City Ride

Yesterday we decided to go on a short bike ride starting from our apartment. We went to Greenwood Park and connected on the trails there heading west. It total it was only about 10 miles but it was chalk-full of hills!! Near our dwelling there are hills in every direction so getting to Greenwood and coming back from it is tough! For those of you who live in/ been to DSM you know that west of downtown near Grand and Locust is hilly. And if you are doing anything on these hills beside driving and walking it is quite tiring. This workout was short but bitter.  We haven't done too many hilly trails so we were not ready for them. 

The best part about our little bike ride was the fact that it was hot and sunny out so we got to work on our tans a little ;). So I guess we are still out of shape, but the summer is young! We have many more trails to hit up and places to see. So stay tuned for more bike blog entries and summer fun! Thanks for reading!

We're Back!!! Linn Creek Greenbelt Trail

Hey everyone! We finally got our bikes fixed after the winter and it's time to start riding again!

Halfway Point

Our first trail this year was the Linn Creek Greenbelt out of Marshalltown.  This was one of the easier ones to find.  It's a fairly flat trail with a few little hills and curves.  It starts on the outskirts of town at the Grimes Farm and Conservation area and winds into the city to end at Riverview Park.  From start to finish we went through a series of environments.  It starts off wooded, then the city, then goes through Nicholson-Ford Recreation Park,  and finally ending at another park along the river. The beginning of the ride was really pretty with a lot of rolling hills and water.  The middle of the ride was sketchy. The trail took us along a lot of warehouses that took away from the nice scenery.
The trail was about 17 miles roundtrip.




This wasn't one of our favorite trails we've done yet but it was a great one to start up on.  The changing environments really kept us interested and there were plenty of people to wave at along the way.  The biggest downfall to this trail was the enormous amount of bugs/gnats! Other than the sketch parts and the gnats it was a good ride!

Start point

Creepy warehouse

Summerset Trail

So sorry it's been a while since we have made an entry. We have been focusing on trailing for the Des Moines half marathon in October. We are super excited to do that together. We will be running it with our friends Andrew and Danielle as well! YAY for exercise! It also is Kathryn and my first half marathon so that's exciting!

The other day we did take a break from the running and went on a bike ride on a beautiful and rural trail that begins near the Casey's Gas station off of the main road in Carisle.  This trail is very flat but it flirts between open farmland and woods as you travel South towards Indianola where the trail ends.  One way the trail is 11 miles.  The best part about this trail is that the miles and half miles are clearly marked throughout the entire trail.  The parking was also easy to find and there were plenty of spaces.  This also was the easiest trail head to find.

On the evening that we took this ride it was a cool 68 degrees and windy so a light jacket was almost needed. Our way out was warmer and more eventful than the way back.  In the middle of the trail, a few miles in, a giant prairie snake was in the middle of the path. It was literally jumping to get out of the way fast enough. At first I thought it was rope but as we got close it frantically hopped and slithered and hissed away from us. I was so shocked that I could just barely stop in time. As soon as I stopped it took a suicidal leap through the fence just next to the trail and into the tall grasses below. We seriously thought it was going to stop and snap up at us. FREAKY! But we kept going.  We passed a DNR nature reserve and what we thought was a small shooting range, houses, farms, sketchy "chainsaw massacre-type" house/farm that we quickly pedaled through and turned around once we hit 7 miles.  On the way back there weren't any snakes or odd encounters and we were chasing the setting sun as the wind bit our ears. Luckily we turned around in time before the sun set too low.  At this point we were super hungry and tired.  We both felt out of biking shape after such a long pause but at the same time the ride felt good.

Iowa City Metro Trails

Well I'm a little confused as to which trail this actually was.  I think we did part of the Auburn Hills trail.  I (Kathryn) did one part of this the other night with Katie and then the other direction tonight with Austin.  The part with Katie was nice and took us into North Liberty.  We connected to the trail just from the house which was kind of scary because we were on some busy streets.  The trail itself was nice.  It was a little too open for me but it was fairly flat with some small hills.  The portion I did with Austin had a lot of hills, maybe they just seemed worse after doing those crazy ones yesterday, my legs need a break.  We ran into a lot of bugs so that was annoying but other than that I really liked it.  We took it from the house down towards IC and ended at the water treatment plant.

With Austin on the Iowa River

As far as I can tell from the trail we took we could have connected onto a lot of different trails in the area.  We rode right by the Coralville Damn and over a bridge on the Iowa River.  The trail was mostly just a wide sidewalk but it was big enough to ride two across and enjoy it.  Overall it was a nice trail to take on an easy ride and just hang out.

Duck Creek Parkway and Riverfront Trail

Trail Map

Today I (Kathryn) had 2 guest riders, Danielle and Katie.  We biked on a small portion of the Duck Creek Parkway and then the Riverfront Trail in Bettendorf.  The route to get to the trails killed me.  We decided to make it an out and back ride and the out portion was mostly downhill.  Riding back had some good hills but the bitches came at the end.  Talk about killers.  The trail for the most part was really nice though.  It was wide enough to share with other riders and runners.  The majority of that part was on right along the main roads.  About 5 miles out we hooked up with the Duck Creek trail which ran right next to the water.  It was beautiful.  Then we took a portion to the Riverfront which had an amazing view of the Mississippi river.  I really enjoyed this trail when my legs weren't dying from pedaling.  I would love to go out more on the Mississippi to see where that trail would take us.  Maybe next time. 

