COOPER, Iowa, November 14, 2010 – Rob Davis, of Urbandale in the Des Moines area, has been riding the Raccoon River Valley Trail “a loooooong time.  I can remember taking our two kids and batch of their friends on the trail on an overnight outing back in the early ’90s.”

Many remember Davis as a newsman and producer at KCCI-TV8 in Des Moines, later a host on Iowa Public Radio and more recently as director of the Iowa Radio Reading Information Service, although he left that job last spring to help care for his mother before she died.  “So I’m not really retired, just between jobs,” he said.  “But that’s why I could go spend a weekday riding my bike on the trail.”

When the weather turned so beautiful in the first few days of November, he was looking for just the right day — and settled on Monday, Nov. 8 for a solo ride.

“I thought you might enjoy a report and a few photos on your favorite bike trail,” he emailed us afterward.  “On that Monday, I took advantage of the fantastic weather and rode north on the RRVT from Yale to Jefferson. I’m not in the greatest shape, so a 34-mile round trip is plenty for me.

“There were quite a few woolly caterpillars on the trail.  I stopped to examine the coloring and thickness of the fur, for a hint of what the winter might bring.  I know scientists have long scoffed at the accuracy of that barometer, but it is fun anyway.

Here’s the wooly caterpillar that Rob Davis stopped to check out, hoping to learn what kind of winter it’s going to be and how long it’ll be until we have good bicycling weather.

“I also stopped to take a photo at the North Raccoon River Bridge.  All is well there.

The North Raccoon River ran high just south of Jefferson, where a 600-foot-long trestle bridge carries trail users over it. But the river was pretty docile when Rob Davis came to it on November 8.

“In Jefferson, I had a very large tenderloin at the Old 30 Grill, right next to the beautiful depot there at the trailhead.  I didn’t need that, but it sure tasted good.”

Then Davis “turned around and headed back to Yale, and ran into a huge headwind.  It really slowed me down,” and that may have helped him see something special.

“A little north of Herndon, I startled a nice looking buck in the farm field next to the trail,” he wrote. “He bounded away, then turned around to give me a look.  I got my camera out and zoomed all the way in, and snapped a photo.

A big buck deer was a spectator as Rob Davis was approaching the small trail town of Herndon.

“Anyway, I continued on to Yale and my internal combustion engine.”

He offered one after-thought: ““One note, it’s hard to find an open bathroom this time of year on the trail.  The Boy Scout project in Yale was supposed to be locked, I think, but the men’s side was ajar.  Unfortunately, the water was shut off, but people had still been using the john. I’ll let you conjure up the vision.  Cooper and the Jefferson Depot were locked up too, but a fine bathroom could be had at the Old 30 Grill. In my dotage I have become a connoisseur of bathrooms.”

But otherwise, it was a great day on the RRVT – one to remember in the winter ahead.

Here’s a long view of the Raccoon River Valley Trail as the seasons changed.