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.