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Old 04-08-21, 01:28 PM
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mstateglfr 
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Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: Des Moines, IA
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Your orange day in the Des Moines Metro really hits a bunch of the paved trails! Looking at it, you have a 120mi day starting in Panora and riding over the Trestle Bridge between Slater and Woodward, then heading back east to finish in Colo.
If you stick with that route, be aware that you routed thru some singletrack in the northern part of Des Moines. Its flat river bottom singletrack and the part that you selected isnt overly technical, but just be aware. Its circled in red.



An alternate option that would still be 100mi would be to ride from Perry to Waukee on the Raccoon River Valley Trail then stay on the RRVT and go north to Perry. At that point, its a handful of gravel road miles to connect to Woodward and the High Trestle Trail.
The RRVT is dead flat as its an old rail line trail. And the High Trestle is flat too. Once east of Slater you will be on an unpaved trail all the way to Maxwell.
Just mentioning this since it isnt always clear which trails are paved and which are hardpack rock.




Oh, and I wouldnt trust the elevation claim on RWGPS. Its notoriously short for reporting in most every place Ive ridden in Iowa. It wont be hilly by any means, but itll probably be over the 30'/mi RWGPS shows right now, even with all the rail trails factored in.
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