First ride inna while......

the full map can be found at the des moines bike collective website

soooo.....a few days after my last post, a workmate approached me about meeting up friday morning to commute to work. Its a meandering ride over 13miles of wooded, paved trail that follows the des moines river. on any given day you'll be treated to an assortment of wildlife....in the past six months i've seen muskrat, snapping turtle, raccoon, deer, an assortment of small birds, and one or twice a  clutch bald eagles the live in an ancient cottonwood has graced me with a visit. Just before the entrance to cottonwood campground, our group will turn off onto the ankeny extention, just finished this year-ish....and follow that to a nice little climb up to oralabor rd., we've named it simply "ankeny hill", and use it as a measuring stick of how we are feeling that day versus others and what our overall fitness/hungoverness is as a group. in antispation of "the hill", i thought it best to at least throw a leg over the bike prior to our 5am start the following day and make sure i was at least fit enough to pedal the thing the complete distance....i desided a short coffee run was the best berometer of my lack of fitness  and with that in mind set off for my destination, a short three quarter mile juant from my apartment. while i still have no idea how things will pan out over the longer distance of my commute, let me tell you it sooooo good being back on the bike!!!!! i rode most of the way no-handed, slicing my way through traffic, coasting instead of breaking, and even making a short not-so-steep climb over a freeway bridge, before arriving at Mars Cafe with a ridiculiously sized permagrin plastered to my face. left a map of the neal smith which details the section from urbandale to ankeny, the map hasnt been updated since the completion of the ankeny extention.....but, never fear its there, you can now ride to the DMACC ankeny campus almost entirely on paved dedicated bike/pedestrian paths