Rest Day in Minneapolis

400 miles over the last three days may well have doubled my training volume for the year. My cycling computer claims that I burned about 35,000 calories, although that seems high. But maybe not. I'm hungry, in any case.

Time for a break today.

Little Falls to Minneapolis

Click the map for route details

Rolling home
I was a bit tired this morning, and worried that I would not make the final 120 miles back to the Twin Cities. But then came the wind. Storm is more like it. A brutal, brutal tailwind all day long. Whenever I would sit up, it would angrily push me in the back, urging me to keep going going going. All I had to do was follow the clouds:

I was, however, still quite tired and do not have too much to report from today's ride. I stayed on the Great River Road for most of the day, which was largely enjoyable. Enjoyable, that is, until I entered Hennepin County.

The Great American Exurbs
Hennepin County Road 12 was to take me South, but it was under construction, and the detour along CR 13 had a sign announcing its beginning, but nothing thereafter. And thus began my ride through what I later learned to be the Twin Cities exurbs of Dayton/Maple Grove/Edinburgh/Edinbrook. Of the latter two I am not sure whether they are actual towns or merely developments, but who's to tell the difference anymore anyway?

Much has been said about places like these, and in far more eloquent terms than I could hope to match, so I will not try to fully describe what I saw: the gray paper "luxury country homes," the mega churches, the divided four-lane highways where residential streets should be, the fake ponds and manicured lawns. We have seen these before.

Seeing these exurbs with fresh eyes, coming from a long ride through the beautiful North, however, was a new experience. I saw endless rows of steel surrounding angry drivers, pressing on home, come what may and obstacles be damned. My own reaction was one of anger at first, then disbelief, and finally resignation. I turned completely inward and ceased to take in my surroundings, focused on the road ahead, and finding my way out of the mess became my only concern. Nothing else seemed to matter anymore and I felt empty, then depressed. Because the contrast to the previous parts of my ride was so stark, I went through this range of emotions very quickly. But I think I now understand why depression is such a huge problem in the United States.

A common notion is that if you own a beautiful country home, you have arrived, you are living the American dream. But what really is the American dream? Little (disposable) boxes on the hillside? Is the American dream not the pursuit of happiness? So if you have everything you are led to think you need—and the American consumer can be led to think to need pretty much anything, that much is clear—and the only way to improve your life is to buy perhaps another jet ski or trampoline, what then? An all-inclusive vacation in Cancun, perhaps? And then?

Coming home
Once I found my way to the river, I knew where to go and rode straight home, past downtown Minneapolis with its new and ever-improving Mill City district around the falls of St. Anthony that gave life to the city itself.

"There is nothing of the grandeur or sublimity which the eye aches to behold at Niagara, about the falls of St. Anthony. But in wild and picturesque beauty it is perhaps unequalled. Flowing over a tract of country five hundred miles in extent, the river, here more than half a mile wide, breaks into sheets of foam and rushes to the pitch over a strongly inclined plane. The fall itself is not high, we believe only sixteen feet perpendicular, but is face is broken and irregular. Huge slabs of rock lie scattered below, in wild disorder. Some stand on their edges, leaning against the ledge from which they have been disunited. Some lie piled upon each other in the water, in inimitable confusion. A long, narrow island divides the fall nearly in the middle. Its eastern side is not perpendicular, but broken into three distrinct leaps, below which the twisting and twirling eddies threaten destruction to any living thing that enters them. On the western side, in the boiling rapids below, a few rods from the fall, stands a little island, of a few yards area; rising steep from the waters, and covered with forest trees. [...]
Below, the rapids foam and roar and tumble for half a mile, and then subside into the clear, gentle current that continues unbroken to the Rock River Rapids; and at high water to the Gulf of Mexico. Here too, the high bluffs which enclose the Mississippi commence. Such was the scene at the time of this authentic history, but now it is mended or marred, according to the taste of the spectator, by the works of the sons of Adam."

&mdash William Joseph Snelling

St. Anthony Falls today

Mississippi River Crossings
The river crossing are becoming rarer, soon there will be days without any. Today, I stayed west of the river until I entered the metro area.

Mississippi River Crossing 19

Mississippi River Crossing 20

Road Kill Tally
Skunks are tenaciously maintaining their lead. I realize it is not quite fair to lump all birds together while all the mammals have to fend for themselves, but I do not know enough about birds to separate them all out. Sorry. Should they win, you are welcome to shrug them off and look to the runner-up as the real victor.

