Traversing America Latitude by Latitude: Border to Border via Trails: Seg #6 Neal Smith & High Trestle Trails 9/16

Seg #6 Neal Smith/High Trestle Bridge Trail: 9/16 sm

Start	DesMoines, IA	N41.591780 W93.618614	N-S miles 8*
End	Saylorville Dam	N 41.707288 W93:671210	Trail lgth26mi Ride 12mi

Start	Madrid, IA	N41.871021 W93.849530	N-S miles 1*
End	Woodward, IA	N 41.858704 W93:921294	Trail lgth25mi Ride 4mi

Neal Smith Trail 26 miles

Today’s ride (10/4/12) was another brother trip, with bike animal Don taking the lead. Don has ridden his bike nearly every day since retiring so he has accumulated over 20,000 miles riding primarily in Marshalltown, Iowa and Austin Texas. This does not properly credit him for pre-retirement miles which likely were 15-20K miles riding to work, RAGBRI, etc. Therefore he should be anointed with official title, “Bike Animal” of the Maze Clan. Don and I decided to do a couple trails this time. First, the Neal Smith Trail that gave me eight miles of latitude and second a route called the High Trestle Trail would give me a thrill peddling across one of the highest, if not the highest bike trail in the in America. BUT, I am not good with heights. You would think I would have conquered any semblance of acrophobia after completing a trek to Mt. Everest Base Camp in 2005. In Nepal the foot bridges that cross rivers are extremely creepy. Holes made by yaks dislodging loose planks are scary enough to grow hair on your teeth. But then add the swaying motion of these cabled swings as man and animal trudge across, swaying even if there is no wind, the 200-300 foot drop to the rivers below is ominous to say the least. Just as I did in Nepal, the crossing the High Trestle Bridge required a straight ahead look.

Glenn riding into the sunset on a 13 story high

bridge. The architecture suggests a coal mine

shaft. Once there was considerable soft coal

in this region of Iowa. High sulfur levels led

to mining extinction.

If the wind had not been so strong, I think it would have been a bit more fun for me. The bridge is designed to give the allusion of a mine shaft which is even more impressive at night when the bridge is lit with blue LEDs.

More can be found about the High Trestle Bridge by following this address: http://www.railstotrails.org/ resources/documents/magazine/ 2012_Spring-ummer_Destination.pdf

When the Chicago, Milwaukee & St, Paul Railroad first built tracks through this area in 1881, the route down through Des Moines River valley floor and across the river involved steep curves---a treacherous journey for rail cars. Trains had to steam down one side to pick up enough speed to climb back up the other. Train wrecks were common, so in 1912, the railroad built a long span high trestle bridge across the top of the valley. In 2003 the Union Pacific abandoned the tracks and bridge leading to a state of the art bicycle trail.

The Neal Smith Trail was a smooth ride except for a chilly headwind. Thank goodness there were plenty of trees to block a lot of it. About five miles north of Des Moines, two bikers had stopped on the trail to watch a fire burning a few downed trees and threatening a live tree. This situation did not look right. It likely was set on purpose for no reason than to be a pyromainac but it was too hot to try to put it out without water. The bikers had called 911. My experience as a forest fire fighter the summers of 1965 and 1966, told me that the fire needed extinguishing but it was not a serious threat. So off we went riding to the Saylorville dam.