the horns of ames

Cornerstone Bike Trip 4.11

So the highly anticipated Cornerstone Bike Trip 4.11 (it's the 4th ride of its kind and 4.11 is derived from Revelation 4:11) was a big success. I have posted pictures to the Photo Album and will continue to do so as David and Brad send me the ones they took.

We took off Friday at 3:30pm 2 guys short. Two new guys on the trip were Kurt and Tyler. Besides them, we had David, Nate, Doug, Todd, Mike, and myself. We had about 200 miles to cover to get to Pike's Peak state park near McGregor, Iowa. We had a good ride, but it was pretty warm. We had to have seen around a dozen deer. We didn't take the direct route; we pretty much went scenic the entire way so it took slightly over 5 hours. At Pike's Peak we met up with Brad and Doug. As we all sat there greeting each other, a very (rightfully so) concerned looking Park Ranger came up to greet us. We asked him about the facilities and he took the opportunity to share that there was another private campground close by that we might also enjoy. We took the hint and checked it out. It was called Paradise Valley and had a lake you could swim in (none of us did) and a nice park for kids/myself. :-)

We rolled into Paradise Valley around 9pm, and the guy let us all stay in one site for $11. He even delivered a batch of firewood for $5. The guys setup camp (including putting up my tent) while Doug, Nate, Brad and I went into Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin to Super Walmart for food. Here's where the trailer is no longer dorky. We loaded it up with dinner and breakfast for the next morning. By the time we got back, it was 11pm. Everyone turned in around 12:30am or so.

Tyler asked to sleep in my 3 person tent with me, which I said was perfectly fine. I had agreed to this before realizing that Tyler can snore louder than a grizzly and has one way conversations in his sleep. I laid there and was just about to doze off when Tyler says, "And then there were 5 of them!" I asked him what he was talking about and realized he was fast asleep. Around 1am I heard discussions coming from outside my tent among David, Nate, and Doug about heading into Walmart to buy tents because they were being eaten alive by mosquitoes (even despite the DEET which they seemed to be licking off their faces.) I jumped out of the tent ready for some more riding since 8 hours hadn't been enough and even Brad joined us. Two of the guys were waiting for us at the bottom of the hill and when David saw 3 more bikes heading down, he said "Look, there's 5 of us," which is believed to be the fulfillment of Tyler's sleeping prophecy. ;-)

After buying 6 ft junior tents at Walmart in Prairie du Chien, we decided we weren't ready to go back yet, so we did some cruising around Wisconsin and North East Iowa. After 2 hours and 65 miles of nearly being hit by deer, nearly being hit by a car since we were stopped on the middle of a bridge, attempted burnouts, no handed stunts through town, and all around way too fast driving, we decided to head back to camp and get some sleep. When we got there, Mike (aka Chicken Little) was claiming the end of the world was at hand due to the lightning coming from both the East and the West. He setup an elaborate tent from a picnic table and his tarp to protect his gear, all the while claiming that we were all about to die from the impending storm. His paranoia was great entertainment for the rest of us. The tents were a bit on the small side, but kept the bugs out of the guys' ears. Sometime in the middle of the night, I woke up to see Mike laying in the tent with Tyler and I, which was definitely a good move on his part since it rained for hours, even raining a little while we were trying to pack up Saturday morning.

Due to the rain, we overtook a shelter at Paradise Valley and found a grill with propane to cook our breakfast with. Nate and David prepared an excellent meal of bacon, eggs, pancakes, and Ruffles potato chips. We took off from Paradise Valley (nice place, I'd recommend it to anyone traveling through that area) around 10am and started our drive down the Great River Road through Dubuque and other Eastern Iowa towns down the Mississippi. I think we saw corn more often than we saw the river, but it was nice and scenic either way. We stopped in Dubuque and checked out the Lock and Dam Number 11, then ate lunch at Wendy's. We eventually made our way to Maquoketa, Iowa.

We checked out Maquoketa Caves State Park and were followed into the park by a Park Ranger who wanted to make sure we knew the rules of the park before unpacking our gear. Quiet time was enforced at 10:30pm and there was only 1 tent allowed per campsite (no exceptions.) Much like the Pike's Peak Ranger, he graciously offered another campsite which was a City site in Maquoketa. Brad, David, Nate, Mike, Doug, and I hung out and reserved our campsite while Wally, Kurt, and Tyler went into town to check out the site there. Turns out it was an awesome site and we were the only ones there. We setup camp and then set off for the caves. We searched for the elusive Ice Cave for hours, then found out that we had already been in it, but it wasn't marked. We also were looking for a cave that you had to swim under some water to come to a big open room. That turned out to be myth, since Ice Cave was just simply a cave that was very, very cold (a nice place to hang out when you've been running/climbing in high heat and humidity.) We came back to the camp and made supper and participated in the best part of the trip: fellowship. I think the last of us went to bed around 1:30am or so and we were up and eating breakfast by 7am. We wanted to head out ASAP Sunday morning since we knew the heat (forecasted to be 101 in Maquoketa that day) was coming and we didn't really want to be driving in it.

We took some good scenic roads back, but after Cedar Rapids it got a little too scenic. Somehow we ended up driving on countless miles of gravel road before finally ending up back on pavement. We found old 30 and made a straight shot back home from there. I couldn't stand the dust, so I took my bike and trailer through a do-it-yourself car wash. That was where we got our only picture of everyone lined up together. We pulled into Ames somewhere around 1pm on Sunday where I'm sure most people's first stop was their shower. My suggestion to all of the guys that were crying about their sore rear ends: Mustang Seats.

The next trip is scheduled for September 9th-11th. I can't wait!

posted by Aaron @ www.HornIT.net @ 10:04 AM