Category Archives: bike trails

June 28, 2015 · 2:52 pm

Casa de Oro/Perry (Iowa) and bike trail from Waukee to Perry

The bike trail between Waukee and Perry in Central Iowa is about 18 miles – long and straight, cutting through classic farm country, fields of rising green corn, the occasional abandoned see-through wooden barn, a smelly hog confinement operation and a smelly fertilizer plant, a pretty farmhouse surrounded by a white picket fence dotted with orange tiger lilies.  We rode in the late afternoon and early evening – returning just before 9 p.m., with the trail and the terrain all to ourselves. Or so it seemed. The light was stunning. A light breeze. Dragon flies whizzing around in front of us, hovering over the pavement. The sound of birds, frogs and crickets.

We stopped for a drink in the small town of Minburn at a depot that’s recently been turned into a little restaurant and then in Perry for dinner at Casa de Oro (after finding our usual Mexican place, Taco Villa, closed). Place was busy and the fajitas good. We’ll be back.

Leave a comment

Filed under Agritourism, bike trails, biking, Iowa

Tagged as ,

April 17, 2015 · 2:22 pm

Oh happy day: Mullets serving Woody’s BBQ in downtown DSM

mullets2FullSizeRender (15)The second floor open air deck  of Mullets, a cheerful bar/restaurant overlooking the rivers and Principal Park baseball field in downtown Des Moines, has long been a great place to stop for a drink (if not for the food) during a bike ride (it’s right off the trail.) Now there’s all the more reason to stop: Mullets is serving BBQ from Woody’s – the beloved little bbq shack in the Drake Neighborhood. During a bike ride on a perfect spring night yesterday, we stopped at Mullet’s for a half rack of ribs (well-smoked and sauced, a rich reddish-brown crust, meat fell right off the bone) and a pulled pork sandwich (lots of smoked succulent meat). Both excellent – and a great view from the deck of the entire city, with the golden domed state capitol in the distance. Life is good.

mullets

Leave a comment

Filed under bike trails, biking, Des Moines

Tagged as , ,

November 3, 2014 · 9:53 pm

A bike ride to try in every state! See it here…

For a great list of bike trails to check out in every single state see this:  click here.

The ones in Minnesota, Missouri, Illinois and of course Iowa caught my eye! It does not include any naked bike rides, like the one my family stumbled upon a few years ago in downtown Chicago or the Spanish one in the picture below…(which I just deleted since it was more revealing than originally thought…)

 

Leave a comment

Filed under bike trails, biking

Tagged as , ,

September 1, 2014 · 1:15 am

Trout Run Trail, Magpie, sugar Bowl ice cream,– Decorah

Dunn's Spring

Dunn’s Spring

Trout run trail, Decorah

Trout run trail, Decorah

Along trout run trail

Along trout run trail

We have been on a lot of bike trails in Iowa but Decorah’s new Trout Run Trail is the most consistently gorgeous. It is only an 11 mile loop but what an 11 miles.We rode along the rushing waters of the Upper Iowa, past high stone bluffs furry with trees, past picture postcard farmsteads, (the white farmhouse, red wood and stone barn, the black and white grazing cattle), through dazzling fields of tall corn and soybeans and almost psychedelic-green grass.  We stopped at the top of a high hill and looked out for miles across the rolling fields. Later we stopped at a large trout hatchery with pools full of jumping rainbow trout soon to be in Iowa steams.

For breakfast we got lucky at Magpie, a coffee house with excellent French toast and scrambled egg wraps and surprisingly swift service,  given the crowd that arrived. We also enjoyed Agora Arts,  a terrific crafts gallery; the Oneota Community Co-Op, Dunn’s Springs (the closest to Ithaca’s falls I’ve seen in Iowa), Seed Savers, and the Sugar Bowl ice cream shoppe (sitting on the second floor balcony watching the action on water street, the main drag).

sugarbowlphoto (90)

Leave a comment

Filed under bike trails, Iowa

Tagged as , , , , ,

July 29, 2014 · 11:55 pm

Day 2 of Ragbrai – Emmetsburg to Forest City

Riding into Crystal Lake, Iowa on 80-mile Ragbrai day

Riding into Crystal Lake, Iowa on 80-mile Ragbrai day

Oh my, it’s been a week since I rode this grueling 80 miles and my memory is fading. What I remember most is being really hot and really tired – after riding 80 miles in very humid sunny weather, often into strong headwinds (especially when peddling north.)

