Day 112 - ending at Clermont, IA - The Great Plains Trail - Sort Of

September 3, 2023

Day 112 - ending at Clermont, IA

A note: My apologies for not keeping up with timely postings this last week of my trip. I'd gotten behind and would have had to take a day off to get caught up. But I was anxious to get home, so just kept riding instead of writing. I'm home now and will get the rest of the days posted as soon as I can. Here's the first one:

Day 112 - Kendallville, IA to Clermont, IA

Heart

Comment

Link

Woke up to the 4:00am alarm I set last night. It was pleasant overnight and this early morning. Worked on "evening report", getting it sent out at just before 8:00am. Then worked some on picture selection before packing up. I left my campsite at 9:48am, stopping at the camp office after getting up the hill. I was surprised to see Dave working this morning, considering he worked until 10:00pm last night. He used to milk 100 cows by himself when the campground was just a farm, so he knows how to handle long hours. He gave me ice for my thermos and a free Keurig coffee to go with the other items I'd selected for breakfast. He totaled my tab so I could make just one payment. I took my coffee and breakfast outside to the picnic table I was at yesterday evening. In the shade with the breeze blowing, I could sit there all day. I did sit for a while after breakfast, using the camp's wifi to get yesterday's report posted. Dave wished me dry weather this coming week on my way home, even though they need rain badly here. The nearby river is so low they've had to suspend canoeing and kayaking. I finally left the campground at 11:02am.

Skip-A-Way Campground and Resort in Clermont, Iowa is where I wanted to be this evening. I've stayed there before - during my 2010 bicycle trip. Today's routing is IA-139 to Cresco, where there's a trail that goes to Calmar. From there, south on IA-150, then east on CR-B40 to Clermont. I had it figured as 49 miles. I was starting late for a day that long.

There were a couple of miles riding on gravel roads to get from the campground to highway IA-139. The wind was blowing from the southwest, which wasn't a help today. But at the speed I go on gravel roads, the wind direction mostly just determines whether or not I'll be in the cloud of dust when vehicles pass. I made it to the highway at 11:35am, and passed through Kendallville 5 minutes later.

I pulled over to write down today's noon mileage: 4.9 miles, thanks to another late morning start.

I arrived in Cresco by-way-of 95th Street at the northeast side of town. I stopped when I got to Sue-Z-Q's restaurant at 1:00pm. Time for lunch. I ordered breakfast food - the Farmers Special. I added a butterscotch sundae later. As I was leaving I overheard a worker there tell a group that had just walked in that they'd be closing in 10 minutes. I've noticed a lot of restaurants that serve just breakfast and lunch close at 2:00pm.

I left Sue-Z-Q's at 1:53pm, crossing the highway and heading east looking for the start of the Prairie Farmer Recreational Trail. Eventually, I looked to my left and saw that the trail was on the north side of the road, and I'd already passed the start of it. About a mile east of town, the trail crosses over highway IA-9 and goes more southeast. The trail was concrete for a while, then asphalt. Pleasant riding through tree-shaded areas and open-view areas.

At 3:05pm I went through the small town of Ridgeway. I had difficulties connecting backup with the trail on the east side of town. With help from a resident I was back on-route, heading toward Calmar. I parked the bike at one point to take a picture. The bike fell over when I wasn't looking. Turns out I parked on a new patch of asphalt, and the bike's kickstands had sunk into it. Well, there's a lesson learned.

I was at the end of the Prairie Farmer Trail when I got to the middle of Calmar at 4:55pm. I turned right onto IA-150 heading south. I still had a ways to go. I passed through Festina before crossing into Fayette County at 6:17pm. Seeing the Fayette County sign reminded me of the line from the movie "The Straight Story" - "She makes the best brownies in Fayette County." At 6:28pm, I turned east on CR-B40. The road sign showed it as "Great River Road". This road would get me to a trail that goes into Clermont. I had about 12 miles to go. I was expecting a road that follows a river to be flat, but it didn't always follow the river, and it definitely wasn't flat. There were pleasant views however, with the sun getting ready to set.

After sunset I turned on my flashers, though there really wasn't much traffic on the road. There were some construction barricades on the road to get around. Concrete patches were replacing bad sections of the road and there were lanes shut down at several places. I came to the bike trail which had a sign saying it was closed. But in the dark it looked like a better riding option to me than the road. So I went around the barricade and promptly fell over on the bike when I hit a patch of dirt. I landed on a pile of dirt, not hurt at all. But my left foot was stuck under the rear basket of the bike and I couldn't pull it out. I finally figured out that I'd have to lift the bike a little. That worked. Of course, one of the few cars on the road came by then, and the driver asked if I was OK. After all that, I decided I should actually be riding on the road and obeying "Trail Closed" signs.

Eventually, at 8:24 pm, I arrived at highway IA-18, at the bottom of the hill shown in the movie "The Straight Story". The entrance to Skip-A-Way Campground is just across the highway. Kids were running all around inside the campground as I made my way slowly to the camp office. They had a few tent-only camping spots available. It took a while for the check-in though, because their computer system wasn't set up to register a tent camper who hadn't made reservations ahead of time. In the dark, it took me a while to figure out exactly where my tent site was, even though I was given very good directions. I got set up using my headlamp to see. I decided I was hungry enough to eat supper, so selected items out of my lunch bag for that. This site doesn't have electricity, so I used the power pack I received from the camper back in Powers Lake, North Dakota to charge my cell phone. I found that more convenient than running the 12 volt extension cord from my bike into the tent. I worked some on the evening report, but went to bed at 11:20pm, before it was done.

Jeff

Spent: $7.17 (breakfast items, Gatorade) + $13.89 plus $4 (lunch) + $20.80 (campsite) = $45.86