One of the best kept secrets of midwest mountain biking - and probably the whole country - is in
Decorah Iowa.
This alpine-ish little community is nestled into the surprising bluffs of the northeastern part of the state. Residents can boast about some of the biggest and best parks per capita of any place around. Dunning's Spring, Ice Cave, Van Peenen and Pallisades ring the north part of town with Twin Springs flanking them to the west.
All of them have stellar mountain biking trails up and down the bluffside. Paths vary from smooth hardpack to rocky and rooty technical sections that suspend the belief that you are still in Iowa. There are not many towns 'round these parts where you can visit a spring-fed waterfall within city limits.
It had been many moons since I was in Decorah with mountain biking intentions. More than a decade ago I was obviously younger man in mind and body....I'll leave it at that except to say its not all bad to be older - errr, let's say
more experienced.
I couldn't remember much about the trails, except their overall awesomeliciousness, so I was definitely interested to see if they were as good as I remembered.
Since this was a splice-a-ride-into-the-family-vacation I only had about an 1.5 hour to giddyup. I started off on the River Trail because the trailhead is easy to find and its reportedly the warm up.
RT is as advertised, but there's a side loop up a rocky rise that previews things to come.
River Trail quickly spits you out on a road by Pallisades Park. I tooled around some trying to decide where to go next, completely unaware that map kiosk was just down the street. I ended up taking the first trailhead I saw and headed up a long buff hill into some private land known as Smeby's. The landowners allow riding and even put out a chair for us old geezers to sit-a-spell.
It was a looong hill.
I guess (more on that later) I eventually found my way into Pallisades Park and the rocky, rooty Dead Pet trail (is that a great name or what?) It had been lightly raining all morning and things were slickery, especially the sinisterly angled roots. I executed a nice "save" by stepping sorta over the handlebars as my front wheel washed out on one of the nasties.
Next came this monster. My Voodoo 29er sure wouldda been nice (see previous post on Bike Karma) throughout Decorah, but especially on Dead Pet.
Lots of G-outs, some quite -
interesting.
River trail, Smeby's and Pallisades - both forward and backward (for me anyway) - was all I had time for on Friday. It was tormenting to leave such great trail so soon, but I was anxious to see Lanesboro and get the family fun rollin', plus I knew I'd be back on Monday.
The last bit of Dead Pet has a little whoop-dee-do before descending to the road. It was here I learned my bike karma had followed me north. My fork was suddenly not holding air, reducing it from a 100mm travel to maybe 10mm. The fork remained rigid(ish) over the whoop and I went dee-do over the bars. Luckily I was able to execute another good save maneuver and landed on my side in a baseball slide -- the runner is SAFE at third.
Scene of the crime
My second splice of Decorah riding on the way home from Lanesboro was also abbreviated because this go-'round everyone was beat from all the frivolity of the last few days, so I kept it to 2 hours.
I was set on NOT riding the same trail I had before, but apparently I had been disoriented, thinking I had been in Van Peenen on Friday and not Pallisades (when the reverse was true). I had my wife drop me off on the opposite side of Pallisades and promptly starting riding the same trail I'd done before. It really wasn't a huge issue because it is great trail and there was a couple of spots in Dead Pet I wanted a crack at in dryer conditions.
Before long I ran into a man and woman team weedeating and generally maintaining the trail. They were very friendly and let me know where I was and where I wanted to go. I asked about the Fred trail, since I remembered that name and had read some good things about 'ole Fred. They got me directed to the other bluff and I was on my way.
As I said, I didn't have a map and the two kiosks I found with map compartments were empty. Most trails are numbered instead of named and there is quite a labyrinth of paths, so keeping track of where you're going is tricky. I know I did Backside, its steep enough at the beginning to kick yer backside, so you don't really need the sign to remind you.
Simultaneous to having a blast I was trying to keep track of time to keep from leaving the wife and daughters waiting and worrying at the pick up point. As I sailed down a looong, straight rocky descent (Boa?) I thought I might regret losing all my hard earned elevation if I had plenty of time left. Right before this rocky switchback I checked the time.
I had an hour left! Too soon to go too down too fast so I turned around and hoofed it back up the ridge. I was glad I did because shortly after I found what must be "Death Valley". Its an amazing bit of trail, coming out of nowhere and making you say "wow".
I didn't take many pictures the last hour because I was focused on getting as much riding in as possible. I know I hit Backside, Randy's, Dunnings and pretty sure about Boa and Death Valley, maybe Wold's Peak, but I don't know. That was in addition to River Trail, Smeby's, Dead Pet and probably some others. I'm pretty sure I didn't get to much of the Van Peenen stuff including Fred's although its hard to say. I know there were several spots I literally exclaimed "SWEET" as I was rolling along. You know you're having fun when that just pops out of your mouth.
I had a short but sweet two days of riding and didn't cover all they have to offer. The people of Decorah are extraordinarily friendly and the maintain their trails exceptionally well. I recently returned from riding in Arkansas and while Decorah doesn't have the endless miles of trail they have in AR, our little gem does rival them in beauty, difficulty and fun. It certainly won't be 10+ years before I go again - this time with 29 inch wheels under me.
