not that I wouldn't ever do that, but Mrs. Guitar Ted deserves some respect here, so.... Nuff said about this. Please direct any responses concerning helmet wear to N.Y. Roll! 

The further we went South the better the skies looked. 

Barns For Jason #1

I chose to ride my pink Black Mountain Cycles MCD for the ride. N.Y. Roll's dirt road idea made me decide to choose wider rubber and the MCD has those Schwalbe G-One Overlands on it. These are the same tires I used in Nebraska. I set the air pressures at about 35-ish psi fron and rear. However; as we were riding along I thought the rear tire felt really soft. Like not a 'squishy' soft, but the gravel was being erased by the tire's damping at this lower pressure. Hmm... I kept thinking I need to check this out next time we stop, but we weren't stopping much, so....

 

Stopping for a 'nature break' at the first Level B Road we encountered (I forgot to check the rear tire!)

Hey! Wait a minute! I've seen those monuments before!

As we reached the first Level B dirt road, N.Y. Roll pointed out a couple of fancy, cast cement property marking columns. He then wondered aloud if we were anywhere near that place which was once a farm and had all these weird monument columns in the yard. We had come across those on a Guitar Ted Death Ride Invitational years before. 

Sure enough, we came across the same place! We briefly stopped and reminisced about that old ride, then we hit the gravel again, heading due South. Those monuments were cast cement by a couple of men who grew up on a farm which was once located here. They were artistic expressions, nothing more, but the way these look and how they are arranged around the property is kind of curious. It doesn't take much to think there might be some deeper meaning here. 

Images taken from the road. We did not trespass here. 

 

Barns For Jason #2

The gravel was a bit loose and finding the right lines to ride was paramount to getting less resistance. The further South we went the hillier it got. We were entering into a slice of the "Bohemian Alps" of Iowa. So named because of the Czech heritage around these parts and the hilly terrain found in Tama County. 

I was holding my own, but once I realized it would be up-down-up-down a lot here, I started to measure my efforts a bit more. Plus, I hadn't been on a longer ride for quite some time . 

 

The hills were working me. I was sure happy it wasn't blazing Sunshine and 90 degrees out or I know I would have been toast! As it was, I was laboring along but still not too badly. N.Y. Roll was so far up the road here I almost lost sight of him. 

We were on the long Southern leg of his route, but soon we would start a stair-stepping path East and South for a bit. I looked forward to the relief from a straight shot for miles. Once I caught back up with N.Y. Roll he assured me the climbing would ease up a lot later into the route. 

A surprise find. A roadside gravesite. 

 

N.Y. Roll said this was marked as a Level C Road on maps. We did not ride this.

We came up on a small clearing in the South side ditch at one point with a sign that said "Roadside"and two tombstones could be seen high up above the roadside. We decided to stop here and investigate. 

The graves were for two people, but we don't know the name of the elder of the two as the top of that headstone was broken off which likely had the name of the deceased on it. The graves dated from the late 1860's and 1870's. Most likely these were original settlers in the area. Pretty amazing to see these gravestones and the site still exist.  

Right about this time I remembered to check my rear tire. Indeed, it was very soft! I decided I'd pump it up with my SILCA Tattico hand pump. This was going smoothly until I unscrewed the head and it pulled the valve core out with it! Bah! Now I had NO AIR! 

N.Y. Roll offered up his mini-compressor pump, and once I had the valve core threaded back into the valve he pumped it up to....we don't know! It felt firm, so.... Off we went! 

Barns For Jason #3

 

The dirt roads were super-smooth, dry, and had a little 'cocoa-powder' to them.

By this point in the ride we found ourselves on a long Eastward stretch. N.Y. Roll was disappointed because the county map he looked at indicated this stretch was dirt road after dirt road. Instead it was just gravel. But it wasn't bad, the scenery was great, and the big climbs were behind us. There were two consecutive miles of Level B at the end of this stretch though.

Another stellar dirt road. There were two miles straight of this at the end of the Eastward leg. 

 

Finally there was more Sun than clouds, the wind got stronger, and the heat was turned up!

We reached our turn North and there were more dirt roads. We also had a pretty stiff Southern wind at our backs now. The roads were rolling and on the downhills you could coast at around 20mph or faster and on the flats you could do almost 20 easily. 

I kind of pushed myself and it bit me in the end, but there were some factors which played into this. One: I had been working out my shoulders and arms to strengthen my bad shoulders. So, I already had sore muscles to start. Second: I mowed the lawn the day before in some nasty humid conditions. This both amped up my shoulder pain and I was likely fatigued going into this ride. Third: I needed to eat! 

Look at that black dirt!

 

Barns For Jason #4

There were several dirt roads which were fast and fun. The dirt was so dry it was like cocoa powder on top of a firm base. Level B road riding is generally at its best in August, then up until the harvest. After that time the dirt roads are packed with harvesting equipment and after that, they have a lot of field trash on them, generally speaking. 

Barns For Jason #5

 

Level B after Level B! This was a fun section. 

At one point I think we went four miles on dirt, which was fun, and a bit rare in Iowa. There were so many great dirt roads on this back half that I have to say N.Y. Roll put together a really good route. Well.....if you like dirt roads. 

By the end of this long section my batteries were getting low and my right shoulder was in some pretty intense pain. We had to stop under the shade of some trees so I could cool down and take it easy for a few minutes. 

The view from our stop on a shaded Level B road. 

 

This downhill was steep and fast!

We finally moved on and after a few miles or so we contacted the Old Creamery Trail. This trail runs from Dysart to Vinton, Iowa, with a midway town of Garrison thrown in there. Once we reached this trail it was railroad grade until we got to the end. I'm not a big fan of rail trails because there are no coasting opportunities. I like rolling terrain better, but hey! If you are a rail trail fan, good on you! We have lots of them in Iowa. 

Lots of the Old Creamery Trail is shaded.

 

Half a mile to go!

The Old Creamery Trail is pretty rustic. You'll find ruts, sticks, and you'll have to dodge tree branches and weeds in Summer. But I like it a lot, for a rail trail. It was just that I was more than ready to be done with this ride and because of my shoulder pain I was not loving life there at the end. But I was happy I went on the ride. I need to push myself and - well, with our weather of late, you gotta take it while its there to be taken. 

We did just that. Thanks N.Y. Roll for the invitation to ride! 

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