1. Skunk: 9
2. Bird: 8
3. Racoon: 6
4. Deer: 4
5. Frog: 4
6. Opossum: 4
7. Cat: 3
8. Snake: 2
9. Mouse: 2
10. Porcupine: 1
11. Turtle: 1
12. Fox: 1

Grand Rapids to Little Falls

Click the map for route details

The ride
Today, with over 150 miles, was a little more than I had bargained for, to be honest. That's over 9.5 hours of riding time and about 14 hours of chamois time. Nice. But now I am in Little Falls and should be able to make it all the way home tomorrow, which will give me a full rest day Wednesday.

I left the ACA route in Aitkin today and went down the Great River Road instead. Speaking of Aitkin, it is a nice little town, and when I went into the local coffee shop, I met a nice couple from there, who were nice enough to buy me my frozen coffee drink, just for talking to them. Following the Great River Road was a mediocre idea, though, because highway 210 was not much fun to ride on, and the stretch from Brainerd to Little Falls, 30 miles on 371, would have been a four-lane highway. Luckily, I met a fellow cyclist from Deerwood in Deerwood, and he hooked me up with an alternate route to Little Falls. It was very pretty, but when I was tired and still had 30 miles to go, there was no alternative but to finish because it was out in the middle of nowhere. Right in the middle of it. Here are the highlights:

Little House on the Praire, 2007

Freedhem's just another word for "nothing left to lose"

One happy chicken in every cubic foot

Grand Rapids
And now I'm here, camping in Charles A. Lindbergh State Park, which has more mosquitos than anywhere else in Minnesota that I've seen. Amazing. Speaking of mosquitos, check out these little buggers. I'm not sure what they are, but they completely took over Grand Rapids tonight. They were harmless and only interested in each other, so it was easy to get up close and inspect them. Here's a little video I took that may show what it was like a little better. It was dark, though, and my camera is little:


Animal Attacks
Mosquitos are one thing. It is also fairly common to be chased by dogs on a bike tour. In fact, I had my first dog chase yesterday. Unfortunately for the dogs, they were a little Wiener sausage and a Westhighland terrorist, and their legs were just way too short to keep up. Usually, dogs are not a problem anyway, though, for their bite is not very accurate when they are running fast and they typically go after the bike's tires rather than the riders legs. And I can outride most dogs. If that is not possible, it really helps to suddenly swerve and forcefully bark at them. That startles them sufficiently to give you time to escape. Sometimes they will even run off, tail between legs. That's as far as it has ever gone between me and mean dogs.

Today, however, I was chased by a different kind of animal. The red-winged blackbird. Actually, several of them. These birds are peculiar. What they do is to sit on the power lines running along most county roads and wait for unsuspecting cyclists. You are riding along, minding your own business, when at first you hear a merry chirping sound, close by, slightly up and behind. Then you look behind you, because you are generally interested in the wildlife around you, and you see a red-winged blackbird diving down at you, about a foot from your face. Luckily, it veers off, but immediately dives at you again, all the while chirping not merrily, but angrily, you now realize. There is not really much to do but to continue riding and hoping that he will veer off every time and not peck a hole in your neck. Luckily, that seems to be what they do, it's all for show. Some show.

Mississippi River Crossings

Mississippi River Crossing 14

Mississippi River Crossing 15

Mississippi River Crossing 16

Mississippi River Crossing 17

Mississippi River Crossing 18

Road Kill Tally
Another quiet day today. Hardly anything on the road. The skunks are using this to build up their lead. I see a lot of turkey vultures and crows out, so I am lead to speculate that perhaps skunks are not actually killed in greater number, it is just that nobody wants to eat them because they smell so bad. Of course, this is not reflected in the statistics, but it is also pure speculation. We will see what happens.

1. Skunk: 7
2. Bird: 5
3. Deer: 4
4. Frog: 4
5. Racoon: 4
6. Cat: 2
7. Opossum: 2
8. Porcupine: 1
9. Turtle: 1
10. Snake: 1
11. Fox: 1
12. Mouse: 1

Who will take home top honors?

Lake Itasca to Grand Rapids

Click the map for details.

Leaving Lake Itasca

The first day of any tour is always interesting. Not quite sure what form you are in, riding a 90 pound bike for the first time in years, you have to be sure not to push yourself too hard. Touring bikes are simply slower than race bikes, but the change in pace takes getting used to. You can make a touring bike go as fast as a road bike, but it will almost certainly kill your knees, especially in the beginning of a ride. A stiff northern wind added to the challenge today, as I turned North towards Bemidji. If it keeps blowing from the North, though, I won't complain. Not one bit. It was tough going at first, but I had a nice breakfast with Ericca's aunt and cousins etc. in Bemidji. After that, it got better, and I found my groove about 55 miles into the day.

