May 12, 2020
Hickory Grove Park
Today I cycled out to Hickory Grove Park, located about 20 miles east of Ames. It turned out to be a mostly uninspiring outing, one that felt like one of those days on tour where you are riding just to get somewhere. I’m about a week behind in my posting, so I’ll try to keep this entry on the short side.
The day was cool and a bit overcast. I headed out from home, taking my usual route to the east side of town before heading south toward the Lincoln Highway. On the way, I was stopped by one of the more than 90 freight trains that pass through Ames each day. (Sadly, there are no passenger trains using these tracks.)
I normally don’t ride roads as busy as the Lincoln Highway, but this is one of the few paved east-west options out of Ames and there is a good shoulder. The stretch east of Ames is dominated by a large complex of biofuel plants and grain elevators. A number of biofuel industries are attracted to Ames/ Story County due in part to the abundance of agricultural products, rail transportation and the support of state and local governments. The development of new technologies for converting cellulose to ethanol promised to transform the biofuels industry, but these promises have been largely unmet - due to the confluence of technical challenges and a political landscape that greatly favors oil and coal industries.
A large stone sign welcomed me to Nevada (pronounced Nuh-VAY-Dah), which in 1853 was selected as the seat of Story County based on its location in the center of the county. At the time, Nevada was also the population center of the county but it has long since ceded that distinction to Ames. Nevada sits at the intersection of two transcontinental highways constructed in the early 20th century: the Lincoln Highway (running east-west from New York City to San Francisco) and the Jefferson Highway (running north-south from Winnipeg, Manitoba to New Orleans). The town takes great pride in this fact and holds an annual festival to commemorate the highways. Today, the town was in the process of getting a new main street and I didn’t linger before moving on to Hickory Grove Park.
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The Lincoln Highway continues east from Nevada, but the shoulder does not. There was little traffic though, so my anxiety level was low. Nonetheless, I had already decided on a backroads route to Hickory Park. About a mile out of town, I turned south on county highway S27 then east on a gravel road that took me into the park. The 445-acre park was closed for Covid and the 98-acre lake was currently undergoing a “lake restoration project” – one which involves draining and removal of the common carp that disrupt the normal ecosystem of the lake. I cycled past the road closed barrier and stopped for lunch at picnic table overlooking the partially filled lake. A chill breeze was blowing off the lake and after quickly downing my sandwich I headed off to explore a bit. As the broken-concrete roadway gave way to crushed gravel, there was an overall sense of sadness, of a park that had seen better days. It may have the gray skies, the chill in the air, the pandemic closure, or the half-drained lake but it felt like a park out of synch with both man and nature. Even the geese seemed to have lost their way – wandering about in a muddy field.
I shortened my planned route around the park, and headed south on a gravel road. My plan was to work my way back west, looping south of Nevada and up to Ames on a mix of gravel and paved roads. However, my route west turned out to be a Class B road, one of those maintenance-free paths of thrills and adventure. Not today. I continued south and devised an alternate route that turned out to be the most delightful riding of the day, zig-zagging north and west through a rolling landscape of fields and pasture. By the time I found myself back on S27, the westerly winds had pick up and I opted for the most direct way back home – via the Lincoln Highway.
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Today's ride: 41 miles (66 km)
Total: 518 miles (834 km)
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