CR Biker: In Which Summer Rides Bring Mixed Surprises

Surprise! We'll put in a major bike trail all the way through our town and then tell you that you can't ride on part of it! Wacky fun. My bike on trail across the street from Marion's new Central Plaza.

Well, biker pals, May was my final month as a professor at Mount Mercy University, as I retired from my professional career. In May, I was biking to work more consistently then before, so I had more time on the bike and rode more miles in May—but, what with the end of my career and the busyness associated with a new life phase, I had less time to devote to posting on this blog.

The past few weeks of bicycling have been an interesting time. I still have a follow-up heart procedure scheduled in July due to a lingering flutter in the old pump, and my miles are thus somewhat limited this biking season because I tire quickly and, also, how carefully (read slowly) I have to move on a bicycle to avoid any injury. Falling off a bicycle while you’re taking blood thinners, my doctors and my wife often remind me, is not a good life choice.

Basically, about 20 miles is my current ride limit, with most rides being around 10 miles. 2025 is therefore, for me, the year of short rides. I don’t resent that, because January and February where months of zero rides as I had and then recovered from major surgery, so I’ll enjoy the slower, shorter rides I experience now and keep on rolling with a smile on my face.

My bicycle parked on Creek Trail the runs behind Linn-Mar High School, on May 29 bike ride.

Another surprise, a "greetings, bikers, we're happy to have you" sign in the woods at the north end of the Creek Trail in Marion. OK, a landowner is free to put up such signs, but I can't imagine many bikers were trying to roll through the walnut grove there. Whatever, life is full of surprises, one of many signs posted in this area seen on May 29 bike ride.

We are in a June summer heatwave now, with the heat index topping 100 degrees this afternoon. That hasn't generally been the case lately, and on May 9, a cool but not cold morning, I noticed sun dogs in the sky during my morning bike ride (sun dogs are usually seen on the coldest mornings of winter, little rainbows created by sunlight refracted by ice crystals high in the atmosphere. It must have been much colder way up there).

And, although we are starting a heatwave today, the weather has mostly cooperated with biking. Although there have also been some unexpected challenges.

One is mechanical. On a commute to work in May, I broke a spoke on the rear wheel of Clarence, my hybrid bike. That wheel has had a previous broken spoke, so it was time to replace the whole wheel rather than just the snapped spoke. At the bike shop, they also noted the drive train was very worn and the bike was long overdue for a thorough tune-up.

So, that broken spoke cost me several weeks of riding that bike, plus more than $300. Oh well. After I retrieved that bicycle, it has been notably more pleasant to ride, which is a bonus—it has cleaner shifting and better rolling speed.

May 4--A nasty surprise at work. A broken spoke, and not the first on the back wheel of my hybrid bike Clarence.

Here and below, some damaged trees were cut down after the 2020 derecho, and someone had then carved into bird statues. Corner of Albernett and Boyson roads. Another pleasant surprise seen on ride May 31.

In the meantime, my road bike Argent in late May developed a weird wobble on its front wheel. Was it another snapped spoke? I couldn’t find one, and I concluded it was a flaw in the front tyre. But I took the wheel into the shop to have more experienced eyes confirm my opinion—and the mechanic could see the problem right away. The wheel is mechanically sound, but the inner fabric of the front tyre had failed, leading to a bulge.

At least that was a much cheaper and quicker problem to fix—and I could have just replaced the tyre myself but the labor charge at Goldfinch Cyclery to do that was only $15, and I was happy, with my wife’s encouragement, to save 30 minutes of my life at that price.

Well, those minor blips didn’t prevent me from biking in recent weeks. I rolled just over 228 miles in May, compared to 159 miles in April. My miles are slowly building, and I hope that they will jump substantially after I recover from my second heart procedure that takes place in July. We’ll see.

The Fancy Beast, my mountain bike, on freshly mowed mountain bike trail in Marion. A nice surprise.

Life can bring you unexpected challenges and unexpected pleasures, too. For example, on a recent ride June 11, I rode my mountain bike, intending to use the mountain bike trails that split off from the Boyson Road Trail near my home.

Those mountain trails can be a bit challenging—they don’t have any dramatic features, so I don’t mean they are a challenged because they are designed with challenges as some mountain bike trails are—but the trails are not mowed very often and the encroaching plant life in the woods can make a ride a bit difficult. That was pleasantly not true on this day—the good surprise is that the trails had obviously just been mowed and were wide open and fun to ride.

