Raccoon River Valley Trail -- Central Iowa

Two years ago when we were up here, we rode the High Trestle Trail (somewhat incomplete blog post here) and Great Western Trail (blog post here).

This time we chose the Raccoon River Valley Trail.

Day 1 -- Friday August 5, 2016 

Raccoon River Valley Trail
Epic 72 mile loop ride

We started out with the intention to ride the loop part of this trail in pieces spread over the two days we had allotted to ride, and didn't even think we would get the entire loop covered over those two days. We started our ride at the Waukee trailhead. 

We paid our single-day user permits of $2 per person. 

For the 4 miles from Waukee to Ortonville, the trail paralleled Hwy 141 with no tree cover.  We were blessed with a no-humidity day and temperatures in the mid 70s, so it was fine. On a brutally hot day, this would probably be a portion to avoid during mid-day, however. 

West of Ortonville, we got into tree cover.

 Next town was Adel, which still had its old railroad town sign, which was cool.

And the depot was still there right beside the sign, and still in wonderful shape

but it has been commandeered by a law practice.

On the west edge of Adel we came upon a brick foundry. Just the neatest thing to discover. It is a sizeable operation, too.

It has been in operation since the 1880s.

The picnic shelter along the trail beside the factory even has crushed brick for ground cover.

Stacks and stacks and stacks of bricks.

All identified with numbered tags

Once we finally reached the west end of the sprawling brick factory complex, we encountered this. I was not at all keen about being a bicyclist having to scoot around the ass-end of a semi trailer sitting there with its engine running, especially since we had to approach it from the passenger side. :(

Got around him and found this sign. And plenty of space where he could pull forward.

We said "whatever", and headed back out into open country.

Came upon what appears to be the last surviving remnant, other than one remaining house, of the ghost town of "Kennedy Station."

Next stop was the town of Redfield, our original intended turnaround point for this day's ride.

We are born and bred Kansas kids, with Kansas ancestry that goes several generations deep for both of us, so grain elevators have been a lifelong part of our everyday landscape. But I have to say, the sheer size of the grain storage structures here put our NE Kansas ones to shame.

Outside the depot was this creatively painted aluminum can recycling barrel. And more crushed red brick. I think I see where the name "Redfield" came from.

We went inside the depot to use the facilities and fill up our water bottles and found this little bit of history to add credence to the name of the town: 



Beside the clay pit picture was this charging station. Super nice touch! There wasn't a cord for the newer iPhones, and when I plugged in my iPhone 4s, it didn't register, so at least that cord appeared to not be working.  But still, I give big props to this amenity. Very cool.

As mentioned, Redfield had been our intended lunch stop/turnaround destination.  It was pretty much straight up noon at this point, but neither one of us were very hungry and we both felt like we could ride further before turning around. We had marked restaurants on our Google maps at most of the towns before embarking on our ride, but we found no cell service in Redfield to be able to pull up and see if there would be a restaurant available in the next town of Linden only 5 miles away, so we decided to ride on to there and see if there were any restaurants and if there weren't, we would turn around and head back and eat in Redfield as planned.

So, we made it to Linden about 30 minutes later. We took a break in the shade of the shelter house .....

...... got educated on the history of Linden .....

..... and played around with the self-timer on our camera.



But, there didn't appear to be any eating establishments in Linden (we didn't go off-trail searching) and we were now getting hungry.  However, we both still felt like we could ride further before turning around to retrace our steps back to our car. Next town west was Panora, just 6 miles away, and we knew there were multiple restaurants options there. So, northwesterly, we continued.......

We did note the interesting phenomenon of the rust spots in the pavement and decided it must be from higher iron content of some of the rocks that the concrete was made of.

A little over a half hour later we arrived in Panora, ready for some chow!!!!


Plan had been to eat at Breadeaux's pizza about a block off the trail. Turns out, it had gone out of business, but had we not ridden a block up the street, I wouldn't have gotten a picture of these two cool rides together!

So, we ate at the trailside PJ's Drive-In instead.  Very cyclist-friendly. They have a large outdoor patio with picnic tables and bike racks.

We wanted AC, though, so we locked up our bikes and went inside. Neat bench beside the front door.

I'm glad we ended up here by default. What great retro ambience, plus an art mural about the trail!

And my Mustang man gave thumbs up to the silhouette on the license plate wall.
Silhouette of a Mach 1 I would guess! ~~S

He had the patty melt. I had his pickles and a chef salad  The generous helping of turkey, ham and cheese was about double the amount I could eat.
I burned all 5K Calories of that lunch on the ride! :D  ~~S


If you're riding through Panora, be sure to make a stop at PJ's Diner. We're glad we did!
Yes am very glad we stopped there! ~~S











It was in this booth we made the decision to ride the entire loop. We did the math. If we turned around now at Panora and rode back to our car at Waukee, it would be roughly 30 miles. If we continued on from Panora around the circle, it would be roughly 40 miles back to our car. We were both in agreement that it would be silly to retrace our path.  And the commitment was made!

