Ghost Town Discovery

I was cruising Facebook the other day and I came across a post about an Iowa ghost town called "White Pigeon", a town which used to be in Keokuk County. As I read about it, I realized I may have been by the area doing Trans Iowa recon, or maybe it was on a route I came up with. 

Well, as it turns out, Trans Iowa v14 went right by the spot where this ghost town used to be! I don't know about anyone else, but I was excited to learn about this. 

As is the case for me involving Trans Iowas, I recall this road well. The situation was from the last set of cues for the route, and I was trying to find a way back toward Grinnell without adding a ton of extra miles. 

Keeping in mind that this route did not come together until very late into the process, I was also under a lot of self-inflicted pressure to find roads which would not only work, but be something of interest. I guess I stumbled onto something I had no idea of at the time! Had I known about this, I surely would have made a big deal about the route going by a ghost town. 

So, here's a bit of history gleaned from The 29th State page on Facebook. White Pigeon was founded before the Civil War and grew to a decent size with several businesses and churches in its day. However; the railroad bypassed the site of the town, which in the 19th Century was a death sentence for any village. 

White Pigeon hung on for many years though, and it was only after the last business in town burned to the ground around 1930 that it disappeared from the landscape. The only thing remaining is the cemetery which is on the West side of the road from the original town plat. 

From my viewpoint at the time, the gravel road going North from our final checkpoint in Webster, Iowa, was an interesting road because it had a few turns in it. Otherwise I may have chosen another route. Somewhere between mile 2,4 on the cues and mile 5.7 on the cue sheet you would have ridden by the cemetery and the old town site would have been on your right side. 

From the 1895 Atlas of Keokuk County, Iowa by H.G. Bishop

If I'm not mistaken, this road also bears right North of the old site of White Pigeon and turns into a pretty cool Level B Road. That "T"s into H Avenue and the route went North from there. 

I also may have utilized that Level B Road in another Trans Iowa, but I don't think we went South by White Pigeon in that one. 

Anyway, that was a fun discovery, and I am proud now to know I routed Trans Iowa by a legit ghost town. 

I'm also sure we went by others, and some villages we went through maybe will become ghost towns in the future.  

This is partially why I love riding rural areas. I like history, and finding out about the past is good because sometimes there are lessons we can learn from. You never know what you'll find in Iowa, that's for certain, and I'm sure other areas are similarly graced with nuggets of history just waiting for you to discover by bicycle.  

New Finds After All This Time

Trans Iowa v14, the last start. Image by Dori Jaansma

 Last week was filled with Trans Iowa memories on my Facebook timeline. It happens every year, right? Anyone who uses that social media platform can probably nod their head in agreement with how this "memories" thing works. 

My surprise is that even after eight years I am still finding new stuff on Trans Iowa I'd never seen before, or knew about. To me, this is remarkable. 

Images are the most common thing, obviously, but I have found a story about Trans Iowa v14 written by Nick Legan, a fellow Gravel Cycling Hall of Famer, by the way. It is a story about his efforts to finish the last Trans Iowa. I found it fascinating since Nick tabulates some numbers which I had no access to from athletes or from my own research. Things I had guessed at, but now I have some hard numbers to point to. The story, on "Rambleur" can be read HERE.  

Mark Lowe (L), and Nick Legan on the course of Trans Iowa v14. Image by Jon Duke

 As an example, I knew it got really cold the night of v14 going into the Sunday finish. Matt Gersib and I were freezing standing on a Level B Road just East of Grinnell, trying to toast to the end of an era. It wasn't to be as Matt said it was "too damn cold" and he was bailing out. A moment dashed. A moment I was hoping would be an intimate, final farewell to Trans Iowa with him. No hard feelings, Matt. I was 100% with you. I just was wishing it wasn't so cold right at that moment. 

And I never really knew just how cold it had gotten. Now I have a number, thanks to Nick. 23°F! In late April! No wonder we couldn't enjoy that moment! It all just makes so much sense and now, eight years later, I have found some solace as to why this moment did not work out for me. 

My image of the full moon, standing on a gravel road near midnight during T.I.v14

 I used to get asked all the time what the elevation gain was for any Trans Iowa. Frankly, I had no way of knowing this for certain. Especially in the earlier years of the event when GPS tracking was nearly non-existent or so poor it could only be taken as a guidepost. 

Of course, things have changed. Even by 2018, which was the year of the last Trans Iowa, GPS data was much more reliable.  Nick had a Wahoo Elemnt onboard his ride of Trans Iowa v14 and shared this data in the story linked above. His device read out 19,291ft in 350 miles. (Nick admittedly did some "bonus miles" due to a navigational error or two)

While this number may not be all that impressive, consider the fact that Nick accomplished that elevation gain and mileage in under 33 hours overall with no sleep. Plus, he had to do his own navigation by cue sheets. No gpx files. No simply following audible prompts for where to turn. 

Post T.I.v14 scraps. Image by Ryan Simon

Of course, none of this probably hits anyone quite like it does me. I understand this to be true. Eight years later not many folks even think about Trans Iowa anymore. Maybe the riders do. Some of the volunteers might. I don't know. 

It seems to me that the whole thing should have blown away like Fall leaves down a chip sealed street. Tumbling away until there are only remnants of what was once a green, living thing. 

Then those memories posts show up and the old feelings are reignited. Especially when images and words I hadn't see before are popping up all these years later. These new finds make me think about why this all may still matter to some people. Why it still matters to me. 

