First Hike in Iowa

April 24, 2022

After over a month in Iowa, the weather finally gave me an opportunity to get back on the trails. Certainly wasn’t the best hike I’ve ever been on (by a long shot) but I was happy to get my legs under me again.

The weather was in good cooperation on Saturday, peaking at 82 degrees, sunny and no wind. I took Ash to the dog park and was wearing my typical leaving the house outfit, jeans and a long sleeved thermal henley. Once I realized how warm it was at the park, I regretted it. Wished I’d worn shorts and a t-shirt instead.

When I woke up Sunday, I’d made the determination that I was going to go hike. I put on shorts and a t-shirt with the expectation that the weather would follow suit from Saturday.

I was wrong.

Iowa decided it was going to drop somewhere in the vicinity of 20 degrees from one day to the next, leaving us in the low 60s. Certainly not “cold” by any means, but not warm enough for shorts and a t-shirt.

I changed into sweats partway through the day.

At around 1:30, I decided I was going to make the couple minute drive down the road to the Woodpecker East Loop trail.

I got my day pack out, pulled out the reservoir and cleaned it real good (the first time I’ve actually cleaned it. I’ve rinsed it and dried it, but never cleaned it, like, with warm, soapy water.)

I got out my hiking boots, laced them up and got Ash on his leash.

Trail Stats

AllTrails lists the Woodpecker East Loop as an easy, 3.4 mile loop trail with 22 feet of elevation gain.

The trailhead is a scant half mile from the house taking literally two minutes to drive there.

As I parked my car, I noticed that there wasn’t a lot of green around. All of the trees were still in hibernation mode for the winter. There was some green ground cover but even that was hard to find. I’ve hiked through winter landscapes in New Mexico but didn’t realize Iowa was so full of deciduous trees. I guess that should be expected at this elevation.

Ash and I set off to the actual trailhead, I started the navigation on AllTrails and off we went.

The Trail

AllTrails wasn’t kidding, this was a quite easy trail. Starting at under 700 feet above sea level, oxygen was plentiful. The few small hills I did encounter were easily conquered with no slowing.

The air was thick with the sound of frogs croaking in the midday sun. The calls of a variety of birds echoed the chorus through the treetops.

Being rife with small creeks and dry riverbeds, there were several bridges to cross, the first of which had a “do not enter” sign. I soon realized that this trail was intended to be a one-way trail.

We started off bearing east before switching back north about a quarter of a mile in. Before long, we found ourselves on the backside of a row of warehouses. Not very picturesque at all.

We continued on, crossing over a bridge where beneath us was a mound of garbage in the creek bed below. It was quite a saddening sight for sure.

We continued on for another quarter mile or so before we came upon a short boardwalk.

This walk carried us over what might have been a marshy plain, but I couldn’t see any water in the land surrounding us. That’s not to say there wasn’t any under a thick overgrowth of grass.

The trail went on further east before cutting north once more. As the trail rounded a bend to head east once more, I noticed we were mere feet from highway 6. The path carried us this way for about a hundred yards before cutting south again, away from the road.

We came upon a small brook that had a fair amount of water running through it. If I’d tried to cross it, the water would have spilled over the tops of my boots and I would have had to hike the rest of the trail with wet feet. Thankfully there was a crossing of loose stones that I managed to carefully navigate and get to the other side with no moisture entering my boots.

We continued on, eventually finding ourselves on the high north bank of Clear Creek, a small tributary of the Iowa River. The remaining mile and a half plus was spent looking down into the murky water.

Finishing Up

As is typical with AllTrails, we wound up walking about a quarter of a mile more than what the app said we would. Whether this is due to variations in the trail vs. what’s mapped, or elevation gains not being taken into account, I’m not sure. All I know is I’ve never hiked a trail and gone as far as what AllTrails told me I was going to.

We made it back to the trailhead after an hour and 20 minutes, giving us a pace of a just under 23 minute mile.

Overall, I wasn’t thrilled with this hike. The greenery was all dead, the scenery was impeded by industry and it just wasn’t a very pleasant hike. Did I hate it? No, of course not. I needed to get out and moving again, and it afforded me the opportunity to do just that. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Will I hike this trail again?

Probably not.

Aftermath

Since this was the first hike I took in nearly three months, it took me a full day to recover. I woke up Monday is a pretty significant amount of pain, mostly in my legs and some shoulder pain. I had to drive to Cedar Rapids for a training class and when I got there, I had to climb three flights of stairs to get to the training room. Needless to say, that was a challenge for me.

But, I made it, no worse for the wear.

By Tuesday, I was right as rain.

_____________________________

Here it is, May 7, and I’m just now realizing I never posted this entry. Shame on me.

Stay tuned – my next entry will be close behind. We are leaving in about 2 hours for another trip to Chicago with a slight change in plans.

As Milli Vanilli said, “Blame it on the rain…”

As always, thanks for stopping my little corner of the internet. I appreciate you!

-Phil