Heritage Trail. Seg #4 4/18

Seg #4 Heritage Trail: 4/18 sm

Start	Dubuque, IA	N42:30:38.28 W90:39:27.28	N-S miles  3.5
End	Durango, IA	N 42:33:39.88 W90:46:14.92	Total miles 18

 

Mark at an unfinished trail

segment. This bridge was

being built but we were able to

negoiate the obstacle by riding

through the dirt trail on the other

side.

Back two or three years ago, I mentioned to my friend Mark that we needed to do some bicycling together but I didn’t say I had a cross country trip in mind. I am glad I didn’t say that because it took a lot of badgering to get him to even pull down his trusty Schwinn bicycle from its moorings in the garage. In addition, there were groans about a sore elbow and the English racer handle bars on the first ten speed bike in Bettendorf, Iowa. Yes Mark’s bike was and remains cool. It’s a classic!

After marrying off his oldest son Nate, I guess Mark decided he could handle this bike riding thing. And handle it he did. He more than kept up with me and didn’t complain one word. In fact he rode extra miles that I wasn’t planning to do. Mark and Donna are dear friends that have common interests to Connie and me. Mark was a housemate of mine at the State College of Iowa, now known as the University of Northern Iowa and our best man. We both got summer jobs with the US Forest Service the summer of 1966. This was the second summer for me fighting forest fires but instead of a twelve man crew with the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, Amboy, Washington, the summer of ’66 was working on a 25 man hot shot crew out of the Deschutes National Forest in Redmond, Oregon. Mark had a fire suppression job with the Umpqua National Forest at Diamond Lake, just north of Crater Lake. To get out west we drove my beater 1955 Chevy all the way. How we made it one piece was a feat in itself. My car had a history of having been in a fire so the wiring was really screwed up; to the tune it caused the engine to shut down at inopportune times or the lights would go off while negotiating treacherous roads. One of many examples of 55 Chevy thrills was a midnight run through Death Valley. I figured if we drove late at night, we could escape the hundred plus degree desert heat. The road was a roller coaster from the git go. It twisted and turned more than an amusement park ride. When I would take a tight turn and drop in the dip of the roller coaster, the lights would pop off. It was exciting but stressful. The good thing was we rarely saw another car. Once we got out of the valley, we drove to San Francisco. We looked for a place to park and catch some zzz’s. That wasn’t a very good idea according to the officer that pulled up with his lights flashing. So we thanked the cop and continued our drive to Yosemite National Park. After taking in the scenery, we located a camp site. Mark decided to sleep on the ground with his sleeping bag. I just leaned the driver’s seat back and crashed and burned. About one in the morning I heard some clanging around. A flashlight beam exposed the culprits, five or six bears in a garbage dumpster. Mark wasn’t concerned even though they were only a twenty yards away. He agreed to sleep on the back seat and I took the front seat. That is a little bit about Mark. At another time I will talk about his Sunfish sailboat and Connie’s panicked “swim” in the Mississippi River.



We climbed over the plastic fencing
at the other end of this tunnel but this
4 ft. cattle fence was a bit of a
challenge especially with a
sprained wrist.



Our ride on the Heritage Trail went smoothly. There were quite a few bikers and their families on the trail for a Sunday afternoon. Because I am anal about not riding roads, we decided we would ride some unfinished trail segments so I would not break the rules. 

As the picture shows, we were challenged to get through barriers inserted to clear Dubuque County of liability if someone got hurt riding unfinished trail. At the end of the ride, we asked another bicyclist to take our picture. In my haste, I dumped my loose items on the trunk of the car. After the picture was taken, we left for Mark’s house. When we were unloading our bikes, my cell phone rang. It appeared my grandson was calling so I said, “Hello Ian buddy.” “How are you doing?” There was a long pause and then a lady said, “Is this Glenn Maze?” “Yes,” I said. “Well I found your wallet in the middle of highway 52!” “Holy cow,” I said. “I must have left it on my trunk when we had our picture taken”. There are honorable people in this world and I am so happy she was the one that found it.

Although this picture of Mark and me was taken before the
recovery of the lost wallet, I was smiling even more when
I got the call from a first-class Good Samaritan