This was our first adventure! We had each bought bikes a month or two before. Will on his bright orange Salsa Journeyer and Jake on an Amazon special — an Ancheer E-Bike.
Will did the right research, bought the right bike, and had a great setup going into the ride. Jake, on the other hand, slapped some Amazon bags and clamp-on racks and mounts and somehow made everything work.
We set out starting on the Neil Smith, which is the hilly section of the route, but it ventures past the state park and has some really fun rolling hills through the forest.
We made it to the end of the Neil Smith and stopped for an early lunch around 10am. Feeling good, Will bought us some expired sodas out of the beach vending machines.
We carried on, headed to Ankeny and the Trestle Trail. We were on the only extended non-bike-lane section of the route. It was windy and cold but remote enough so only one passing vehicle.
We made it to the connecting bike path and continued our journey through the different towns, all of them with cool sightseeing on the bike paths.
By the time we reached the Trestle Trail bridge and Perry, the mood had shifted slightly. The path from Perry to Panora was a 2% grade for 4 miles. This is what broke us.
We took lots of breaks, first resting over our bikes eating what food we had left, but soon we would find a bench around 2.5 miles in. We rested on the bench for probably close to an hour. Jake's knee was hurting trying to pedal his e-bike because he wanted to conserve the battery. Will was exhausted because he pedaled the whole 60 miles up to this point, the longest either of us had gone so far.
Soon we made it to resupply and have dinner at a diner in Yale. A local couple had a chat with us about our adventures and told us there's campsites 10 miles up the bike path in Panora. We took note, but we had our plans and honestly we were stoked for dinner.
Best cold beers ever, Exile Ruthie — an IA classic. Will got the fish n chips and Jake got two baskets of fries. We both had 2 beers and shots of Patrón to celebrate our long 75-mile journey.
We finished our beers and proceeded down the mile of road to some public land designated for bird hunting. On Google Maps it looked perfect and Will had called the ranger to confirm we could camp there. When we arrived it wasn't what we expected. The parking lot was there, but all the trees minus a small sliver were gone.
The decision was made to trek into the tall grasses and try and set up camp in this small sliver of trees. It was extremely difficult to get our bikes through this stuff. I don't know what the hell we were thinking.
We made it through the night, not comfortably. Jake slept in a hammock and Will slept in his Big Agnes bikepacking tent. Will definitely got better sleep. Jake would wake up with hundreds of mosquito bites on his back, not knowing until they got home.
We packed up and hiked out, feeling every mile and then some from the day before. We made it to the bike path and biked the longest 10 miles of our lives to Panora. This is where we found ourselves at a Casey's, tired and defeated. We decided to call it quits.
While we waited we found the campsite the locals were talking about. We wish we would have listened and done the 10 miles to stay there instead.
We hung up our hammocks and made some lunch waiting for our ride. We were still very proud we made it 76 miles in one day. We certainly learned a helluva lot.