ASHTON WILDWOOD COUNTY PARK: The Chichaqua Valley Trail Made Me Think Of Chi-chocolate

September 16, 2018

I have an idea. Let's get the preliminaries out of the way in the form of pictures, captions, and grammatically imprecise notes. It'll hurt me to be gramatically imprecise, but maybe I should expand my journalistic horizons a little bit. Plus, it will be shorter and less boring for you that way.

More Scenes of Dangerous Des Moines--Nightime & Morning Edition

-Watched half-way funny movie on TV last night
-Movie over, feeling hungry
-Googled nearby restaurants
-"BUBBA" sounded good--only a .4 mile bike ride.
-Plus, I'm fan of Southern cookin'.

Blackened catfish, Cajun rice, succotash, mint julep

-Rarely post food pics, indulge me on this one
-Can't believe I ate--and liked--succotash
-Delicious meal
-Can't remember name of half-way funny movie
-Rode back to hotel

-Slept well
-New day has dawned
-Tempted fate one more time
-Explored downtown by bike
-Continued northeast out of 10th most dangerous city
-Survived

Bondurant, Iowa is where I began the next phase of my adventure, and it's also where I will return to proper sentence and paragraph structure. Bondurant is the western terminus for the Chichaqua Valley Bike Trail. Bike trails are not normally a big attraction for me, but in this case I thought it might provide a remedy for my frazzled nerves after cycling in almost half of America's most dangerous biking cities over the last six days.

The former Bondurant railroad depot and current Chichaqua Valley Trailhead.

This is often the trouble with bike trails: VIEWBLOCKERS!

Fortunately the trail did return to some of that fine Iowa farmland and a nice crossing of the Skunk River. The trail is nicely paved for its entire distance. It liked it and I really did think of chi-chocolate. Yes, I daydreamed of eating chi-chocolate at a chautauqua.

At the town of Mingo I exited the trail and looked around for a grocery store. I planned to camp about ten miles from Mingo and this would be the last opportunity to pick up some food for the night. Alas, Mingo is a much smaller town than I was expecting and it didn't even have so much as a convenience store.

It did have a small tavern though, and I had a beer and watched part of the Minnesota Viking-Green Bay Packer game. It's an intense NFL rivalry between those two teams and the game produced a somewhat more friendly rivalry between me (a Viking fan) and the bartender (a Packer fan.) To my shame, the Vikings were ten points behind when I left at half-time. (I later learned the game ended in a tie.)

I bought a bag of Cheetoes from the bartender and, regretfully leaving the air-conditioned tavern behind, headed back out into the hot sun. I negotiated a couple of gravel roads to the Ashton-Wildwood County Park. I had the entire place to myself.

The park's campground, with its big oak trees and well-maintained sites, was very nice.

What you can't see in the picture above is the incredible infestation of gnats and mosquitoes. I hadn't seen anything like it since I experienced the famous Northern Tier mosquito hotbed near Saco, Montana. Of course I was ready to defend myself with my vial of 100% DEET. Never leave home without it. (To hell with the commercial in which American Express paid Karl Malden to use that phrase. Given my hatred of bugs, I'd leave my credit card at home before I would ever leave my DEET at home.)

So I slathered myself with bug repellent as soon as I got off my bike and now my entire body was greasy with sweat and DEET. That's when I discovered there was no water at the campground. I needed the 40 oz. of water I had for drinking and cooking, so I resigned myself to spending all night in a state of extreme stickiness and stinkiness.

My friends, The Reckless Mr. Bing Bong, Jim the Tent, and G-2 all seem un-fazed by the BUGS.

Today's ride: 35 miles (56 km)
Total: 504 miles (811 km)

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