The ride was pleasant, and the 120 miles to Grand Rapids were no problem, really. Drivers were courteous and waved. Once I stopped in the middle of nowhere to check the map and stretch my legs, and the first car that came by stopped to see if I needed any help. Minnesota really nice.

I ran out of water and gas just as I approached Bena, on Highway 2 (which was the least pleasant stretch of the ride). There was a small gas station (read: liquor store), and as I was looking for the most calorie-dense food in the store, a young and heavily intoxicated young man followed me around very closely. Just as I thought he might start humping my leg, he finally popped the question that had so obviously been on his mind from the time he first saw me: "Why are you wearing tights, man?" I started to explain things to him, but exercise was all he needed to hear. He could respect that. We hugged, and I made a friend that day.

Otherwise, the ride was fairly eventless, the countryside is beautiful up here, and the weather was great. The thunderstorms stayed South.

Mississippi River Crossings
Here is a series of pictures of the Mississippi that I took whenever I crossed over it.

Mississippi River Crossing 2

Mississippi River Crossing 3

Mississippi River Crossing 4

Mississippi River Crossing 5

Mississippi River Crossing 6

Mississippi River Crossing 7 (Lake Bemidji)

Mississippi River Crossing 8

Mississippi River Crossing 9

Mississippi River Crossing 10

Mississippi River Crossing 11

Mississippi River Crossing 12

Mississippi River Crossing 13

Camping in Grand Rapids
Grand Rapids is the start of the Mesabi Trail, which starts at the local County Fairgrounds. The adjacent green space is also a campground, which has showers and bathrooms, for $10 per night. The caretaker has a mean dog, but is a fun guy, who gave me a stern warning against going to New Orleans. It's a bad place. You see, he used to get drunk with his friends, who would get just a little less drunk than he. Then they would pool their resources and buy a one-way ticket to the farthest place they could afford and put him on a plane, always making sure he did not have any money on him. He would wake up later, not knowing where he was. One time, he happened to wake up in New Orleans. He would then hitchhike back to Colorado and hang out with his friends some more.

He quit drinking in 1973.

Grand Rapids Campground at the Fairgrounds

Road Kill Tally
One thing I like to keep track of when I ride my bike is the road kill I find. I myself have a pregnant bunny-rabbit on my account, but it was an accident during a crit. In any case, I think the road kill you find can tell you much about the region you are riding through, so I will keep you abreast of developments in this area. Today started out slowly, apparently it is a good time to be an animal living by the road, and an unexpected front runner has emerged. I doubt it will hold its position for long, the racoon was coming on strongly towards the end of the day. Here it is, the first official road kill tally (insects are excluded from competition):

1. Skunk: 5
2. Deer: 4
3. Frog: 4
4. Racoon: 3
5. Bird: 2
6. Porcupine: 1
7. Cat: 1
8. Turtle: 1

Who will take home top honors?

Minneapolis to Lake Itasca

We drove up to Itasca State Park today, where the Headwaters of the Mississippi are. If you click on the map above, you will find many details of our drive up, including various kinds of maps etc. The feature I like best is the Google Earth export. You can view and fly along the route by clicking on the Google Earth link below the map you will find. For this drive, it is clearly not too interesting, but every day I will post maps of my ride, and you can come along, virtually. Try it out, it should be fun.

First things first, we made a fire and ate almost all the food we had brought, no small feat that I had not thought possible. But it was delicious. This is how delicious it was:

This was, in part, an effort to warm Ericca up to the joys of camping, but it turned out that the campground was completely taken over by what the inimitable Sarah Heimel calls breeders. That is, suburban parents with more kids than they can handle, which the kids are all too aware of. The result was that it felt more like being in Blaine than at a campground. This picture may not do the situation justice, but it's the best I have:

After a little digestive nap, we made our way to the Headwaters, where you can jump from Lake Itasca into the Mississippi. Clearly, those rocks that separate Lake Itasca from the Mississippi did not get there naturally. They were placed there as part of a 1930's improvement project.

I then went for a little walk down the Mississippi, where it is only about an armspan wide. This lead directly to the first Mississippi River Crossing:

Mississippi River Crossing 1

So is Lake Itasca really the source of the Mississippi? You betcha. In 1889, Jacob Vradenburg Brower conducted a survey to settle once and for all the lingering controversy over the true source of the Mississippi River. He concluded:

There are five creeks entering Lake Itasca, none large enough to be called a river. It is only as the outlet to Lake Itasca where a true river is formed.

We rounded off the evening by taking a little boat out onto Lake Itasca, which appears very shallow and full of weeds. But it really is beautiful.

Lake Itasca, in the heart of the Loon State