Its that time of year again.
 

Where I travel about 200 miles, which takes my wife and I about 2.5 to 3 hrs to Des Moines so I can do a 25 mile bike ride called MAR For Trails. The ride is tomorrow and like last year nice weather is expected.

Some of you may think and say that driving that distance just to do a 25 mile ride is not worth it. Ok thats cool. But you know what doing this ride is not about the short 25 miles route. Its about meeting and talking to the people on the ride I saw last year and the years before. No none of us are friends, but we do share the common love of cycling. In fact last August I saw a bunch of them on ONABIKE. Which is a ride here in NW Iowa.

Do I like driving the distance? No, I'd rather not. But after getting to D.M. and getting ready for the ride, meeting the people on the ride and completeting it with them makes it all worth while.

Any of you travel any distance over 50 miles for a ride, no matter how long or short it is? Do you find it worth doing so?

Ummm I am on your side...I don't even own a car and I find ways to travel 50 miles to the shore for good riding. Whether it be bus, hitchiking or a buddy and myself I want good riding. I am even thinking of a road trip to Seattle...now that is going to be pretty far. :)

Oh yea. About once a month I try to attend some 'special' ride. So far it's been just going to an area that is new to me. This year I plan to attend more organized rides.

Either way, I'll have to drive to the area. These special rides keep the verity up and makes for more adventure. It's true that it would be great to participate in lots of interesting rides without driving, but that's not likely. So I take the bad with the good.

Have fun!

Although I start 98% of my rides from the front door, tomorrow I'll be joining my wife and inlaws on the Bike Around The Buttes. Friendly folks, good eats, and beautiful scenery in the Real California! (This is all part of my plan to gradually increase my wife's riding until she's ready for a century, bwah ha ha! :))

The ride is an hour's drive north of here. Should be a wonderful day.

i remember that ride last year :) didn't you have family or friends to visit also.. makes the trip even more enjoyable then.

i am flying 5 hours then driving another 200km to do a 125km ride.. so 200 miles is not unreasonable :) have fun.

I've driven to St. Louis, about 2 hrs. To Southeast MO to ride the Berryman, about 2 1/2 hrs. Drive from where we camp at Bennet Springs to ride the Sac River Trail, about 1 hr. Flew to New Mexico just to ride, and drove to Colorado from MO last summer to ride. So I'd say hell yeah, it's worth it! :D

One of the big Century rides i did last year had people from ID, CA, and NV show up... Some drove 8+hrs for the event.

Later this year, I will drive 200 miles to an event, and 402 miles back from the same event ;)

Well, I got a plane to Melbourne, then a train to Geelong to ride the Great Ocean Road last year. I've also been known to use the train system around here for various rides. Having said that, most of my rides start from my front door for no reason other than the fact that we have some of the best and most varied riding on the planet around here. :D

Have a nice ride.

i like to ride locally, but every year i get out to mckenzie river trail (2.5 hrs. away), north umpqua trail (4hrs away), and various trips to hood river (1 hr.) and bend (3 hrs).

Ellen, we stay with my wife's parents when we visit Des Moines. And we visit my mom as well as my dad and step-mom. Not to mention as many friends as we can. (Its hard to balance the time between everyone we want to see, especially if I'm here for a ride.) Don't get to see my dad as often as I'd like, he's a over the road truck driver.

I've been doing this ride off and on for the last 7 to 8 years now. I've only ever missed one I signed up for because bad weather kept us in Sioux City.

This year we had a record amount of people ride it, well over 2,000. The first time I rode it it only attracted about 500 to 1,000.

Hey JV. I saw you at the start today, listening to Duffy and mayor Daniels speak. You looked a little over dressed, it got warm...good ride?

(Mojo from Bicycling forums)

Wish I would have been able to be there. I work for Bike World, which is a local Des Moines buisness (I work in the Ames store) and I had to put in some hours this morning so I was unable to make the ride. You had a great day for it! Hopefully next year I will be able to make it. At least I rode to work though.

Hey Mojo good to see you here, welcome.

I wasn't over dressed to start with, though it looked like it. But I did have to stop twice to shed layers. Once on the hill before Broadlawns Hospital, then once again @ one of the signs in front of Broadlawns. Got way to warm on the hills and there was the first of the 2 big hills coming up, the one after M.L. King Jr. Parkway, (I still call it Harding Road). After that I was fine.

BTW what in the heck is the city doing in Union Park? Everyone had to slow down, some of us had to stop and walk our bikes over the large bumps in the road way that goes through the park because of the construction. Are they replacing the road way?

In the section of the ride that goes through Union Park everyone usually flies through there like we are all part of the TDF peleton, its a lot of fun, until we have to stop at the stop sign at the bottom of the hill where Penn. Ave. is. But not this year.

Where you one of the many people I talked to. A lot of people spoke to me and I spoke to a lot before, during and after the ride.

One thing I was very happy to see is that the D.M. Parks and Rec. Dept. finally put a sign and a guard railing along the section of the Bill Riley trail that goes under the R.R. Track bridge with a concrete wall on one side and the river below with a shear drop off leading to it. That area has 2 awesome curves that go up and down. But if you lost control before the railing was there you'd end up in the river. That may not be so bad except its a long drop off and there are things to bounce off of on the way down.

I was unable to do the long loop, only did 20 instead of 25 miles. Ran short on time and I wanted to get back in time to eat. It was 12:30 by the time I got to the turn off point, they stop serving food at 1:00.

This years lunch was pretty good though. Pasta, sauce and garlic bread. Better then the sandwhich and chips they usually serve from years past.

Again good to see you Mojo, hope you had a good ride too.

Talk to you later.

John.