My wife's high school reunion, in Des Moines, is coming up. Saturday, August 6, while she is doing women's reunion brunch stuff, I plan to ride the newly opened High Trestle Trail from Madrid to Ankeny. It's about a 50 mile round trip, I assume relatively flat, if I go all the way to Ankeny before turning around.

I already have another local area recumbent rider who's a "maybe" companion. If there are any Des Moines area 50+ riders who'd like to join me, that would be neat!

I saw a video somewhere of a newscast about that trail. What a cool bridge! And there's even a bar built alongside the trail called the "Flat Tire Lounge" (or something like that). The owner of the bar says it's "like RAGBRAI every weekend!" as far as her business has been going.

Let us know how you like it.

My wife is also from Iowa. She graduated in 72 from Tech. We have made many trips to Iowa through the years and I have ridden on a lot of their nice trails. My mother in law died last year, so I guess we won't be going back any more. I will miss the trails and I really miss my MIL. She was a great person.

it is a great trail......as all of the trails in central iowa are. i dont qualify into the +50 group, but if i didnt have to work i would volunteer to ride with ya.........hope you enjoy the trail

RG,
I'm only a couple hours away and have been meaning to try that ride.... so it's a very good possibility. What time will you ride? Recommend riding fairly early to avoid mid-day heat. There's also a bike shop in DesMoines I've been meaning to visit. Keep bumping the thread.

PROBLEM: the section you describe leaves out the bridge doesn't it?

+1 on letting us know your thoughts about it. I looked it up and it is a very cool bridge. Take a look.

Hm. I'll have to look up that trail some day when I pass through if I have time to spare. I do runs to Ames and Webster City occasionally.

Let me look into this!! I live only 85 miles from there and my son lives in Ankeny and daughter in Des Moines.....a distinct possibility!!

......edit..... I just remembered I have a class reunion of my own in Harlan that day and we're trying to put together a ride for that!

here are some pictures of it.
https://www.traillink.com/trail-photo...on-trail).aspx

There are some nice YouTube videos like this one
And this one done at night

For those of you who like riding trestles, the Kinsol Trestle on Vancouver Island just reopened after a major refurbishment. It's the highest, longest curved trestle in Canada and possibly North America. Here's a link to a news story. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/britis...l-tressle.html