Danielle and Katie share their thoughts:

While on this trail, I had an out of body experience in which I flew to the moon and watched the three of us bike from the most beautiful vantage point that I could ever imagine.  I felt so close to the stars that I could have reached out and touched them but I didn't because they are made of plasma and did not want to incinerate my hand.  Anyways, as I sat watching us traverse the rolling hills, I discovered who I am.  Just a small insignificant part of  a large complicated world.  Nothing that I do will change anything about the world but it is still important that I do it for reasons I cannot comprehend.  Once I came down from the shrooms, we were almost home.  Great ride.

Danielle and Katie by the Mississippi

I very much stayed inside my body while on this trail, using my feet to pedal, my mouth to talk to Danielle and Kathryn, and my head think about ice cream. As my skin soaked in the cool breeze and my eyes the refreshing scenery, I wished I could stay in that state of being forever...but maybe one day eat some ice cream. 

East River Trail

I couldn't find a trail map so this is at least where we started

Old picture with my dad for Father's Day

So I'm (Kathryn) going to take a stab at writing one of these guys.  For Fathers Day I went with my dad on the East River Trail.  We started at the Birdland Marina near the north trailhead at McHenry Park.  From there we took it north towards the Neal Smith Trail.  I really enjoyed riding this one.  The beginning takes you right along the river and back behind the North football stadium.  You continue that direction and head past the old Riverview amusement park.  As soon as you get by that you're in some really nice wooded areas.  The trail wasn't busy at all which made it nice for easy riding and just enjoying being outside.  Throughout the ride we would break out of the woods and have a nice view of the river.  We took it about 6 miles out towards Merle Hay and decided to turn around.  As of now this was probably my favorite trail.  The scenery was perfect and being in the woods kept us shaded enough that we didn't get overheated which was nice because it was a scorcher.  As far as I could tell there were hardly and bugs but I'm sure if Hil was out there she would have swallowed a few.


This trail is in our book but it's some what outdated so the portion that we were on was only marked as a future development in it.  We could have started going south and that would have taken us to University and towards the Botanical Center.  Once past that it would continue through town and ended at Hawthorn Park.

Jordan Creek Trail

 The trail is in West Des Moines and is 15.5 miles long.  The Jordan Creek Trail is located in West Des Moines and is named for the creek that runs along large sections of it.  The trail traverses wooded and open ares that are home to a variety of plant and animal species.  A new trail extension circles the 230-acre lake in Raccoon River Park.  The 632-acre park also boasts a nature lodge, softball complex, beach and picnic area.  Future plans involve connecting the Jordan Creek Trail to the Clive, Windsor Heights and Des Moines trail system.

Well lets just say that it wasn't what we expected or anticipated. We started at a trail head, according to our book, at a park off of Vista Drive near the intersection of 60th and Ashworth.  We parked and then found no sign of a trail so we headed south on the sidewalks.  Eventually the sidewalk became wider as if it was an actual bike path.  Little did we know at this point we were on a short trail call the Ashworth Trail that would eventually connect us to the Jordan Creek Trail.  When we found ourselves at the Jordan Creek Park there were a few different directions we could go in.  So we chose our first route to go over I-35 but we were abruptly stopped due to the Interstate's current construction.  So we turned around, snapped a quick photo of Lynnea on one of the few trail signs and went back to our crossroad.

This time we headed East.  We figured this would lead us to another part of the Jordan Creek Trail.  After a short while it actually did connect us to it but, of course, we headed in (we're guessing) the wrong direction.  After a while of biking we found ourselves near the Super Target just off of I-35 and Mills Civic Parkway.  We were not lost because we knew where we were but we were lost trail-wise.  There were no signs, no trail mileage posts, nothing. So we biked back along Prairie View Drive to connect to our crossroad again at E.P True Parkway/Jordan Creek Park.  At this point we had decided to just go back where we came from as we were feeling slightly defeated and frustrated by not being able to find and stay on the trail.  On our way back our path near the road had a split and instead of heading North on 60th we stayed on the path, which ended up being a part of the Jordan Creek Trail.  So we took this out to the Jordan Creek Mall and turned North on Jordan Creek Parkway.  At this point this road was an uphill the entire time.  We turned East on Ashworth for some flat rest, but only for a while.  There was another large hill and we were almost there! We had to stop at QT to fill my back tire, which was flat the entire ride and getting worse. Once we did that we went North on 60th, turned East on Vista Drive and we were done.

We only biked 9.28 miles, but at least there were some good hills to give us a workout.  So as you can see from our journey and when you compare our route to the trail map, we were hardly ever on in.  We were only on the Jordan Creek Trail for about a total of 3.5 miles or a little more.  It was frustrating because the trail was only marked every once in a while and because of the construction on I-35 we could not connect with the other half of the trail.  It was very disappointing.  So if anyone reading this wants to do this trail you should park at the Raccoon River Park and do that portion of the trail down there.

Trail map: http://www.wdm-ia.com/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=297