Jason Boucher, a good friend and supporter of myself and Trans Iowa when it was an event, once wrote to me and encouraged me to keep the event going because "..you give people a chance to change their lives".I know he was right about that. I've heard from people who have said as much to me. I know it changed me too.

And in the end, when it comes to this old stuff concerning Trans Iowa, we can find new things as a result inside our lives because of those times. What those things are may be different for each person who was touched by the event. 

And that is what matters. 

There Is Something In The Air: The Finishline

Sorry! I cannot figure out who these finishers are of either T.I.v9 or v10.

 The final thing I find which is a recurring thought around this time of year is the finish line of a Trans Iowa. 

Typically, for any given year of the fourteen Trans Iowas, I was in a state of sleep deprivation which often was part hallucinations and part sharply recalled moments. There are many things I probably don't recall anymore about the end of a Trans Iowa. But what I do recall is very heartwarming and I am glad I was able to share many great moments along the way at various finish lines. 

Oddly enough, the very first finish line of a completed Trans Iowa I ever experienced was in Decorah for the third Trans Iowa. The first one was run solo, by myself, and I was stationed as an observer about 20 miles from the finish line while Decorah Time Trial folks handled the end. Trans Iowa was truncated the following year due to everyone missing the time cut-off in Algona, Iowa. So, the third one was really my first one, if you can follow that! 

T.I.v4 had an impromptu finish line in Edgewood where winner John Gorilla found this beer in the street!

 

Impromptu finish line: T.I.v6 finished at the Malt Shop in North English, Iowa.

Many know several Trans Iowa events did not see the scheduled distance run. But this did not mean we had no finish line hangs. Impromptu finish lines set up for T.I.v4, v6, and the hang after the ending of T.I.v11 at Lonski's in Grinnell were all fantastic in their own right. 

I had some very special times at the T.I.v12 finish in Grinnell. 

Matt Gersib hugging T.I.v13 winner Dan Hughes with myself here in the orange jacket. Image taker unknown. 

There were some awesome hugs. I do remember those well. Steve Fuller's hug. The hugs at the end of T.I.v12 from various folks. Then there was that hug from T.I.v13 winner Dan Hughes. That's the one which was surprisingly long, emotional, and memorable. 

Waiting on the T.I.v14 finishers. Image by Craig Growseth

Eventually it all ended and I went back home. This was a stop on the way back from T.I.v14

Oddly enough, the end of a Trans Iowa wasn't all that different than the start, only it went in reverse. You had all the anticipation of seeing finishers. The emotional outpouring when finishers did make it to the end, and the atmosphere of the finish line with everyone hanging out. Whether this was across from a cemetery on the fringe of Decorah, Iowa, a random intersection in Williamsburg, Iowa, in a barn near Grinnell, or in one of a few parks used in Grinnell, the feeling was always the same. 

Then one by one folks would wander off to their cars, or ride their bikes away to motels, and I'd be left standing all alone. The quiet, peaceful end of a sometimes chaotic 34 hours and more of wild emotional swings, sleep deprivation, and physical efforts which marked my time in a Trans Iowa. I remember how I felt after those post 2:00pm Sunday afternoons. 

All of these things I have written about in these posts called "Something In The Air" and more than those are what floods my memories at this point. I thought I'd share how I feel after all these years of being away from Trans Iowa, or putting on events in any capacity. Like I said before, I miss it, but there are a lot of things I have left out of these posts which I do not miss one bit. 

Am I glad it is all over? Yes. But I also am very glad I did that for all those years as well. 

I hope you all enjoyed the look back at what I find memorable this time of the year. Thanks for reading Guitar Ted Productions! 

There Is Something In The Air

Pre-start of T.I.v6 Image by A. Andonopoulos

Every year about this time I get these feelings. It is in the timing of when the Sun rises and sets. The greening up of plants and tress. The moist, Earth smells. It all triggers those things I felt when I was putting on Trans Iowa for those fourteen years I did the event. 

I often dream of those mornings when we'd gather on some darkened street. Cars pulling in with bikes on racks, or riders pulling up in twos and threes, torches blazing into the inky dark of a Saturday morning in Hawarden, Decorah, Williamsburg, or Grinnell, Iowa. 

The sounds of anxious, muffled conversations. The clack and grind of cleats on wet pavement. The fog and mist in the air. The tension building up until I tried to herd all the riders into place for my annual "Fatherly Advice" speech. Then the tense moments just before the clock hit 4:00am and the toot of the horn. 

Just before the start of T.I.v5. Image by Corey "Cornbread" Godfrey

The riders are off! The T.I.v10 start image by Craig Cooper

This was, for me, the line of demarcation. The start of any Trans Iowa meant I, or "we" if I had a companion, would be alone for a few hours until we hit the first checkpoint. Early on, in the first few Trans Iowas, I was alone for hours on end, doing final course check in front of the riders. 

Those times are an entirely different story. The start though, that was a very special time for me. The atmosphere was transcendent. From quiet, sleepy repose to an electricity that filled the air - sometimes quite literally - The start period was something which I found energizing. Maybe I was feeding off all the rider's nervous auras. I don't know. I just remember those times with fondness. 

