Category Archives: bike trails

June 4, 2013 · 10:36 pm

More Central Iowa cycling news: gnats on Neal Smith trail, BRAMCO ride Sat. in Madison County

So the good news is the Neal Smith trail from downtown toward Saylorville is largely open and not flooded (although word has it the area around the Saylorville marina is closed due to flooding). But my husband, who rode it yesterday, reports there are  lots of gnats. So ride with your mouth shut and wear glasses or goggles.  Meanwhile, there’s a good training ride for RAGBRAI riders (and anyone else) this weekend just southwest of Des Moines – – The 17th annual BRAMCO Ride (Bicycle Ride Across Madison County) is on Saturday. The weather forecast – of great pertinence especially this rainy spring/summer – is for temps in the 70s and a 20 percent chance of rain. Registration starts at 8 a.m. at the North shelter in Winterset. (Not sure where that is.) The ride starts at 9 a.m. and costs $30. Riders have a choice of two loops – the 45 mile and 60 mile. All paved. Promises to be hilly!Snack and sag wagon provided.  For more info see: the Madison County Cycle Club website Madison County Cycle Club website.

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May 23, 2013 · 2:07 pm

Two places to fix your flat along the bike trail in Des Moines!

The tire fixing station near Mullet's in Downtown Des Moines

The tire fixing station near Mullet’s in Downtown Des Moines

We have come across two flat-tire repair stations along the bike trails in Des Moines – how great! Each station has a number of tools you need to fix a flat (all attached to cords that attach to the station so someone can’t walk off with them) and even a hook so you can hoist your tire up to fix it. How cool is that? (It would be even cooler if I knew HOW to fix a flat but that’ s my issue.) I found one at the start of the trailhead south of Ashworth Pool in DSM  (en route to the Great Western Trail ) and another downtown by Mullet’s along the Principal Riverwalk by the baseball stadium.

Both were gifts from some charitable soul whom I need to mention here (when I collect her name.)  Thank you!!

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April 13, 2013 · 4:18 pm

Spring construction report from the bike trail in downtown Des Moines

Grays Lake

Gray’s Lake (above)….For fantastic “zoomable”  Des Moines area trail maps see: http://www.dsmbikecollective.org/mapcentral!

We really haven’t gotten that perfect spring weather for biking yet (except for last Monday, when temps rose to the 70s, but then plummeted a day later and it got rainy). But last Saturday under overcast skies and with a cold wind, we did our first ride of the spring on our favorite loop through Beaverdale/Drake neighborhood to South of Grand to downtown Des Moines and back to Beaverdale/Drake, which includes bits of several officially-named trails (Walnut Creek, Bill Riley, Meredith, John Pat Dorian and the Inter-urban).

Each spring, we’re braced for various construction projects that may hamper our journey but the three c0nstruction projects we came upon all had handy detours that takeyou around the bridge construction at 63rd and Grand);  past the closed footbridge west of I-Cubs Stadium; ); and around the construction at the Botanical Center.  It also was nice to see that last year’s construction on the west side of the Riverwalk by Court Avenue appears to be done (or at least done enough that you can now ride along this stretch of the trail by the river.)

A more detailed look at our favorite 18-mile loop: We ride from our Drake/Beaverdale neighborhood house south from the Franklin Library to 56th Street, then south through the woodsy trail around there to 63rd street and Grand; then east along another wooded trail  to Waterworks Park and Gray’s Lake, past I-Cubs stadium and the East Village downtown;, then back north along the river along the Dorrian trail (which I always confuse with the Neal Smith trail further north) to the trestle bridge that leads west to MLKing Blvd;and then uphill on the Urbandale trail and over to 38th Street (or so) and south to our house. Our ride was about 18 miles.

 

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March 14, 2013 · 11:14 pm

Brews along the bike trails in Des Moines

ebc-beerhall-4
 Farmer John's

Looks like there will be ample opportunity to try some fresh brewed beer along various Des Moines bike trails this year – although I’m not a big fan of that sort of thing. Brew pubs are bursting out all over the city including:

  • Exile Brewing Company, in a cool rehabbed building/”beer hall” (maybe they’ll have Weisswurst, those sickly grey-colored sausages I remember from Munich beer gardens. I do see “german food,” aka veal schnitzel, homemade country sausage, braised red cabbage, wholegrain mustard on the menu!) near Meredith in the western Gateway. 1514 Walnut Street.
  • Confluence Brewing (located just south of Gray’s Lake, presumably named for being near the confluence of two downtown rivers – the Des Moines and the Raccoon) 1235 Thomas Beck Rd. (Interestingly, you have to enter your birthdate to prove you’re over 21 to get on the brewpub’s website. Never seen that before.)
  • 515 Brewing (on University, just west of 73rd street,  along the Clive/Greenbelt Trail in Clive) 7700 University Ave. (see below)

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February 13, 2013 · 2:52 pm

Talented team to feed masses at DSM’s Riverwalk soon. walking tours too.

