If ever a bike tour had a comprehensive final exam, this was it. Super long (107 miles) headwinds all day, 4,000 feet of climbing, rough seamed PMA (pound my ass) roads, a crappy bike trail, a town without drinkable water, swarming bees, questionable navigating, a flat tire, finishing after 8pm - the only thing this day didn't review was injuries, difficulty finding a place to stay, and heavy traffic.
That all said, it was one of my favorite days of the entire tour. Iowa is friggin' beautiful and picked a stellar route through it with very few cars. The super long day allowed me to get mental closure on the trip that a short day just woudn't have allowed for.
In the next few days I'll write around two more follow-up posts that summarize my thoughts on the tour. This one will just be a short (ha!) ride report.
I knew today was going to be hard. Mapped out to be 110 miles mostly North and West, with 10 mph WNW winds predicted, and about 4,000 feet of climbing in rolling hills. That's more climbing then some mountain pass days had.
It started due west with 12 miles of PMA roads. Terrible. Finally I got to my first stop at Williamsburg at 10:15am only 24.5 miles in with already 2:05 on bike. That's a terrible pace, but it was super hilly, windy, and the PMA roads were killing my mental game.
After some coffee and pizza the next sections heading north went well, but still slow paced. Including a poop break about mile 35, I made it to Garrison 66 miles in, 5:13 on bike, at 2:45pm. 5:13 on bike for 66 miles is very slow, normally that gets me close to 75 miles or more. Hills and wind folks, hills and wind!
Garrison turned out to be a run-down ghost town with no drinkable water, and I was all out. I found a lone local couple who gave me bottled water. Yay! They were interesting. The guy wore a gun and had a shirt that said "Hey vegeterian, my food poops on your food!" with an accompanying picture. So... that guy recommened this bike trail that would get me diagonal to the next town 10 miles away without taking a busy road. I was like "sure, why not, a change of scenery." I was an idiot.
The trail did save me about 3 miles, was pretty, and did avoid traffic, but it SUCKED. It started off nice, but soon turned into deep barely compacted crushed limestone. I was barely able to ride much of it. It was almost like trying to ride on the beach. To top it all off, whenever I stopped I was swarmed by bees trying to steal my moisture. Lots and lots and lots of bees. Plethoras even. I didn't get stung, but damn. That was a lot of bees.
I'm just going to come out and say it. Rails to Trails is stupid. 99% of the trails suck and even if they don't suck to start with, they aren't maintained. The Sparta to Elwood trail with the tunnels is the only Rails to Trail I've ever done that didn't suck. We should stop donating money to that stupid charity and put the money into smoothing out PMA roads and/or widening the shoulders of county roads. No-more crushed limestone bullshit between town trails. JUST SAY NO!
Anyway...
I got to Dysert at mile 75 with 6:01 on bike around 4pm. There I took about an hour break for cheese, donuts, milk, and beer. After that I attemped to push 30 miles into Cedar Falls, but was stopped 10 miles later to deal with a slow leaking front tire due to a valve-stem failure. Doh. Final exam, you got me again!
Finally I got onto the nice well paved bike trail network of Cedar Falls, which took some navigating because they are much different then when I last lived there. I grew up biking on Cedar Falls bike trails, but now there are many more, and the outskirts of town I used to ride in are now in the middle of town. Cedar Falls is growing fast. They are also very proud of their bike trails, which, if you are coming into town from outside of town are very handy. For local commuting, however, they are terrible because they don't go anywhere useful. CF is trying really hard to be a gold bike city, but they keep doing stupid stuff like building trails to nowhere (recreation only.)
Finally I got to my childhood home at 107 miles, 8:28 on bike (longest day yet) at 8:08pm. I did that 107 mile day in Montannna, but it took much less on bike time because the riding was easier. This was a really hard day. The headwinds lasted the entire 107 miles! The entire thing took me about 12 hours total with breaks. I don't remember taking 5 hours of breaks, but every picture stop and pee break adds up.
Riding into CF felt every bit as magic as riding up to the Atlantic Ocean has felt on past bike tours. Part of this is because I came in to town on trails I grew up riding as a kid. I'm a cyclist because of those trails that I rode almost every day, every summer, for many years. Often they were used just to get my friends and me out of town, or into off-road fun trails. I haven't been on those trails in probably 15-20 years.
Well... That's today, and I'm tired. I have a lot more to say, so if you are interested continue checking here for a few more days.
ILYI
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