High-Trestle!

After sending out a way last-minute email, I got a thumbs-up from Nathan and Sarah and the High-Trestle group night-ride was born. We wanted to see how the long bridge looked lit up, so we left Pella in about enough time to hit the Woodward trailhead around 8:30pm (I think?).

Leaving work, the car thermometer said 113°, which is partially due to heat-soak from the office building but still the highest number I've seen on there this year so far.

On the trail and moving in plenty of time. The stifling heat very rapidly gave way to cool breezes (which was about 85° at this point but it really felt that much better).

Timing perfection - we stopped to look around and the lights clicked on. I thought more of it would be lit but it's still pretty neat to ride through.

One of the most interesting folding bikes I've seen. The four-wheeled "kick-stand" was bizarre. I think the kick-stand turned into a rear cargo rack when you're in riding mode, I wasn't paying enough attention when they rolled up to find out.

Great views from up here. I'm sure it was great fun (or terrifying) to be in a train flying across what was probably a mostly wooden bridge back in the day.

We did bring some lights and they proved to be very necessary. Lots of people do high-speed training rides out here at night and you definitely want to be seen. I blinded lots of people with my (Corrine's) headlight and all four of us were complained at for lack of tail-lights.

This picture was taken shortly before we were semi-asphyxiated by anhydrous ammonia. We had made it to the second town after Woodward (I've forgotten its name) and were riding past a coop of some sort. A tanker truck filling smaller tanks was releasing a fair amount of product into the air and it was just kind of hanging around. I think we were well past the powerful smell stage and into the irritating effects stage. We turned around and rode back out of it. The group we met shortly after rode through it, but they were screaming a lot, so it was passable but not well.

Back on the bridge before arriving at the trailhead, the lights are extremely bright now. It was pretty great to ride though, a great finale to a great trip.

Riding High

Corrine and I snagged a great day on Saturday to check out the new High-Trestle Trail. We ate lunch at a cafe in downtown Woodward, then headed a whole block to the trail-head. Things started out a little overcast, but the sun was soon blazing down. We did about 18 miles as an out and back with 1,300ft. of accent. It's possible to do 50 miles on this trail if you start from one end.

The bridge. I assumed it would be built on/over the 1902 rail bridge, but it appears to be about 50-75ft. over to the side of where the original bridge was. You can still see the original concrete abutment on one end and I'm standing over it to take this photo.

Good views from the middle of the bridge, this is the tail end of Saylorville lake. Looking at a map, I'm guessing the river at this point would normally be about half this wide if there wasn't so much flood flow.

One of several old looking bridges we went under along the way. 

A neat little restaurant/bar right along the trail in Madrid.

One of the creek crossing bridges had a nice little rapid nearby. This would be a great pack-raft run with a nice sandy put-in and take-out. 

Waiting for ice cream at the Filling Station in downtown Madrid. 

I don't know what this grass is, but it looks like something that would work great for a landscaping hedge. It's about 6' high and looks fairly robust.

There were cars driving on top of this one. From the ground, it looked like the concrete on top is only about 1' thick. 

The valley is much more noticeable from this side. I didn't even realize what we were riding up to until the last minute when coming from Woodward.

Arriving at the train station in Woodward.

We went for a walk at Red-Rock on Sunday. This whole area would normally be a high overlook with a big drop-off to the water. It's just barely out of the water now. There were a bunch of the small blue butterflies that always seem to be on the sand near the lake. I'm sure they'll be happy that the water is on its way down.