High Trestle Trail Once More!

We were back in the saddle again (so to speak) and this reminded me of the song by Gene Autry many, many decades ago.  Ever since our first ride on the High Trestle Trail in 2012, I have wanted to go back and ride it at night.  So, we bought a light for my bike and worked it into our vacation route this summer.

We had thought this through, wrong!  We stayed in Ankeny so we'd be close to the trailhead.  That didn't work out so well.  1) Had a difficult time finding the trailhead there because of construction and there were no signs posted.  2) When we did find a place to park, we asked guys in the parking lot who told us that the trail was right there, but the bridge was located between Madrid and Woodward, 22 miles away! 

Oh my!  We'd never make it up and back.   

Plan B: Drive to Madrid which also has a trailhead. Immediately I recognized buildings that we had passed by 9 years ago but neither of us remembered where we had parked.  I checked the blog, and we had parked in the same EXACT parking lot!  So much for "Two heads are better than one"!

Love this trail which takes us through wooded areas and fields.

We made it to the south end of the bridge on the High Trestle Tail, which is 13 stories above the valley.   Once again we rode it to the small town of Woodward which is at the end of the trail.

Ride #1 done!  However, the main reason we came here was to ride at night when the bridge is lit up at dusk.  By the time it came to leave the hotel,  Don noticed there was a 30% chance of rain.  In Arizona, that would mean MAYBE a few drops of rain, but most likely nothing at all.  Not Iowa.  

By the time we got to the bridge there was a light drizzle.  Still had more time to wait until the lights came on....and they were only lit at the other end!

Success, yes, but at price.  It started raining hard right after this video and we still had 2.6 miles to pedal back to our truck.  We were absolutely drenched to our skin by the time we got back.  My shoes were filling up with water from the rain and water on the path.  Don got water in his eye and biked off the path into the grass because he couldn't see.  I had finally learned how to take a video and edit it and now the camera was ruined even though Don had put it in his pocket.  At the end, I was laughing as I was riding because it was so comical.  Thoughts were running in my head of "what idiots were are" and "what are us old people doing out here in the rain and at dark?" to "we look like drowned rats".  

We took the back stairs up to our room to avoid the main entrance.😂 The feeling of wet pants and wet underwear are not good ones. 😕   One more thing checked off on our bucket list.