A rare shot of myself leading out a Trans Iowa. This time it is T.I.v9 Image taker unknown

 

MG driving here on the start of T.I.v14. My last time doing this

Yes, there is something about this time of the year which probably will stick with me the rest of my life. Trans Iowa was a labor of love, and yes - I do miss it at times. I am glad it ended when it did and how it did. But that doesn't mean that there aren't things which I miss. I cherish all the memories and times had. 

Sometimes I think I'll get up on Saturday morning on the traditional day of a Trans Iowa start and walk outside at 4:00am and see if I can still see, hear, and smell all those things which I remember so well from those days. Then I think, "Nah! You'll just be disappointed the feelings are not real, or as good as they were once", and I do not get up. It's kind of like the second bite of a doughnut.  The first bite is always fantastic, and you want to replicate that taste again with a second bite, but it never is as good, and every time you try again, it gets worse. So, it is best to stop. Let that first bite be what it was. You'll never replicate those sensory inputs ever again. 

More about Trans Iowa will probably be shared later in the weekend.  

The Path To Discovering Gravel Grinding: Part 1

My number plate from the 2006 Dirty Kanza 200

 As gravel grinding in the Modern Era continues into its 3rd decade, I thought it might be interesting to those who weren't a part of those pioneering days of gravel events to read my experiences and thoughts about those times. 

Twenty years ago I signed up for an event in Kansas being put on by two men most folks had never heard of before. Joel Dyke and Jim Cummins were two guys brought together by their mutual love of two-wheeled, off-road fun, and challenging rides. 

Jim came from the moto world and was into mountain biking. Joel was more into whatever cycling hi-jinx he could find, and if he couldn't find it, he created it. Between the two they had forged an interest in a silly gravel road based event in Iowa called Trans Iowa.  

Joel and Jim had been in contact concerning Trans Iowa with Jeff Kerkove. Jeff was the "point man" of Trans Iowa those first few years. Mostly because Jeff was a well-known solo 24hr endurance racer who had a very popular blog at the time. While I was more of an assistant in those days, it meant I wasn't a big part of the communications going back and forth between we Trans Iowa organizers and the organizers of the DK200. I was verbally kept abreast of all of this though since I worked in close proximity to Jeff. Both literally and figuratively!

An image I pulled off an online source on the Flint Hills back in 2006

Joel came up and rode in the first two editions of Trans Iowa and took many ideas back to Kansas for he and Jim to mull over as they were going to put on a similar event in Kansas. They settled on the Flint Hills for this ride which, originally wasn't called "Dirty Kanza", but nearer to their inaugural running of the event, it took on that name. 

It was kind of an unspoken thing back in the very early days of gravel that if you put on an event and another event organizer came to ride in your event, you went and rode in their event as well. It was a sign of solidarity amongst the early gravel event promoters. So, when Jim and Joel announced registration was open for the 2006 Dirty Kanza 200, I signed up.  

While I could have plied questions and received knowledge from the event organizers, due to the circumstances I was in at the time, I did not do this. Being in a gravel event was a completely new idea back in 2006. Everything you were going to do was pulled from other cycling disciplines and when it came to big decisions, like what bicycle to use, it was an unknown to a degree. Mostly because I, and others coming to the first Dirty Kansas, had no idea what the Flint Hills of Kansas was like. 

I was researching online, looking at pictures, reading stories about the grasslands, and getting to know some of the history of the area including the history of earlier peoples who called the Flint Hills home. Especially the history behind the Kanza people.  I actually learned a lot just because I signed up for an event, so it was a good thing besides the cycling bits. 

I eventually decided on riding my then new On One Inbred as a single speed. It would be my first bicycle race in ten years and it would be 200 miles long! (Look....no one said it was a smart decision!) So, you can see why I was a bit concerned and why I was doing a bunch of research. There were chats online in the Endurance Forum of MTBR.com, there were blog posts from fellow cyclists, and I did actually pick Jeff's mind about nutrition and such, since he was a Pro at it.  

It was an exciting time. There were a lot of unknowns, and decisions made were weightier and harder to make back then. In my next post on this, coming up in a week or two, I'll discuss more about what this event meant in terms of the overall nascent gravel scene  

When The Answer Is "Yes"

Portrait of Ken Yokanovich by Ari Andonopoulos

 I was often about to say "To hell with it all!", when I was an event director of the gravel race known as Trans Iowa. Many times it was quite a frustrating labor of map reading, route finding, logistics planning, and dealing with people who were stretching my patience to the breaking point. I often wondered aloud why I was even putting myself through what it took to do the event in the manner which I believed it had to be done. 

To be perfectly fair, this was all mostly of my own doing. The frustrations, the road blocks, and the hurdles were mostly of my own making. I did not have to do it the way I did it. 

I chose to do it the way that I did it.  

Why? This is a question which would take a longer form to answer fully. I won't get into the weeds here on this but suffice it to say I did it the way I did it for the best possible experience for the participant I could devise. My goal? To ensure each rider would experience a soul-searching, mind bending, physically and mentally challenging experience. I also wanted to afford opportunities for human interactions which might lead to life-long impacts. 

The cost to myself and my family was not insignificant. Was it all worth the14 years I put myself and my family, volunteers, and friends through to see this event happen? 

Ken Yokanovich (L) and Ari Andonopoulos

In 2007 author Zach Dundas shadowed me during the Trans Iowa v3 event to gather material for a book he was going to write covering the underground sports scene in the USA in the mid-2000's. The book, "The Renegade Sportsman", (You can find used copies on Amazon), contains a full chapter on Trans Iowa and is well worth tracking down if you are a Trans Iowa fan or are curious about the event. It is, in my opinion, the most concise, entertaining, and thorough description of the event and its ethos I have come across. 

