Riding my birthday has become a tradition, no matter how little I try to make it one, because my dogged (and fit) friend Carl always makes a place on his calendar for it. Our birthdays are separated by 8 years and 8 days. And because Carl increasingly has no one near his age to ride with him, of course he has to dip a year or eight below his now 76 años to find someone who can keep up. And that’s where I come in. Annually, apparently.
This year, a long-awaited stretch of trail was finally completed between the Raccoon River Valley Trail at Perry and the High Trestle Trail which had, for its fifteen years of existence, ended in Woodward, 11 miles to the east. It is now possible to ride from Ankeny to Perry and back on these two trails, and the mileage seemed just about perfect (I had to guess on that because Google still hasn’t included this connector in its maps as it only opened in August).
We decided to ride from Perry to Ankeny to avoid ending the ride with 12 miles of fierce headwinds, instead riding that section from Slater to Ankeny at hour two and mile 23, when our legs were still fresh. The 20 mph south wind never abated but did gust well past 30, and we more than doubled our time on the return from Ankeny to Slater. All-in-all, I must say I felt pretty good after this ride, and the uber-accurate double GPS on my Apple Watch Ultra reflected the relative inaccuracy of our bike odometers. Carl "had to" to ride nearly an additional mile past his age to match his odometer; he needed a photo of his actual odometer for the posting on his council person site. Carl, you just rode next year’s ride.
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We hit the trail shortly after seven in the morning, which means I had to rise at 5:30, three hours earlier than usual.
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| We wouldn’t see another bike rider until after lunch in Ankeny. |
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| The amazing High Trestle Bridge, between Madrid and Woodward. It is a destination all its own, especially at night when it’s all lit up. |
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| (Image borrowed from TrailLink) |
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| (Image borrowed from TrailLink) |
I do not recommend riding one-handed over this bridge with a 20-35mph cross wind.
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Fortunately, Carl has arms long enough for a selfie.
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| Too much information. |
