June 26, 2021
Day 20: Van Meter, IA to Grinnell, IA
I left Andy & Amy’s place and headed to a breakfast place Andy had recommended. The weather was somewhere between heavy mist and light rain, and I was soaked when I arrived 8 miles later.
The breakfast was really good though (french toast), and just as I left, the rain stopped, so I began heading through suburban Des Moines.
Des Moines has a really beautiful and extensive network of bike trails. Within a few miles of breakfast I was on quiet car-free pathways that ran along creeks and rivers. This one was clearly a rail-to-trail conversion, but it made for fast riding!
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The trails kept coming – thankfully I had turn-by-turn directions or I would have gotten lost! Here’s a pretty creek I crossed:
I had no idea I was close to downtown Des Moines, until it appeared, along with the state capitol.
I took a connector trail past downtown, and then found myself on another trail that took me north.
The whole experience was impressive. Des Moines is apparently exploding in all directions, but even with all the new growth, they appear to be expanding their trail network to keep up. I wish more cities would do this! Des Moines metro area is smaller than Omaha’s but their trails are way better!
The rest of the ride was far less interesting. Back to cornfields, and the wind got more blustery along with occasional light rain. I couldn’t get dry all day! I even hit a dirt road at one point and almost lost it, but found that the 3 miles of dirt led back to Hwy 6, and that took me to Grinnell.
I checked into Hotel Grinnell about 3:30. It’s a cool place that used to be a middle school. It’s quite full tonight as there is a wedding – hopefully the other guests will let me sleep!
No one track stood out today, so I’ll just go with the one that was playing as I got to Grinnell: “Sisyphus” by Andrew Bird. Sometimes these Iowa hills seem a bit Sisyphean to me, but I am actually making progress…
Today's ride: 77 miles (124 km)
Total: 1,017 miles (1,637 km)
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