In the chapter on Trans Iowa Zach has this little bit concerning Ken Yokanovich, a veteran of three Trans Iowa events. Zach, along with other T.I. riders, were checking out some of the bicycles to be used in the event. Here is the bit from "The Renegade Sportsman", Chapter Three, "Ira vs Iowa":

"I particularly admired Minneapolis rider Ken Yokanovich's orange-Creamsicle-colered Quickbeam, outfitted with roomy, old-fashioned olive drab pannier bags and a custom cylindrical handlebar clip that held a tube of Blistex. Yokanovich would ride fixed gear. Other Trans Iowans tended to greet that decision with studied nods of approval, as if spurning one hundred years of bicycle evolution was indeed the most honorable course of action."

Ken finished that year, the first to do it on a fixed gear bike. One of only three who ever finished a Trans Iowa in the event's 14 years on a fixed gear bicycle. So, it is understandable why I might remember Ken with fondness, and why he is held in high regard by Trans Iowa veterans who know. 

But you never know if the feeling is mutual. Maybe this is not a big deal to people like Ken. Maybe he's moved on. This was nearly 20 years ago, so yeah..... I could see it. But people are sometimes amazing and surprising. Such was the case with Ken, who recently was motivated by a meet-up with fellow Trans Iowan, Ari Andonopoulos, to reach out to me via email last week. 

Ken wrote and told me the following: "Thank you for sharing your thoughts, bringing us together, and challenging us to be something we never knew we could be."

When I get messages like this, I sit back and I smile. Were all the days and years of toil and worry worth it? 

The answer is "Yes".

A Missed Opportunity

Gifts which arrived with registration for Trans Iowa v11

Today there is a big registration party going on at District Cycles for the Mid-South event upcoming in March of 2026. District Cycles owner, Bobby Wintle, is the mastermind behind the event, and along with his wife, Crystal, they have leveraged every opportunity to promote their business alongside this event. 

Makes sense when you stop to consider it all. Why would one want to keep things separated - the event and the business - or why would one not want to hitch their wagon, as a business, to an event which draws in warm bodies to your establishment? 

These were my questions back twelve, fifteen years ago, as I was running Trans Iowa. In fact, Jeff Kerkove and I started Trans Iowa out of the bicycle shop we worked at. All along, for fourteen years, one might have thought Europa Cycle & Ski would have wanted to take advantage of what Trans Iowa was capable of bringing to the business.

Post card registrations for Trans Iowa v11

 But oddly enough, the owner did not take advantage of anything we could have benefited the business with. I recall one Trans Iowa registration where we had a dozen people waiting to get in the door to register. That's twelve plus people you wouldn't have had inside your business at any other time, but was there any effort to make anything out of this opportunity? 

Nope. 

And this was, and still is, baffling to my mind. I look at how Bobby Wintle handles this kind of thing and I can only shake my head at all the years of lost opportunities related to Trans Iowa and the bike shop I worked at then. I think about the buzz registration at the shop caused amongst the employees. Heck, even the mailman was excited every year about Trans Iowa. You'd think this would be a clue that possibly there was a nugget of opportunity waiting there.  An opportunity to bring in local cyclists to be a part of something cool and unique, and create goodwill amongst the locals for the shop. Maybe even sell some things. 

Yeah, it doesn't matter anymore. But whenever I see something like Mid-South's registration party, and remember Trans Iowa registration typically happened in November, one of the worst times for cycling retail in Iowa, and I cannot believe all the missed opportunities. 

But what do I know? I'm just some greasy bicycle mechanic.  

A Pictorial Review Idea

During the Tree In The Road Ride a discussion of an idea from Jason Boucher came up which I thought might make for a good event, and maybe more. The idea would be to present a photographic review of Trans Iowa's history. 

Now, before we get too excited here, let's consider a few things. First off, there are several image takers which would have to be consulted and to get permissions from before any sort of show or more could be considered. Just to give you an idea, there are nine major contributors to Trans Iowa's imagery and several minor contributors. That's a LOT of permissions and editing to cull the best shots for any sort of showing.

I have well over 1,000 images alone which I have collected from those nine individuals, including my own, and from other minor contributors. To say that there is a wealth of images is not an understatement. Plus, I know there are thousands  of images no one has seen but the image takers themselves.

Wally Kilburg accounts for a vast amount of iconic T.I. Images. 

One snag is the fact that Wally Kilburg is no longer with us, and getting permissions for using his imagery, or even accessing it, is a big hurdle to overcome as of now.

I know Wally would be 100% all-in on this idea, but we cannot ask him anymore, so without those images, I'd be rather reticent to pursue the idea at all. Wally would have to be represented in anything like this idea.

Then you have a venue, a space to hold an event like this in, and what does this entail? Yeah, not totally insurmountable, but you all know if we picked a site there would be cries of it being unfair to those far away. Plus, any date chosen would be a big snag with several folks as well. Personally, I don't care about those two issues, because there is an inevitability about any of those two things. It will happen no matter what we do, so whatever.... 

It's a nice idea, but it wouldn't be easy to pull off. Maybe we would have to do some kind of a book to make it worthwhile, and this would complicate things further, but I know making money off this would be something some of the contributors would want to see happen to make it worth their time and efforts. Plus, you have to recognize the talent and product realized by these artists. Would this idea work if it could result in a coffee table type book? Maybe.