After lunch, we headed straight north and rolled into Yale with their gigantic temporary grain bin. Lots of corn-growing going down in Iowa.





Next up: Herndon, where the loop part of the trail makes a 90 degree turn to the east.

Good thing the guy with the sense of direction was leading the way because I would have gone straight and taken us on the north leg to Jefferson. He keeps me on track.

This sign means snowmobiles are welcome on this trail. But the first time I rode past it, my mind saw a guy on a jet ski getting attacked by a shark. Talk about confusing. "It's Iowa. Why are there sharks? And why do we need warned of this on the trail?" Creative minds see creative things. I'd probably better not take a Rorschach test anytime soon.
A Horschack test?  Enter random Welcome Back Kotter reference...  ~~S

So then, while I'm stopped to take said picture of said snowmobile/shark sign, my bike falls over on my leg and this happens..... I mean, c'mon!
You have lipstick on your leg Sweetie?!?!  ~~S

We rode through Jamaica, where I didn't hear a single steel drum. I neglected to get a picture of it. I guess because I was still pouting from the leg hurtie. But here's their highway sign.  Cute, yes?
You were distracted by my Jamaican accent!  ~~S



A little after 5:00 pm we arrived in Dawson.
No Creeks to be found.... ~~S




We used the nice facilities in their depot and snapped a couple pictures of their historical artifacts.



The man said, "We'd better keep moving." So back in the saddle.
Keep them doggies rolling! ~~S

Saw some pretty wildflowers.


and some industrial rustic patina.





We rolled into Perry

.... past the colorful and funky community bike cooperative building, TRRIBE: The Raccoon River Innovative Bicycle Experience.  

And what to my wondering eyes did I find at the building right beside it? A trail-side garage sale? OMG. Be still my bike-riding, bargain-loving heart.






"Is this heaven? No, it's Iowa."

But as the sign on the building says: Iowa, you are a damn great place as far as this girl is concerned.

The trail diverts through downtown Perry .....

.... with clear markings painted on the sidewalks to guide you. And it's a good thing. Reference earlier directionally-challenged notation.
What?  That sign did not mean Rest and Relaxation for the VERY TIRED ahead?!?!? ~~S

This is the closest I've been to a wind turbine. Usually I see them from a distance speeding by on the interstate.  This picture in no way does it justice, but I'm amazed at how massive they actually are.


Baby snapping turtle hanging out on the trail! I moved him from the middle a little closer to the edge.
























We also saw:
Several leopard frogs
A muskrat
A killdeer
A fawn and its mother
Several indecisive squirrels
An equally indecisive rabbit
Luckily, we did not see the mountain lion that we read about on the Raccoon River Valley Trail Facebook page
 
We came to Minburn and filled up our water bottles from the cooler of ice water that The Nineteen 14 restaurant provided on their outside patio. I love the bicycle culture around here!

We got to Dallas Center about 7:45 and the sun was starting to cast long shadows.

Have I also mentioned the great, friendly people we have encountered while riding this trail? We chatted with several different groups of people at a couple of the trailheads.

At our brief break during our stop at the Dallas Center trailhead, we had a short conversation with a fellow rider. We explained we were up from Kansas just to ride this trail and we were now within 6 miles of completing the entire loop all in one day.  He said "Wow, I'm jealous. I want to do that someday. I live in Waukee and after getting home from work, feeding the kids and doing the chores, I'm just out for a short evening ride." And then we were the jealous ones. We can only dream of having a trail like this (smooth, wide, paved, mowed, maintained, utilized) outside the door of our house where we could just hop on our bikes for our short evening rides. Cherish it, lucky Iowans!

As we began the last 6.5 mile stretch back to our car, this is what the sky in front of us looked like. Gorgeous.

And as we crossed one of the last dirt roads, there was a bench and this cool bike art. When I turned around to take a picture of the sculpture, I saw the sunset that was at our backs.  #nofilter
That is one Awesome Picture there! ~~S

We arrived back to our car just after the sun slipped behind the horizon.

We gave each other a massive High 5 in somewhat stunned disbelief.  Did we seriously just do a 72-mile bike ride?  :)

 72 miles! Pretty much the equivalent of riding from our house to Topeka and back....  or riding from our house to Overland Park...  Wow! ~~S

 

Check out our fun video of our epic ride! 

