Bicycle Paper.com :: Articles

RAGBRAI, Almost

By Maynard Hershon

It’s Sunday afternoon, the last day of the Tour de France. I was supposed to be in Iowa today, visiting friends and preparing to ride the last four days of RAGBRAI, but my trip fell apart Monday evening.

This was the plan: My bike and I would board an Amtrak train, the California Zephyr, here in Denver at 7 p.m. on Saturday, July 23. I’d get off in Osceola Iowa on Sunday morning, the 24th.

I’d roll my bike out of the baggage car and pedal north to Des Moines. I’d find my way through town using an Iowa state cycling map and advice from two gracious bike shops. (If you email an Iowa shop for touring advice, you don’t get just a helpful response. You get invited to come by the shop and say hi. No kidding.)

Once safely through Des Moines, I’d ride another 30 or so miles to Ames, where my wife Tamar would be visiting her best friend Kathy. I’d spend Monday and Tuesday in Ames with Tamar, Kathy and Kathy’s husband Matt, then ride out of town to join RAGBRAI as it passed close by.

With RAGBRAI, I’d enjoy the company of 20,000 pedaling soulmates, crossing Iowa in an easterly direction to Davenport, this year’s finish, on the Illinois border. I’d luxuriate in a long shower or two in a Davenport hotel or motel, then pedal south to Galesburg Ill., an Amtrak stop.

In Galesburg, I’d board the westbound California Zephyr for another all-nighter, arriving in Denver on Monday morning, the first of August. And I’d pedal home from the Amtrak station.

Tamar told me in May that she’d be in Ames visiting Kathy, and asked me if I might meet her there. I didn’t want to fly just to be in Iowa for two or three days. And if you look at a map of the middle of the country, you will see that driving from Denver to Des Moines or Ames is a dreary prospect. It’s boring interstates across boring eastern Colorado, Nebraska and Iowa.

In investigating ways to make the travel more interesting, I realized that RAGBRAI would be under way and passing close to Ames. Ah-ha!

Further research revealed that Amtrak’s California Zephyr route features a stop in Osceola, south of Des Moines, an 80- or 90-mile pedal from Ames. And further east, the Zephyr stops in Galesburg, just 40 or so miles south of Davenport.

Hey, this was falling together nicely. I bought my train tickets in mid-June. I rode 200 miles every week. Never having done such a trip, I was nervous. But I forged ahead nonetheless. What a hero, huh?

I put a luggage rack on my Rivendell. I bought little rings for the back of my saddle from which I could hang the large, funky Rivendell saddlebag Tamar used when she commuted in Tucson.

Luckily, I had a pair of unused Louis Garneau panniers that would clip to the rack. I bought a lightweight sleeping bag. I borrowed a tent and a short, lightweight sleeping pad. I bought a mosquito net to hang inside the tent.

I bought a battery-powered bug repellant and refills. I purchased a pair of lightweight travel pants so I wouldn’t have to haul jeans across Iowa. I got a featherlight microfiber towel.

I took my bicycle into Turin Bikes in Denver for a check-up, where it got new cogs for its cassette, a new chain and a clean bill of health. Oh, and two pudgy Specialized Armadillo tires, not light (by any means) but bulletproof.

Weather reports from Iowa indicated a temperature adjusted with humidity of 120-degrees-plus. My toughest riding day would be the first, from Osceola to Ames. I worried about that day, and I worried about camping and showers and bugs and food en route.

A friend from Iowa who has done many RAGBRAIs mentioned that I did not have to ride as an outlaw. Look on the forum, he said, where it lists official wristbands for sale. You can buy a wristband and be a paid entrant. I looked on the forum where I found and bought a wristband.

Wearing it, I could put my gear in a duffel bag while with RAGBRAI and throw it on a truck in the mornings, where it would appear each day at ride’s end and I could retrieve my stuff. I wouldn’t have to do the whole ride while carrying my life on my bike. I could also enjoy the services of RAGBRAI mechanics and first-aid folks and not feel that I was cheating.

Concerned that I might have to box up my bike for the train rides, Tamar and I went to the Amtrak station here in Denver ... after trying and failing to call the station directly.

I’d read the information on the Amtrak website and came away confused. Some trains have baggage cars with hooks for hanging bikes. Some baggage people, I was told, just put the bike in the baggage car and bungee it to a wall. Others require a bike box.

No matter how you pack, it has to go in the baggage car. Amtrak wants you to arrive at the station early so you can give it to a baggage handler well before departure.

At the Amtrak station my trip came apart.

It seems that recent budget cuts have forced Amtrak to reduce the staff at many (many) of their stations, meaning no baggage handlers. When the train stops at one of those (many) stations, no one unlocks the baggage car. Those are called “unmanned stations.”

Both Osceola and Galesburg are unmanned stations. In fact, if you board a train in Denver headed east, you can get off the train with your bike in Lincoln, Neb., or Chicago but nowhere else, meaning nowhere in the state of Iowa. Is that amazing or what?

If you tell the ticket agent that you’re traveling with a bike and intend to get on or off the train when it stops at a small town station, he or she will refuse to sell you a ticket. Can’t be done, sir.

Disgusted, I got my ticket money refunded. I sold my wristband at a modest loss via the RAGBRAI forum. I returned the borrowed air mattress and tent. When Tamar gets home from Ames we’ll return the mosquito net and lightweight towel to REI. I’ll ride the Armadillos and enjoy my new chain and cogs.

I’d still like to ride RAGBRAI or part of it and may make the effort again next year. I thought this year that I’d put together an elegant plan, with no cars and no aircraft, just public transportation and my bicycle.

If you look hard enough on the Amtrak site, you can find a warning about unmanned stations. You have to look really hard. I told the woman at the 1-800 ticket refund number that Amtrak should change the site to make that unmanned station situation clearer, more obvious.

But Amtrak probably won’t. Someone should blow the whistle.