Look, I have no clear idea for this, and it is just an idea now. If enough folks wanted to see it happen, maybe the effort would be worth the time. I really do not know. It would have to be a collaborative effort, because I just do not see myself pulling this off alone. So, this really is not up to my decision. Plus, the whole thing with getting nine entities/people to enter into a collaborative agreement. That's a big ask.

But....I thought I'd throw it out there. You never know unless you try, even if it is just throwing something out to see what sticks. And maybe nothing will come of this. I'm good either way. 

Two Things

 Figuring It Out:

I am doing this "Where We Came From" series on The Guitar Ted Podcast and it has been a lot of fun hearing stories from people that were there back in
the earlier days of gravel racing.

I think the best part has been learning what the backgrounds of these people are. You maybe get a preconceived notion about someone, you know. Like, Mike Marchand, for instance, who I always assumed had been a top-tier racer all his life, when in fact that is not the case at all.

On Thursday I was able to chat with Greg Gleason, who won Trans Iowa twice and legitimately could have won twice more. He came onto the scene, seemingly out of nowhere, to take the top spot in Trans Iowa v10. He dominated the event with his presence at the front for four more years.

Of course, Greg did not "come out of nowhere" and we found this out during the latest Guitar Ted Podcast, which you can listen to HERE. It's a long episode, so this might be a good one for your next trip to a gravel event.

Now, we also spoke about current events, and Greg's opinion was decidedly on not supporting the "big-time" events. It's interesting to hear a strong opinion about this and why that is. In my opinion, Greg's proclivity for a certain kind of event speaks to his personality and his desire to have relational experiences versus purely competitive ones. But do listen to the episode and decide for yourself

From the 2010 Dirty Kanza 200 event. (Image by Guitar Ted)

There's A Hole In The Hall:

This coming Wednesday a small group of cyclists are going to be honored as the newest inductees into the Gravel Cycling Hall of Fame. An institution I am honored to be included in.

There was some chit-chat going around in 2021, when the hall was announced, which communicated an idea. An idea which stated the new hall of fame would not be "legit" unless I was a part of the first class of inductees.

I don't know about that, but one thing I do know is if the GCHoF wasn't going to be legit without my inclusion, then it certainly is not legit without the inclusion of Jim Cummings. 

Jim made a social media post concerning something not at all having to do with cycling, and was 'cancelled' for it. Now, the point he made is debatable, and most people probably have no idea whatsoever what it was he was talking about. (If you find yourself reading this and wondering "what did he say"? you fall into this category.)

I'm not saying what he posted was right or wrong, and to my mind, it has zero - nothing at all to do with gravel cycling. It is a point of no debate that without Jim Cummings and Joel Dyke, (who, by the way, is in the GCHoF), gravel cycling would not be what it is today. Gravel cycling was HUGELY influenced by what Jim and Joel did, along with their team and participants, which include several other GCHoF members, at one point or another.  It is as obvious as the nose on your face that Jim should be in the GCHoF. He's been nominated several times, yet..... Crickets. No reason given as to why he is being systemically excluded. 

So, when you see the start to finish coverage of Unbound this coming weekend, and when you hear the names of the latest GCHoFer's, just remember who is not being recognized, and should be. There is a gaping hole in that Hall of Fame that should be filled. All these people at Unbound are standing on the shoulders of a man they are not recognizing, and this just should not be the case.

Four Wheels, Gravel, Dirt, and Craziness

 In celebration of the twentieth year of this blog, I have a few tales to tell. This post is one of them. This series will occur off and on throughout this anniversary year, I hope to illuminate some behind-the-scenes stories and highlights from the blog during this time. Enjoy! 

Today and tomorrow will feature things from Trans Iowa and how those things were featured on the blog. Then next week I'll delve into my reportage of the events here, and then we'll be done with Trans Iowa related subjects in this series, so if your are getting a little 'T.I. fatigue', I get it, but there is no denying the fact of Trans Iowa being a 'big deal' here on this blog.

Trans Iowa v2 recon was done partly with a 1996 Toyota Camry

Over the years of doing Trans Iowa I must have driven or ridden in a car for around 15,000 miles, or probably more. Most of that being on gravel roads and some Level B dirt. To do all of the recon and day-of event driving we had to use cars and trucks. This post will detail some of the vehicles which made an appearance on the blog.

A few were only referred to and never really shown fully here, like Jeff  Kerkove's Mazda 3, which did two complete passes of the first Trans Iowa course. That vehicle also was used for Trans Iowa v2 course recon. I did a bit of recon in a 1996 Toyota Camry for this version of Trans Iowa as well. Let me say here that compact cars do not make a good gravel recon vehicle! We had this confirmed later as David Pals and I used his Volkswagon Beetle on a sub-zero recon for Trans Iowa v4.

Trans Iowa v3 saw the debut of my 1991 Honda Civic hatchback wagon which I referred to as "The Dirty Blue Box". This vehicle was used for recon and the event for v3, some recon duties for v4, recon and the event for v5, and was then retired due to a failed distributor and struts which needed replacement. Those repairs being more expensive than the car was worth.

The Dirty Blue Box after getting stuck in a muddy Level B road during v4 recon.