Create Routes or Search for a route from millions at MapMyRide

 

Day 2 -- Saturday August 6, 2016 

Raccoon River Valley Trail
North Leg -- Herndon to Jefferson out and back

We parked at the Herndon trailhead, and had another conversation with two different groups of people while we got sunscreened and bug sprayed up, paid our daily $2 trail permits, and got set up to take our requisite starting-out-at-the-trailhead picture.  However, comes to find out, I didn't have the camera set to self-timer for a snapshot, it was set on video mode.  So, here's a really shitty resolution and crooked screen capture from the video footage.  Yep, that'll have to do. Makes you reach for your reading glasses, doesn't it?


One of the gentleman we talked to at the trailhead appeared to be a regular trail user.  Hell, he might have even been the guy subtly checking for trail permits, we don't know.  But we filled out our permit forms while we stood there talking to him, so we figure we were good.  Anyhoo, we when mentioned we were going to Jefferson, he said "Oh, the hilly part of the ride" and explained it goes down into the river valley before climbing back up into Jefferson. He also mentioned it's "the older part of the trail", which we were already aware of from comments left on TrailLink, which we had researched before coming to ride.  And he and the commenters were correct, this was by far the roughest part of the trail, with many asphalt cracks that we attempted to dodge (unsuccessfully) but still a worthy ride, if for no other reason to be able to say We Rode The Whole Thing.



Cooper was a fun place to stop for a break.



We learned that for the town centennial in 1981, Johnny Carson became their "honorary 51st citizen." And look, there's me reflected in the stone. I quite obviously left my (admittedly minimal on a good day) photography skills back at the hotel today.



We enjoyed taking a break at the picnic tables on the scales of the former co-op building.


The circular concrete pads where the grain bins used to be are kind of interesting. Maybe they attract very small space ships?  



On the downhill forested section leading to the river.
Look I am Glowing! ~~S

The old railroad trestle bridge over the North Raccoon River

With several wind chimes hanging from it. There's no way you'd have found me climbing up there to hang those things, though.  This girl doesn't do heights of any kind.

Rolling up to the Jefferson depot





Neat art mural of the depot on the building across the street (the lumbar yard I think it was?) ....

... bike garden art


... and scenes of small-town life painted on this little building at the entrance to the fairgrounds.


The history of the railroad and depot

We rode a block up the street to Casey's to get each of us 32 ounces of liquid sugar and caffeine and passed by this neat old gas station on the way.


We brought our drinks back to the shade and benches of the depot and just had our packets of trail mix and pop for lunch.

After rest, our questionable nourishment, and a bathroom break, we were ready to retrace our path back to our car. On the way back, we noticed two bikes hanging in a tree and on a pole that we had somehow both missed on the way by the first time.  LOL

We got back to our car and congratulated ourselves on riding every single inch of the Raccoon River Valley Trail over the span of two days.

For supper that night we ate at Tasty Tacos in Urbandale.
Tasty the Tacos were! The Nacho she had not so much! ~~S
(The nachos weren't "bad". She just prefers vegetables in her meals. She's not sure vegetables were even available anywhere on the menu.)

We then hit a couple of Goodwill stores because the woman of the group was looking for a purse to use a camera bag. Guess you never know what you're gonna find for sale at Goodwill.  I certainly never expected to find A CAR!!!
For only $5K this baby could be yours!  ~~S

Video of our Herndon to Jefferson ride! 

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Day 3 -- Sunday August 7, 2016 

Clive Greenbelt Trail

Today was the day to drive back home but before we did, Mister wanted to ride the section of the Clive Greenbelt Trail that serves as a connector between the short 2-mile Bill Riley Trail, which we had ridden in 2014, and the Raccoon River Trail. We got a 15-mile ride in this morning, bringing our total miles ridden over the 3 days to approximately 115 miles. 

I wasn't in a picture taking mood this morning, so here are the few that I got.

I love to see art while on my bike rides and this sculpture made of tools is really cool. It's apparently one of just many art pieces recently installed along the Clive Greenbelt as part of a project called Art Along The Trail.  I do love progressive places, all the more so because I don't live in one currently.

Video of our Clive Greenbelt ride! 

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Day 3 -- Sunday August 7, 2016 

The Bridges of Madison County

On the way home on I-35 he obliged me and took the exit so we could go see the bridges of Madison County. You know, because it's on The Ultimate USA Wonders List.

 

 

 Imes Bridge

 

 

 

 

Holliwell Bridge

 

 

 

 Cutler-Donahoe Bridge

 

You know, there's always gotta be a turf war...... LOL

 

 Cedar Bridge

Yeah they let you drive across this one so we did!  ~~S

Arson?! Seriously? What the hell is wrong with people?

 

Hogback Bridge

 

Yes, we wrote in the journal <3

 

Video of our visit to the bridges of Madison County.

Thanks Sweetie for writing all this up to document our Wonderful Anniversary Trip!  ~~S