Good to hear that the talented Lisa and Michael LaValle will team up with talented George Formaro to run the food stand at the Hub Spot along Des Moines’ Principal Riverwalk , off Court Avenue west of the river, starting this April. The food sounds equally promising – with locally-sourced items like LaQuercia prosciutto, Maytag Cheese and Zanzibar coffee to be sold, not to mention a “Zombie Burger” cart – a spin off of Formaro’s popular East Village restaurant. Lisa has been the longtime chef at the Des Moines Art Center and is an all round nice person. (Our kids went to school together.) Here’s more info from the Des Moines Register! And here’s hoping the Riverwalk becomes as popular as Gray’s Lake with outdoor enthusiasts. We regularly ride our bikes on a trail through both – now we’ll have a new place to get a snack downtown.

The Hub Spot at the Principal Riverwalk, which is nearing completion, is on the west side of the river, near the Polk County office building.

The Hub Spot at the Principal Riverwalk, on the west side of the river, near the Polk County office building.

And what’s this about Carl Voss, another person we’ve known for decade, offering walking tours of downtown Des Moines in the spring? And kayaking on the Raccoon River?

The Des Moines Art Center

 

 

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September 7, 2012 · 2:35 pm

My recent travel story in the Minneapolis Star Tribune – The High Trestle Trail in Iowa

I forgot to mention that a story of mine about riding bikes on central Iowa’s The High Trestle Trail at night ran a few weeks ago in The (Minneapolis) Star Tribune – for more details see: http://www.startribune.com/printarticle/?id=165756086

Night riding on The High Trestle Trail in central Iowa

Fresh air, exercise and an art bridge

  • Article by: BETSY RUBINER
  • Special to the Star Tribune
  • August 13, 2012 – 2:41 PM

The other night, I did something new and possibly stupid: I rode my bike on an unlit trail through rural Iowa. It was dark, except for the dim beam from the cheap flashlight I jury-rigged to my handlebars and the occasional flickering light of passing bikes. It was quiet, except for the periodic rustling, croaks and calls of who-knows-what. It was spooky.

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July 10, 2012 · 9:17 pm

Scary fall en route to the Neal Smith Trail near Johnston, Iowa

Photo by Dayne Magneson, Park Ranger – Saylorville Lake

Word of warning: be careful if you are riding your bike over the bridge in Johnston (Iowa) just east of NW Beaver Drive (i.e. NW 66th Avenue east of the Johnston soccer fields) crossing the Des Moines River  to get onto the Neal Smith Trail at the Sycamore Access. My husband took a nasty spill thanks to some rough pavement at the southwest end of the bridge, which is narrow to begin with. Fortunately he fell towards the guard rail, away from the traffic. I shudder to think what would have happened if he’d fallen the other way – when the first of two very large and long trucks hauling hay bales passed us. I shared this adventure with another biking friend who said she’s sworn off riding across that bridge after she had a scare on it during rush hour traffic awhile back. Our encounter was on a relatively sleepy Sunday. Or so we thought.

It’s a bummer because we were hoping to do a loop – going north on the Trestle to Trestle trail to Johnston, then winding our way through some quiet residential streets – and one busy street – to get onto the Neal Smith trail heading south. Might not try that again.

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June 18, 2012 · 2:20 pm

Eeking out 30 miles biking the Chichaqua Trail east of Des Moines

Intriguing sign outside Valeria, Iowa

We just managed to get in 30 miles of biking on the Chichaqua Trail, east of Des Moines – riding from the tiny town of Valeria (pop. 62, which may be an overcount) west through bucolic farmland (including surprisingly high corn for June) through the slightly bigger towns of Mingo, Ira (featuring an uncommonly clean, spacious port-a-potty in the park, which believe me, is good to know), and Baxter. We had to ride a little around the town of Baxter in order to accumulate a few more miles, including riding up the hill on the highway into town to the convenience store for some ice tea.