I remember after v5 and having driven the entire weekend in that Honda. I was sooo beaten up due to the non-existent suspension and the poor ride quality of that car on gravel. Otherwise it was a nimble vehicle and amazingly adept off-pavement. I was able to push it out solo when I got stuck in a muddy Level B road once due to the lightweight nature of its construction.

I then used a 1999 Lexus as a recon and event day vehicle, one year overlapping with the Honda's service. During v4 it was the vehicle we stuck finishers in to warm them up. David Pals also used a couple of his vehicles for Trans Iowa, with the aforementioned Beetle and another Volkswagon SUV for v6.

After the Honda failed I purchased the "Truck With No Name" which had the longest run with Trans Iowa. From doing v6 recon all the way to recons for the last Trans Iowas, the "TWNN" was there. This truck was purchased with gravel travel in mind.

Although this truck was two-wheel drive, it got me through some dirt roads which I was amazed we were able to get through. Probably the most memorable moment for me in the TWNN was the half-mile drift on a muddy Level B road during T.I.v8 when I somehow managed to keep out of the ditches and thread the needle between passing cars while crossing a county blacktop.

While the TWNN served through the rest of Trans Iowa's run, we used several other vehicles through the last seven Trans Iowas which deserve mentioning, along with their owners. Most notably, Wally Kilburg and George Keslin, who used George's Ford F-150 4X4 several years in a row for recons and photography duties during several Trans Iowas.

George Keslin's F-150 immediately after fording a muddy Level B Road I thought we'd get stuck in!

Tony McGrane assessing his situation during T.I.v12

Tony McGrane always had a Ford F-150 4X4 at the ready to assist with event day at Trans Iowa also. His getting stuck in T.I.v12, and his subsequent spectacular unstucking of himself will always stand out as a chief memory for me at Trans Iowa. Tony probably used at least a couple different trucks during his volunteering days for Trans Iowa as he routinely upgraded vehicles. One note a lot of folks may not know, but Tony did the final recon to check cues for Trans Iowa v14 solo in his Ford. I'll always be grateful for that!

Matt Gersib's Subaru Forester was invaluable during the last few Trans Iowa events.

 The last vehicle and owner I will mention here is Matt Gersib's Subaru Forrester. If there ever was a chase vehicle suited for Trans Iowa, it was this one. Economical, nimble, but totally off-road capable, as evidenced when Matt drove Tama County's 270th Street Level B road. Yes! He drove through that section!

If you know this road, you will understand what a feat this was. It is something that scared the crap out of me when Matt decided to traverse this difficult, and most of the time, impassable road. But he made it and it remains as one of the best Trans Iowa ,moments I ever shared with anyone.

Of course, there are so many other vehicles and memories I could share, but these were the chief ones. I know I probably forgot someone or some cars or trucks, so if you have any chief memories which align with this post, let me know in the comments. 

It Was Twenty Years Ago Today

April 23rd, 2005. The moment the Modern Gravel Era started

 Twenty years is a long time when it comes to people's memories. Things are so quickly forgotten now and no wonder. We have a fire hose of information streaming into our faces on a daily basis. How anyone can remember anything these days is amazing when there is so much going on.

So, I started doing a "Where We Came From" series to remind those folks who may have forgotten, or just as likely - are too young to know - about gravel goings on back in the 2000's.

On the other hand, it may seem a bit presumptuous of me to write a post ballyhooing the "start of the Modern Gravel Era" when I was part of the story. Perhaps it might seem a bit more "authentic" if someone else told the story and put the honor of starting the gravel scene as we know it today on Trans Iowa. My take is that no one else is going to bother to point this out in cycling media, and how much more "authentic" can you get when I was there from the get-go. So, take this for what it is - an eye-witness accounting. 

The first Trans Iowa was more than a starting point for modern gravel cycling, it was a huge turning point in my life. The morning of the event marked my introduction as an "event director", although at the time, I felt like anything but an event director. In my mind, I was a "volunteer", a nobody. I was there to "help" and while I was willing to do whatever it took to get the event completed, I had no idea  what this might have meant going in.

Jeff Kerkove circa 2004

Someone who did have an idea of what was going on was the co-founder of Trans Iowa, my friend, and co-worker at that time, Jeff Kerkove. Jeff had been dominating XC MTB in the Mid-West and especially in the realm of solo 24 hour racing in the early 2000's. He was fairly well known in those circles. Since Jeff had a blog, which he posted to nearly daily back then, many cyclists who followed ultra-distance, endurance, and XC MTB were fans of his before Trans Iowa. 

Because Jeff had an audience, and because he was well aware of many of the facets of endurance cycling we'd need to be aware of in putting on Trans Iowa, his participation in the first event, both as organizer and racer, was invaluable. His connections within this community and with sponsors, who loved Jeff, by the way, were also of incalculable worth to getting this off the ground.

An example of this was not well known, and probably still is not, but Jeff had a good relationship with Mike Curiak, he of Iditarod fame, and who was part of the group who put on the first Great Divide events, which became Tour Divide later on. Mike was well versed in self-supported, long distance events, and he was leaned on heavily to help us out with the rules and formatting of Trans Iowa. Many of today's 300 mile type course events such as The Long Voyage at Gravel Worlds, the "XL" at Unbound, and the Mega Mid-South have Mike Curiak to thank for the ultimate end inspiration for such events on gravel. We may have introduced many to gravel as a way to have this "Type 2 Fun", but without Mike Curiak's assistance, this type of challenge probably would not have reached as many people as it has.  

