Hikes and Travels

Departed Des Moines on Thursday for New Vienna; a small town, population 400, 5 miles north of Dyersville. Had dinner with my grandma and chatted until the ER came on, turns out she loves that show. Friday morning it was off to Dubuque to take Grandma in for surgery. Everything went well and we were back before dinner. The next morning it was 40 degrees and I was getting the itch for a hike at White Pine Hollow.

For those of those not familiar, White Pine Hollow is a 900-some-odd acre preserve in northeast Iowa. Absolutely beautiful and a pristine wilderness. I parked at the end of the gravel lane (definitely not able to call it a road) and proceeded into the woods. I noticed there were two other trucks in the lot and assumed them to be hunters, hunting allowed in certain parts of the park.

Seeing as the closest "busy" road is Highway 3, there isn't much noise pollution out here. The woods were just beginning to wake up and the sun peeking through the changing leaves. The only sounds audible was the crunching underfoot and the pitter-patter of dew drop sliding off of the leaves and dropping to the ground. If you stop and listen close enough you can here the graceful touch-down of a falling yellow maple leaf.

Not paying attention I startled 3 does and the took off through the woods. Light enough on their hooves that only a couple twigs snapped in the process.

After hiking for a couple hours I came across an elderly hunter struggling with his morning's kill. I offered a helpful hand and after a second asking the man was willing to let me drag and push his cart out of the woods for him. I realized we were traveling both north and west, my car was on the southern edge of the park, smack dab in the middle. I helped him load and he was kind enough to drive me around to his truck. He offered me some of the meat but said I was now leaving for Iowa City and told him he could always drop some off with my grandmother if he felt so inclined.

Sunday brought some cross racing excitement. We loaded up the Cutter van: 12 bikes, 2 extra wheel sets, 10 people, 1 cooler with over 60 beers, and a half a plate of brownies. In short we all raced, save for D-Quack who was the cheering team for us. I finished 3rd in the open and Carl had a great race with Vincent Price in the 3/4s race. Price put his road skills to use at the end to gap Carl at the finish, but I have to hand it to both of them for giving us a great race to watch.

Sorry my camera died in the middle of my hike so all the pictures from the race are on Brabbott's camera. I'll try to get some up in the next couple of days. For now, some pictures from the hike:




Thanks for stopping by and get out and enjoy this weather while the rain holds off.