Part of the problem with clocking 30 miles on this trail is that it’s technically closed for repairs west of Valeria. (I’m not sure how far west. When we were on the trail last, in October, it was closed through to the start of the trail in Bondurant.) But even though there’s a big barrier blocking the trail at Valeria, when we were driving home and crossed the trail a little west of Valeria we spotted two riders we’d seen earlier on the trail who appeared to have ridden it west from Valeria. Hmmmm.

Valeria, by the way, has got to be one of the friendlier little towns we’ve ridden through. As we rode up and down the town’s two very short main streets, we were warmly greeted by everyone we passed – including a large group of people gathered in a circle on lawn chairs, who waved at us, and a guy mowing his lawn who stopped to wave and say “Howdy.” We remain intrigued about why – as the sign on the highway boasts – Valeria is the “Town of A Railroad Romance.”

On the way back to Des Moines, we stopped at a favorite east side ice cream stand, Granny’s on Hubbell Ave. That was dinner before we went to see the last performance of “Billy Elliott” at the Great Des Moines Civic Center, which was – as expected – fantastic.

A post-biking treat on Des Moines’ east side

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May 21, 2012 · 3:07 pm

Trying a new (new to us) trail in Des Moines

One effect of the new signs posted along the many miles of trails in Des Moines, for us, is that it has tempted us to go in new directions. So yesterday, we rode  along the Waveland Trail  from the Franklin Library south toward the Walnut Creek Trail  (Am I the only one who can’t keep track of the names of theses trails?)  to a point just south of 63rd Street and Grand, where we decided to go west instead of our usual east and see if we could connect to the Jordan Creek Trail we’ve tried off and on in the past.

We were able to go further than we remembered on a trail, crossing busy 63rd Street just north of the river and riding on a levee. But not too scenic. Very industrial with a gravel pit. After awhile we ended up coasting along E.P. True Parkway – a little too suburban and close to traffic for our tastes. We ended up in a pleasant pocket park near Fairmeadows School where we had a picnic, then wound our way back east through Valley Junction (stopping briefly at an art fair there) then got back on the trail at 63rd and Grand and headed our usual direction – East.  Which we enjoyed even more after our ride west. We also stopped for the first time at Mullet’s – just south of Principal Park where we had a drink on the top deck with a superb view to the north of the big city.

I did find a map today of Jordan Creek Trail http://www.wdm-ia.com/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=297 and next time, it looks like we should head west from Fairmeadows School. And we should check out the new trail extension circles the 230-acre lake in Raccoon River Park.

 

 

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October 4, 2011 · 10:37 pm

Daring to ride a bicycle on Iowa’s county roads – Chichaqua Trail east of Des Moines

You can get very spoiled riding bikes on Iowa’s trails – no cars to worry about except at infrequent intersections with usually pokey gravel roads. But yesterday – in part because one of our favorite trails, the (unpronounceable) 20-mile Chichaqua Valley Trail from Bondurant to Baxter, east of Des Moines,  is partially closed – we decided to try riding on a few county roads paralleling the trail.

It helped that the roads we were (S52 and F24)  were chosen by the Iowa Bike Coalition as good – and included as part of a recommended loop on their new biking map that I recently picked up for $2.50 at a bike shop in Des Moines.  On a gorgeous fall Sunday, the two-lane roads were mostly quiet – but every once in awhile a car or truck would come up from behind and scare the be-Jesus out of us. My husband was particularly worried about combines and grain trucks – since it’s harvest time.

The roads were very hilly – so a challenge to ride from that standpoint too – with visibility limited. When I could banish my fear of approaching cars, riding the country roads was fun – you get a really different feel for the countryside than on the trails where you are more insulated and your view more restricted. You’re riding in the middle of the corn field rather than on the edge of it, if that makes sense.

Anyway, by the time we got to the small town of Mingo on county roads we were very ready to return to the safety of a trail – and we gladly hopped on the Chichaqua Trail, riding  south to Valeria, where the trail was closed thru to Bondurant, due to damage caused by flooding last year.  We had the trail from Valeria to Baxter (via Mingo and Ira) almost to ourselves – about a 10 mile stretch – because, I’m guessing, 1)  people think the trail is completely closed and 2) the High Trestle Trail has become so popular that it’s siphoning off riders on the the Chichaqua Trail.

The weather was a balmy 75 degrees or so and the trees and light were in their autumnal glory – we rode through tunnels of trees changing color, our tires crunching on fallen leaves, the sun making shadows that dappled the path, gliding past fields of browning corn and golding soybeans, past the occasional combine harvesting away or tractor in the distance making hay bales. Iowa in its glory.

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