High Trestle Trail: A ride and a look at the bridge

     Memorial Day 2010 brought perfect riding weather -- warm, sunny and no big wind -- so Diane and I loaded our bikes on the car and drove to Slater, IA to check out the newly-named High Trestle Trail.  The stretch from Slater to Madrid is about as nice a trail ride as any cyclist could ask for -- great Iowa scenery (part open, part wooded) on brand new, smooth concrete.  The summer wildflowers were beginning to bloom and there's an abundance of native wildlife that hasn't been scared off by the bike traffic.

After the usual pre-ride ablutions ("It should NOT take this much work just to get a racktrunk to go on this bike!") we were off down the trail.





As this photo (right) shows, it is NOT all about cornfields and grain elevators.  About half of the stretch between Slater and Madrid is in woods.

One really nice feature (above) we haven't seen on other bike trails are the "location posts" spaced about every quarter mile.  Each post is numbered and has a "Call 911 in an emergency" reminder.  In the event of trouble, a cyclist need only dial 911 and give the number of the nearest post to bring help to where it's needed.  Sure hope we never have to use one of those numbers, but it's nice to know they're there. A few miles farther on, Diane crossed a bridge and parked her bike, then waited for me to catch up (below)..

    The trail is new, well-built and a real pleasure to ride.  We passed many other riders (and saw several friends) -- it's great to see it used so much, even though the whole thing isn't open yet.
      

A neat little rest stop (right) at a shady spot along the trail features benches, a bike rack and horse hitching posts installed by a local Boy Scout troop.  Three or four miles farther we rolled into Madrid, which will no doubt become an important stop on the High Trestle Trail.  Madrid boasts two convenience stores and will eventually build a trailhead with parking, restrooms and water available.  For now, however, this is as good as the trailhead gets.  Thank goodness for that Big Blue Beauty!

     After the return ride to Slater, we were curious about progress on the "high point" of the High Trestle Trail, the still-under-construction bridge across the Des Moines River.  As I reported in an earlier post (April 11) on this blog, the bridge floor spent most of last summer and fall slowly making its way across the river, and we observed its progress only from the highway.  With the span now complete, I wondered how close to being "ride ready" it is, and decided to do a little investigating.  The bridge crosses the river between Madrid and the next town on the trail, Woodward, so we drove a few miles of gravel roads until we found the construction entrance to the site.

The road was too rough for our road bikes, so we hiked past the "Road Closed" sign.  (Diane does NOT recommend doing this in cycling shoes, however).
 It was about a mile (or maybe it was 10 -- a long ways, anyway) before we began to see signs of work in progress, including what must have been the two construction cranes we had watched from the highway all last year as they moved sections of bridge into place.

We finally found what we were looking for, and only had to step over this forklift (right) to walk  onto the concrete bridge deck and look across the very wide river.  We don't recommend this when the constructions crews are at work.

    


 (Left) The bridge is complete, all the way across, but there is clearly a lot more to be done.  Railings are currently temporary and there are signs of extensive electrical work in progress.  Current press on the trail reports that it will be lit at night, and we saw the rough-ins for lamp posts as well as surface-level lighting, electric outlets and curbings.

.       The view (right) from the bridge was amazing.  This photo looks toward the highway bridge where we photographed the High Trestle Bridge last spring (see earlier post).  Even though it isn't finished yet (current estimate is for a 2011 opening) it looks mighty fine from here!