JEFFERSON, Iowa, June 10, 2011 –  One of the earliest traditions on the Raccoon River Valley Trail is being renewed and revived this summer, with “Full Moon Rides” scheduled in the Cooper area on the nights of the full moons — June 15 and July 15.

This Friday, cyclists are invited to gather at the Cooper Way Station for an 8 p.m. departure for a 10-mile round-trip cruise to Herndon and back as twilight turns to darkness and the full moon “rises.”   The group will take a breather in Herndon, and then ride back to Cooper in the dark.  However, those who’ve done such rides always say cyclists will be surprised at just how light it is once the full moon is up in the sky.

Nevertheless, lights for everybody’s bicycles are highly recommended.

The Committee for a Super Cooper will have free snacks and cold drinks in Cooper at the ride’s end.

Some local riders who want to ride additional miles are planning to leave the Jefferson Depot at 7 p.m. Friday, riding to Cooper and then joining the Full Moon Ride.

The rides are being sponsored by the Cyclists Of Greene (COG) club.  The members who will host the moonlight rides are John and Ces Brunow, the partners in the new All Ability Cycles shop opening about July 1 on the courthouse square in Jefferson.  The Brunows have recently moved to Jefferson, which is Ces’ hometown, after having operated a bicycle shop in Vienna, Virginia, for 12 years.

“In Vienna, we had some of these full moon rides, and in good weather, they were really popular,” said John Brunow.  “We thought the Raccoon River Valley Trail was a perfect place to have them here, because the cyclists can have the fun riding under a full moon but be on the trail and away from traffic on the roads.”

Interestingly, such rides were held between Yale and Linden in the early years of the RRVT.

“We must’ve started those in about 1990, and I think we kept them going for about five years,” said Doug Hemphill, president of Farmers State Bank, in Yale.  “When the weather was good, we’d have those rides on every full moon, and they really were a lot of fun.”

Hemphill and Ken Bose, who had a bike shop then at his farm on Iowa Highway 4 just west of Herndon, were the organizers of those early moonlight rides, and there were a dozen or more cyclists in the Yale, Panora and Linden areas who were regulars on them.

The full moon rides on the RRVT are free, although cyclists 18 and older are expected to have trail passes.  Also, helmets are expected.