Another huge moment came when Richard, "Deke" Gosen asked if we wanted to merge our event ending with his Decorah Time Trial MTB event being held on the same weekend in April as Trans Iowa. Jeff and I went to Decorah to meet with Rich and he sat us down to ask us a few questions about this new event we were going to put on. It was like an interview, to be honest, with the pivotal question Rich asked being kind of a philosophical touchstone for the rest of Trans Iowa's historic run. The question?

"Would you guys be okay if no one finished this event? Would you be alright with that?"

I remember Jeff turning to me after a brief pause and we met eyes. We agreed then and there that Trans Iowa would be an event no one might finish, and that this was just fine by us. Rich responded with a slap to the knee and said "Good! That's what I was hoping to hear!" 

Jesse LaLonde with the 1000 yard stare at the end of  his T.I.v2 Image by J. Kerkove

There were a lot of things I was soaking in during those days. I felt like I was in over my head at many points, and the level of competition at the first Trans Iowa really made me feel out of my element. Who was I to tell these, at that time, stalwarts of the endurance MTB scene, what to do?

This was where I fell in love with putting on this event. The way I was accepted, the way I was treated by these people, was completely different than what I had experienced participating in the late 1990's MTB scene. 

A lot has been made of the "gravel family' - One event in particular has co-opted the term as one of its main marketing slogans. But this facet of the early gravel scene was not born with the Modern Era of Gravel. It existed outside of this scene and was adopted by it mainly due to the influences of those ultra-endurance freaks who came to the first gravel events. It was they who instilled this part of gravel culture into the mix, and I was a recipient of this first-hand in 2005.

At any rate, this was another thing I wanted to curate and preserve in Trans Iowa. The entire familial, personal experience thing. This is why the Pre-Race Meat-Up was of such importance to me. It is why I cherish the hangs while the event was winding down at the finish line on Sunday. It all was sparked by my experiences interacting with those endurance freaks of the past.

 I learned a lot before, during, and after Trans Iowa in 2005. I grew as a person by leaps and bounds due to being involved in Trans Iowa. I was afforded the opportunity to learn from so many great people. It boggles my mind today to think of it.

 A gift to me from Kimberly Bruer and Jeremy Fry, this shows every T.I. site header except T.I. v1. Note the banned V8 header rarely shown.

 Apparently, by the reactions I received over the years and by the results I have witnessed which came out of Trans Iowa, this day in 2005 was a pretty significant day, not just for me, but for many. I cannot imagine what things would be like now had Jeff and I, at any time during the first two Trans Iowas, had thrown in the towel.

 Yeah, you can certainly argue that other events were "gravel" before Trans Iowa. You can say other people were integral to gravel getting off the ground, and I might agree with your choices. But I do know history would not be the same without Trans Iowa, and that Trans Iowa was the reason many other things happened in the gravel cycling realm. I know I would not be who I am without Trans Iowa or gravel cycling. That's enough for me.

Check out the companion podcast with Jeff Kerkove HERE.

 So, I celebrate today with fondness, thankfulness, and love for what has happened, and especially for the people I have been blessed to get to know. Ultimately, those people are what matters the most.

If you are a part of gravel cycling - Thank you! I appreciate you all, and while I may not know you, I feel you are an important part of the story of gravel.

Keep Riding!

Guitar Ted

Where Were We?

 In celebration of the twentieth year of this blog, I have a few tales to tell. This post is one of them. This series will occur off and on throughout this anniversary year, I hope to illuminate some behind-the-scenes stories and highlights from the blog during this time. Enjoy! 

Again with the Trans Iowa stuff. I know, but April was essentially "Trans Iowa Month" here, and I suppose you could add in the first week of May with my reporting on the just completed event for the year. This time I wanted to shine a light on cue sheet navigation. It was something I took great pains to explain in detail here on the blog, so many of you long-time readers will probably recall this being a big deal.

A typical Trans Iowa cue sheet

I was chatting with Cedar Valley Bicycle Collective board member Nick Arendt at our most recent board meeting and he brought up cue sheet navigation while we were discussing Iowa Wind And Rock, (happening today and tomorrow, actually!). 

Nick said something which I've heard before, but is something I do not consider often, and is probably something most folks who have never used a cue sheet in an event would think about. Now, this probably is somewhat unique in terms of how I implemented cue sheet navigation, so others may have a different viewpoint, but if you had ridden in Trans Iowa, or as Nick, in the only C.O.G.100 event, you know first hand what Nick meant when he told me he didn't really ever know exactly where he was during the event.

I suppose it may seem very odd as to why I would have made the cues so precise, yet so vague at the same time so that riders knew exactly where to turn, but had no idea in a macro sense where the points were on a map. No sense of space beyond the immediate was portrayed on the cues. I went as far as not identifying towns and villages on the cues. Unless a rider saw a water tower emblazoned with the village's name, or a Post Office, business, or official government office of some sort, they would never know where they were in relation to ....well, anything!

Finishers of Trans Iowa knew where the start and end points were. But where did they go? Image by A. Andonopoulous

It was not uncommon for Trans Iowa finishers to ask me at the end of the event, "Where did we go this year?" Some of them would understand in a general sense given some knowledge of highways in the state and where they had crossed them, but most had no idea where they had been, especially in the earlier versions before GPS was widely available to cyclists. Of course, later into TI's run cyclists could have used a track of where they had been on their GPS enabled computer afterward to gauge where the route had gone, but many riders did not have this available to them during those days.

