A Natural High on the High Trestle Trail!

It will be 2 weeks tomorrow since we've been on our bikes.  Somehow, we got side tracked......wonder how that happened?   So, did we just take the bikes off the rack and ride around the RV park?  Nope.  We got in the truck and drove 28 miles to the town of Madrid, Iowa.  Here they say "Maa-drid", with the emphasis on the "maa".  We found this out when we encountered local people also on the trail and I incorrectly pronounced their town's name.  Oops!  

The High Trestle Trail can be accessed from many different places since it is 25 miles long.  We chose the town of Madrid because we wanted to bike the portion of the trail that goes across the bridge and over the Des Moines River.

What do we see at the very start of the trail?  The Flat Tire Lounge!  Did they know about Don's past history with flat tires in the last month?  Was it a foreboding sign?  I hope not, since Don didn't carry any extra tire tubes with him.  Off we went, hoping for the best.  The completed trail has an eight foot wide cement base.  Nice and easy riding for us oldsters.

We reached the East End Towers, and Don is sitting at the edge of the bridge.  It is half a mile from one set of towers to the other and the bridge itself looms 130 feet over the river channel.  It was windy during the first part of the ride, but we could really feel the gusts when we biked across the open span.

In 1912, the Union Pacific Railroad built a trestle bridge over this chasm.  In 1971 the Corps. of Engineers built a new crossing on concrete piers. This bridges uses the same concrete piers as the railroad.   Arching over the deck are 43 steel cribbings that are lined with blue LED lights that come on at night!  I think it would feel eerie to ride or walk over the black abyss with only the blue lights to guide you.  They say if you ride through them at 10 mph, the lights spiral and blur together. 

 Here is a view of what it looks like from the end of the bridge:

On the other side of the valley is the 1912 concrete footing for the old railroad trestle.  It sits above the newer bridge, allowing me to take a picture of what the High Trestle Trail looks like from the side.  What amazing views we had from the bridge!

 At the end of the trail, which winds up in Woodward, is the old train station.

Heading back to our starting point, I took more pictures of the tree lined path.  Fall was in the air, which had a crispness to it.  It was a perfect day for bike riding.

We got one last view of the Des Moines River as we biked back east to Madrid.  We sure wish they could transplant this trail to Phoenix!   We sincerely appreciate the 8 year effort (from 2003-2011) made by multiple organizations and volunteers to create this corridor for all to enjoy.