June 16 bike ride down to Prairie Park Fishery--suprise! My usual route is closed, as short trail by the river is not open due to construction of a new biking bridge over the Cedar River. Well, OK, a major new biking attraction is coming. I'll live with riding a different route.

Yet, surprise, there is so much utility work going on in the Boyson Road area that I have not been able to repeat that ride due to difficulty accessing those trails. Mow ’em and then close ’em—bah, humbug.

What Marion gives, it also takes. Another recent example: Our neighbor city to the east has established, in recent years, a major bike trail that leads from my neighborhood all the way through Marion to the countryside east of town. The Grant Wood Trail, not long ago, was just a grassy stretch in the county rideable only on a mountain bike. In recent years, the county has paved several miles and added a grand new bridge. The city of Marion, in the meantime, has constructed a connecting trail and extended the Lindale Trail with two new fancy bridges.

Now, one can ride a road bike all the way from Council Street in Cedar Rapids out to Waldos Rock Park in Marion and beyond on nicely paved trail (well, one short leg on a quiet county road, but still, it’s an easy, paved ride).

I was aware that Marion has worked on a fancy upgrade to their City Square Plaza, which is directly across the street from the new Grant Wood Trail route, so I decided to ride there last week just to see what the plaza is like. It’s very nice. Marion’s treatment of the bike trail, however, has gotten a little weird.

Climbing play area seen at newly renovated Central Plaza in Marion (above and below).

Right across the street from the fancy new plaza, two blocks of the recently created bike trail have been designated as pedestrian-only zones. Well, I can sort of understand. I always thought the downtown stretch of the new Grant Wood Trail was a little awkward, taking bike traffic on a sidewalk directly in front of both the public library and City Hall.

Riding there always made me feel a little weird. You do have the alternative, once you near the Westside Diner, to go south one block and ride down that street until you get past downtown, a route I use whenever I think pedestrian traffic might be heavy, but that alternative route is neither marked nor designated for bikes.

On the one hand, I think the pedestrian zone downtown makes sense. On the other, I think Marion should mark and sign and declare a “bike boulevard” for the alternative route one block south (and on the connecting streets that they want bikers to use). I think the need for the alternative route is obvious, and I’m a little miffed city planners who created the bike trail in the first place didn’t anticipate the need for another route before putting up “dismount bikers” signs.

If the Grant Wood Trail shoots all the way through Marion, as it now does, then let bikers ride it and mark where they should ride. If the city does not want them riding on the walkway downtown—fair enough, I understand. However, create and show me the alternate route. Otherwise, you made a new, nice, fancy long trail and chose to knock a hole right in the middle of it.

Harrumph.

Honestly, I can’t get too mad at the city of Marion. Like Cedar Rapids, the city has invested a lot in recent years to become more bicycle friendly, and I appreciate that. This just seems like an obvious, foreseeable flaw in that overall nice pattern.

Well, back to summer rides. Despite the current heat. which is keeping me off my wheels this weekend, my bike rides have been very enjoyable. We’ve had some rain, but most days, even the wet ones, have not been rainy all day long, and we’ve had a fair amount of warm, but not hot, sunny weather, too.

Iowa is in its most beautiful month. For bikers, June is busting out all over. Catalpa have bloomed and faded. Orange Tiger Lilies are growling (or trumpeting). Common Milkweed is moving into its pink, perfumed firework phase. The world in Iowa is a very good place for those of us who choose to roll on two wheels across this planet.

A few images from mostly May bike rides but also this one from April 29. Daffodils in bloom near my hybrid bike parked in rack behind Warde Hall, were my office what when I had an office. Retired now.

Bike parked at Lafayette during May 3 ride. That ride was a bit more than 20 miles and I was pretty spent the next day, leading to a warning from my wife to watch the miles. She's an RN and I generally find her medical advice worth listening to.

Phlox in bloom on trail north of Robins during my one ride up to Lafayette May 3.

May 4--I always lock my bike, even on campus. You never know who or what will be interested in it. As far as I can tell, the tree rat did no damage.

May 31--Peony in bloom near bathroom building and playground at Lowe Park.

Even if some of us must limit our rolling, a bit. Still, I have ridden 179.72 miles in the first 21 days of June, which probably means I will likely top the 228.9 miles I rode in May. I was hoping retirement meant more miles on the bike, and that is a path I seem to be on.

This year, the path I am on does not mean RAGBRAI miles, because I can’t currently roll 50 or 60 miles in a morning, at least until the ticker gets straightened out. Still, how has biking been in Iowa these past six weeks?

Filled with surprises, good and not so good, but overall, quite glorious.