Warm days and a new Smokestack

The last couple days have been part of the slight warm up we've been having, and both days topped 60F. It's been wonderful. Lots of snow has melted, spring is in the air, and I'm not the only person out there on a bike. But I know spring isn't starting now, this is Iowa, and it's still mid-February. We'll get more snow, more cold, more terrible weather before spring actually sticks around. Having said all that, I still got out for nearly two and a half hours on my day off, yesterday, Wednesday the 16th.

I headed, as I often do, up the High Trestle Trail northward. Then this happened:
Just past Irvinedale on the northwest side on Ankeny, a really long and unrideable drift. So I bailed and went north on the road for a bit, then started weaving around on gravel roads enjoying the warm sunshine. I came across the trail again, and thought it looked much more promising:

A much shorter drift with plenty of clear pavement beyond. So, I hopped on the trail and rode north. Things went fairly well for a while. Sure there were some small drifts that I was largely able to ride through, but then there was also this:
Super long, pretty deep, and entirely miserable. It was easily a half mile long, and hard to walk on. My feet sank in a little on most steps, but every 5th or 6th step would sink in to mid calf. When I got home my shins were a little scraped up from the icy snow tearing at them for not just this section, but another one that was nearly as bad too. So two huge hiking sections in a 20-ish mile ride? Not horrible. I jogged/shuffled/tried to treat it like a cyclocross work out, and that worked pretty well for 30 or so yards at a time. It sure was tiring.

I actually made it all the way through Sheldahl, and stopped when another monster drift reared its head between Sheldahl and Slater. The sky clouded up a bit as I got closer to Ankeny and almost looked like rain, so I tried to push it even more, this only sorta worked. I was extremely spent when I finally got home. Not bad for an outdoor ride in shorts and arm warmers (and a jersey too) in February.

In one of my cursory trips through the beer section of Hy-vee (I always walk through, even if I'm well stocked, you know, just in case) I saw a Smokestack I hadn't had before. I of course bought it, and congratulated myself on the good decision to make the trip down that aisle, despite having quite a bit of beer at home. Here's what I found:

Chocolate Ale

Boulevard partnered up with KC treasure and nationally known chocolatier, Christopher Elbow, to make a really great chocolate beer. Not a stout, and not drippingly syrupy sweet like some more dessert oriented beers can get, it's a medium bodied ale that is bursting with chocolate aromas, and not as much chocolate taste as you'd expect. The nose is full of sweet smells of cocoa, caramel, vanilla, with a whisper of hops. The flavor is lightly chocolatey with a fruity hint in there as well. This beer is a Valentine's Day limited edition that Boulevard has decided to make into a seasonal, so if you missed it, look for it next year. I'm really excited I snagged this, and hope I can find more interesting things in my habitual walk throughs.