So, it was imperative not only for the riders to pay attention to every detail on the cues, but for me and those who reviewed my cue sheets to get every detail critical to navigation right. It was also a difficult task to edit this information down to a clear and concise reading with no confusion induced by the information I did give riders. This was facilitated by those I had volunteer to check my cues out. People like Jeremy Fry, Wally Kilburg, George Keslin, Tony McGrane, and others who would either look over my cues or use them to navigate the route in the field.

Every year these people suggested edits and helped me make Trans Iowa cues the best possible. It was a hard task with a new course every year all 14 years I put this event on. While processes were refined and things were eased by the end of the run, it was by no means an "easy task". Giving explanations every year on the blog was also a bit tedious, however, I felt it could never be pointed out enough how the cues worked.

And I am glad I took the space here to do that. It made for an experience you cannot get anywhere else in cycling. Well......there is Iowa Wind and Rock! And the Ragnarok 105 uses cues yet, I think... So you still can get this experience as long as they keep those events going.

Celebrating Trans Iowa's 20th Anniversary

 This April 23rd marks the 20th anniversary of the start of Trans Iowa.s 14 year run. Judging from the hits I am getting on this post from 2018, there must be some interest out there concerning why the event ended, at least.

Of course, I understand the importance of this upcoming anniversary and I have already written a post, set for release on April 23rd, which will commemorate this anniversary.

It will be a part of my "Where We Came From" series which concerns itself with the telling of the story of Modern Gravel's early days. My position is Trans Iowa was the event that marked the line where this gravel scene started and grew to what it is today. 

So, consider this post a "Public Service Announcement" telling all I am fully aware this is a big anniversary and I do have a special post coming on the anniversary date which will celebrate this event and tell you all a few more behind the scenes stories concerning the first Trans Iowa. I will point out some folks out there who were pivotal in getting Trans Iowa off the ground also.  

Tentatively I also have scheduled a podcast episode with co-founder of Trans Iowa, Jeff Kerkove, to be recorded sometime after the 16th of this month. Hopefully this can drop right about the same time as the written post here does. 

If you have any comments concerning the early days of gravel, or specifically to Trans Iowa, I would love to read those. Meanwhile, you might get a kick out of checking out the Trans Iowa History site with stories on each of the 14 versions of Trans Iowa, a full results page, and a full roster page showing each person who ever rode in the event and which versions they were a part of. Thanks for reading Guitar Ted Productions. Stay tuned for the podcast episode and the special anniversary post on Wednesday, April 23rd!

Double-Duty

 In celebration of the twentieth year of this blog, I have a few tales to tell. This post is one of them. This series will occur off and on throughout this anniversary year, I hope to illuminate some behind-the-scenes stories and highlights from the blog during this time. Enjoy!

 There was a time on the blog here when I was doing "double-duty" as an onsite festival reporter AND preparing to unleash the ultra-distance gravel event called Trans Iowa within weeks of each other

Yeah.....that wasn't very smart of me to do. But, I lived through it all, and somehow I was successful. Obviously big props have to go to my volunteers for Trans Iowa at the time and to my co-director in those days, David Pals.

Hammer Nutrition for Trans Iowa v10

Late March and early April was the time I had a lot of things coming to a point. Getting sponsored items in for the event was one of the biggies.

This wasn't told on the blog here, but stacks of products and prizing usually took up plenty of space in the Guitar Ted Headquarters during early April. It was not very fun for the rest of the family who had to work around the inconveniences Trans Iowa put upon them. This only added to my stress in putting on this event, but ya know..... I did what I had to do!

The other part of all this was preparing the odds and ends many do not think about. Things like pens. Clipboards and tape. Making sure the truck was ready. Number plates. pipe cleaners, zip ties, and paper clips. Markers. Maps.

I had a checklist and I was constantly going over it. But again, not much about this was ever written up here at the time. But on top of all this, for three years in a row, I went to cover Sea Otter for "Twentynine Inches", the website I was contributing to at the time from 2007 - 2009 when I attended Sea Otter for the final time. After this time I was the sole proprietor of the site and I decided not to go, as I had a California based contributor who covered the event for me.

An extra windy day at Sea Otter in 2008

I was happy to have been able to go to Sea Otter for those three years. However; travel time and all the missed opportunities for being with my family and taking care of Trans Iowa business really made Sea Otter a pain for me. The experiences in the Monterrey area will be a highlight, for sure, but having Sea Otter right before Trans Iowa was really, really hard. In fact, I pushed the date for Trans Iowa v5 into the first week of May because of my previous two years of dealing with one week of separation between the two events.

Leaving Sea Otter in 2009. This was the last thing I saw at the venue on that day.

 Like the image above, my time at Sea Otter is a misty haze of memories. I'll likely never go back there again, and I am fine with this thought. I do also know I never made any effort to go back, mostly because of Trans Iowa, and because of this reason, I just got used to not having to be there with "boots on the ground" to cover any news coming from this show.

Of course, having my previously mentioned friend, Grannygear, there who was more than happy to go every year to cover news and send images was a huge help. However; even without the help, I wasn't planing on going there again as long as Trans Iowa was around.

But for three years, I was there and for many years afterward, Sea Otter news figured heavily in this blog's writings. And it probably still will as long as Sea Otter continues to be the place where cycling brands and marketers release information and new products.