But hey I did it, and there were some sights worth seeing and memories worth remembering including:

– A very pleasant stay with a welcoming local family in Emmetsburg, in their pretty Victorian house – we had real beds in real rooms (right next to our hosts which was a bit odd since we’d just met); their lawn and garden outside dotted with the tents of other riders (including one family from Iowa that operates an orphanage in Haiti and was using Ragbrai to do some fund and awareness raising.)

– Shower in the high school in Emmetsburg – water was a little hot and brought back memories of awkward middle school locker room encounters but hey, we got what we needed: clean. (Sort of.) The best $6 I’ve spent in awhile.

– A pretty and unexpected little lake in downtown Emmetsburg.

– Gruis Recreational Center – a pretty rural oasis and I had a great burger, packing up some calories to burn during my next grueling 15 mile ride.

– Some of the best peaches I’ve ever tasted – sold to me by some little kids at a stand in front of a pretty farm house next to the rural center – I was invited to pick some raspberries (free!) but too tired to do.1762

– Crystal Lake, Iowa – never heard of this place. Very pretty little town on a little lake.

– Superb pancakes and sausages eaten in the front yard of someone’s farm, served up by a local church, somewhere near Ringsted, I think And excellent rhubarb pie a few hours later at the American Legion, I believe it was, in Bancroft. Liked the town of  Titonka, Iowa.

– Discovering why people were biking jerseys (my cotton sleeveless shirt loaded up with sweat and left me a hot itchy rash).

1768

Leave a comment

Filed under bike trails, biking, Iowa

Tagged as , , , , , ,

July 24, 2014 · 9:58 pm

Ragbrai 2014 Day 2 Okoboji to Emmetsburg highlights

    1.  

Playing catch-up here, after returning to Des Moines from three days of riding RAGBRAI. I had a good excuse for not posting – cellphone didn’t work much of the trip, the system was overwhelmed by the thousands of Ragbrai riders passing through various small towns.

We had a great three days of riding. In Okoboji, we stayed at a beautiful home with friends on West Okoboji Lake (along Lake Shore Drive, which is full of beautiful lakeside cottages and mansions.) They drove us in the evening to Arnold’s Park and insisted we eat at the best restaurant in town, Maxwell’s – which was indeed very good and owned by a Londoner, to boot. who stopped by our table to talk London with my Londoners Francine and Russ. I had excellent salmon, Russ was happy with his halibut and francine with her pasta with beef tips and mushrooms. Place was hoping, as was most of the area. (Lunch at Taco House was okay.)

On Monday morning, our host very kindly drove us the 8 miles to the start of the ride – and we had a good day of riding, 41 miles. The weather was hot and humid and the wind was very intense at times but scenery lovely. We had coffee and a pastry at an overwhelmed coffee shop in Milford – then on for some church pancakes in a field east of Okoboji.

Before we even hopped on a bike, we did some shopping at Three Sons in Milford (photo above), which turned out to be a half a block from our team’s campground. The discounts on the top floor are well worth a visit!

Francine, Russ and Betsy, Arnold's Park, Ragbrai 2014

Francine, Russ and Betsy, Arnold’s Park, Ragbrai 2014

Leave a comment

Filed under Agritourism, bike trails, biking, Iowa

Tagged as , , , , , ,

July 14, 2014 · 2:14 pm

Good news and not for our Brits vacationing in Boulder this week

 

 

 

Two items about Boulder/thereabouts in the paper today

1) 2nd day in a row lighting has been blamed in the death of a visitor at Rocky Mountain National park – parks’ first lightning fatalities since 2000. ( Didn’t even know this could happen)
 2) on a more cheerful note: Boulder cited as “best bike-friendly city”  “from family friendly paths to leg-searing climbs, Boulder has more than 200 miles of bike paths, lanes and roads with shoulders. The Boulder Creek Path (which we went on…) meanders 5 miles along scenic Boulder Creek (and ends up not far from the veggie burger I mentioned in an earlier email – or at least I think it did.). The reportedly largest free urban bike park in the U.S. is the 40 -acre Valmont Bike Park.”
xox,b

Leave a comment

Filed under bike trails, biking, Colorado

Tagged as , , ,

May 21, 2014 · 2:48 pm

Dining options during evening bike rides in Des Moines

magnolia kitchen & grocery.jpg

Above is a rendering of what the Magnolia Kitchen & Grocery food truck will look like.(Photo: Special to th

In preparation for Ragbrai, we are trying to ride our bikes at least one weekday evening a week – often Tuesdays so we can eat at Tacopocalypse stand outside the Cumming Tap (in the small town of Cumming, Iowa.) But sometimes we ride on Wednesday or Thursday on the Great Western Trail south from Des Moines when tacos aren’t an option at Cumming Tap (Wednesday, we discovered last week, is steak night there, which is a bit heavy for us.)

