Day 65- Ames….Almost

Camping at Swan Lake, I was worried about the morning dew and condensation on my tent again. I guess I was set up far enough away from the lake. My tent was nice and dry this morning. Go figure.

The sky was overcast this morning. And significantly cooler. It could turn out to be a nice day for cycling. Well, I mean almost every day is a nice day for cycling, but today might be even better than the last few.

My goal today is to try to get close to Ames, IA, home of Iowa State University. Actually, I have a plan to camp at Ledges State Park just outside of Boone. It is about 10 miles from Ames. The terrain again is pretty flat and the overcast skies seems to keep the wind down. So far in Iowa, the wind has not been much of a factor. Mostly it has been calm or just a very slight breeze. Nothing to really affect my pedaling…..yet anyway.

I am still riding on Hwy 30. It has been pretty good for cycling. It generally has an adequate shoulder and light traffic. That is starting to change now that I am approaching the larger city of Ames. I think I better start looking at an alternate route and abandon Hwy 30 for something with much lighter traffic. As a result, I took the next cross street to get off the Hwy so I could consult my map. The road was Hwy 169 and it looked like it would go about where I needed to go except for one detail. The roads was closed for construction.

Here is the thing about road construction. Sometimes it is your enemy and sometimes your friend. It is your enemy if the surface is down to gravel and it is your only route, etc. Sometimes you just end up walking. But, it can be your friend if the road is closed so the contractor can save money on traffic control such as flagging and pilot cars, but at least one lane of the pavement is intact. Then sometimes the contractor will let bicycles snake through. And this is the case with Hwy 169 today. The contractor has scarified the pavement getting ready to do an asphalt overlay of the pavement but the surface is rideable. And he lets me through. So not only am I out of the increasing traffic of Hwy 30, I now have the road to myself except for a few cars and pickups of the local residents. For 5 miles. Then, I need to turn east again, but this road is barricaded to keep traffic off of Hwy 169 so there isn’t much traffic on this road either. Sometimes things just work out.

I crossed the Des Moines River. It offered the only real topography of the day. I had a nice descent to the river through a tree filled valley only to have to climb back out of it again. But this also meant I was getting close to “The Ledges”. Just a few more miles and a couple of turns to go now.

When I got there, I was a little surprised that there wasn’t anyone else there. And I was also surprised that I hadn’t really even seen a sign on how to get here. I had just followed my map but usually there are signs along the road too. There was a guy on a tractor moving some tables around so I flagged him down to ask if I was at the right place for camping. He informed me that the campground was closed and had been closed since December. So, sometimes things just don’t work out. He said I could camp in the public fish and wildlife area about a mile away, but there weren’t any facilities there. He said my other option would be to go up across the Hwy and camp at the Boone County Fairgrounds. This was backtracking a slight bit but sounded like the best option. So off to Boone I went.

Right when I got there it started to sprinkle. I set up the tent quickly because if you can set it up in a dry condition, then the inside of the tent will stay dry. If you set it up in wet conditions, the moisture gets everywhere and can be damp inside. Once the tent was set up the rain got a little more serious. But not bad….yet. Now onto cooking. There wasn’t a picnic table at the campground but there was a covered grandstands for the rodeo arena that looked like a good place to cook.

With dinner out if the way the only thing left to do was get ready for bed. Once in the tent, I now listened to thunder in the distance. It could be one of those nights!