So I was pleased to see other options available in Jennifer Miller’s latest excellent food column for the Des Moines Register. See below! They’re not in Cumming but they are along our bike route, which includes Gray’s Lake (where Confluence Brewing is located) and the trail at 63rd and Grand (where Pal Joey’s Lounge is).

Here’s the options:

TUESDAY Magnolia Kitchen & Grocery at Pal Joey’s Lounge; Tacopacalypse at Cumming Tap

WEDNESDAY Magnolia Kitchen & Grocery at Confluence Brewing 

THURSDAY  Magnolia Kitchen & Grocery at 515 Brewing on Friday evenings or The Levee, patio on the east end of Court Avenue. Woody’s Smoke Shack food, and Confluence  beers.  open 4 p.m. to midnight Thursday.

FRIDAY  The Levee, patio on the east end of Court Avenue. Woody’s Smoke Shack food, and Confluence  beers.  open 4 p.m. to midnight Thursday.

SATURDAY   The Levee, patio on the east end of Court Avenue. Woody’s Smoke Shack food, and Confluence  beers.  open 9 p.m. to midnight

Leave a comment

Filed under bike trails, biking, Des Moines, DINING

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

November 19, 2013 · 2:52 am

Ragbrai 2014 with the Brits!!

Just talked to our dear friends in London, Francine and Russ, and they want to do Ragbrai 2014! We’re thrilled and this time hoping my husband and son will want to do as well!! Registration has just opened for Ragbrai as has the unveiling of the way-cool Ragbrai 2014 biking gear (corn camouflage…clever!) although no word on the route for awhile.

Leave a comment

Filed under bike trails, biking, Iowa

Tagged as

November 3, 2013 · 4:54 pm

Rooting for the Hotel Pattee and the Whiterock Conservancy – Perry/Coon Rapids Iowa

The DM Register has a good profile of the new owner of the Hotel Pattee – a one-of-a-kind gem of a boutique hotel in Perry, Iowa, about 45 minutes west of Des Moines. Here’s hoping he succeeds! In another Register section is a story about the Whiterock Conservancy – a developing tourist attraction about 30 miles west of  Perry in Coon Rapids that will offer trails for mountain biking, hiking and horseback riding (more  below – it would be great to visit on a perfect fall day like today in Des Moines where the autumn foliage is spectacular this year!).  Put these two together and maybe there’s a successful weekend travel package (which has been part of the issue with the Hotel Pattee…since there are limited things for tourists to do there).

In 2000, when I wrote a story for the NYTimes travel section Historic Hybrid in Iowa, NYTimes 11/26/2000 about a stay at the historic Garst Farm in Coon Rapids (which now falls under the umbrella of  Whiterock Conservancy and is still a lodging option from what I can glean from the website whiterock conservancy website )  we went on a very memorable 2.5 hours horseback ride with our kids. They were very little (ages 8 and 7) to be riding on such big horses by themselves so I was a bit of a wreck but they survived. I ended the account of our trip with a visit to the Hotel Pattee. It can be done!

Another good activity option near Perry is the High Trestle Trail with it’s awe-inspiring 13-story high bridge, hidden in the middle of nowhere, spanning a  glorious river valley.

WHITEROCK, CROSSING A THRESHOLD

Next summer Whiterock will embark on the construction of our long-planned 35 mile backcountry trail!
The entire new backcountry trail will be open to walkers and hikers as it meanders among the forested slopes above the Middle Raccoon River. Sixteen miles of the trail will be a winding single track designed specifically for mountain bikers. bicycle riderAnother seven miles will be for equestrians.The final twelve miles will be double track shared by all users, including those using low power vehicles to allow those with mobility restrictions the opportunity to enjoy nature. horses and riders Trail users will also be able to access nine miles of other existing trails which connect to downtown Coon Rapids and many more miles of river upstream.

Leave a comment

Filed under Agritourism, bike trails, Des Moines, hiking, Iowa

Tagged as , , , , ,