Archive for June 2024
Waconia to Stillwater
Day 5 of riding the 50th Tour of Minnesota
After just one day of sleeping in and not packing first thing in the morning on our rest day, getting up and going in the usual routine of this ride can be a bit of a struggle for me.
“Where did I put my water bottle?”
I have no idea what this day will bring but I have been looking forward to it since first seeing the announcement for this year’s itinerary.
We are headed straight through the population center of the state! Whaaat!?
There is so much to see and do within our reach but little time to dawdle. We’re riding over 60 miles. We will roll through the metropolis with mere glances at much of the scenery on our quest to keep moving toward our destination.
I wonder what it will be like if we are riding through thunderstorms.
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Day Off in Waconia
Day 4 – Riding Optional – on the 50th Tour of Minnesota
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day off
already
don’t have to ride
get to sleep in
eat wherever looks good
explore Waconia
hang out with friends
laugh till we cry
but don’t get too crazy
gotta pack in the morning
and ride again
early
need to get back
in the groove
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I stole that poem from the post I made on the rest day during last year’s Tour in Alexandria. It captures the off day in a succinct sort of way.
In years past, I have been known to visit a movie theater on the rest day. Twice in different years, a group of us took on the challenge of an escape room. This year there will be an afternoon social celebrating 50 years of this middle of June ride that has likely visited every nook and cranny in the state of 10,000 lakes. I’m curious how many former riders might make a surprise appearance.
Happy Juneteenth!
New Prague to Waconia
Day 3 of riding the 50th Tour of Minnesota
This should be an interesting day. Rich and I have volunteered to ride as “Sweepers” today. That means we will put on bright yellow vests and ride slower than the slowest rider to mark the end of the train of riders. Just like a couple of cabooses.
Sometimes it is harder to ride slower than your normal pace so this will be an interesting experiment for me. I suspect we will make a lot of stops to observe after taking turns sprinting ahead to stretch out our legs.
Hope we get a good spot for our tents. Tomorrow there is no scheduled ride so this will be the second time we get to leave our tents up an extra day.
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Cannon Falls to New Prague
Day 2 of riding the 50th Tour of Minnesota
Today we take down our tents and say “goodbye” to our vehicles. For the rest of the week, all we have with us is what we remembered to pack. We are riding to New Prague today. I get to see Judy because her house is located very close to where we will be camping tonight.
That looks like a lot of turns. I hope the other riders around me will do the navigating so I can just mindlessly follow along. Is my body ready for more than 60 miles? I hope so.
I forgot…, how many thunderstorms were predicted for today?
I have a feeling this day will be an adventure.
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Cannon Falls to Red Wing and Back
Day 1 of riding the 50th Tour of Minnesota.
One fine thing about today is that we won’t need to take down our tents first thing in the morning. We will be camping in the same place tonight. Today’s riding is all on the Cannon Valley trail, which I just rode a little over a week ago. The difference will be starting and finishing in opposite cities. As a result, the first leg down to Red Wing will be dropping in elevation and the return to Cannon Falls will be a steady incline.
It is a subtle impact but doesn’t go unnoticed.
The route looks like this on our maps:
I’ll be watching the weather radar to decide when I really want to leave and may consider not traveling all the way to Red Wing depending on the timing of predicted morning thunderstorms. Of course, if my friends want to brave the weather, I’m a sucker for a little peer pressure.
The trip has started for real!
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50th Tour of Minnesota
I haven’t left home yet but my vacation week begins today! As I’ve done many other times, during my week of cycling the Tour of Minnesota and tent camping in various towns around the state, I have prepared scheduled posts for the days I’m away showing the planned routes so you can follow along and know our approximate location when the inevitable severe weather warnings pop up.
I wish that was a joke, but anecdotal evidence indicates wicked storms are becoming more the norm than the exception during the middle of June in Minnesota. In years past, I have ridden out storms in my tent while many others chose to sleep en masse in school buildings. After a too-close lightning strike one night and a screaming alarm on my phone indicating an imminent tornado another night, I realized I could no longer trust my judgment. I intend to be quicker to join the throngs indoors this year if warnings are posted.
The changing climate likes to point out these are not my father’s thunderstorms. Message received.
This being the 50th anniversary of this middle-of-June biking and camping week and my 25th (+/- my first year was 1994, but I missed a few throughout), I am thrilled at the switch from the far reaches of the state –over the years we’ve slipped into every state around Minnesota plus Canada– to a route that will take us directly through the middle of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.
Somewhere between 250 and 300 people will gather this afternoon in Cannon Falls, MN to pick up our registration packets and set up tents to kick off the most fun like-minded cyclists could possibly have. I can’t wait to see Doobie, Joyce, Joey, Rich, Julie, Steve, Gary, John, Jim, Steve, Roger, Dick, Al, Suzanne, Laura, Rhonda, David, Tim, Cynthia, Scott, Luther, Joseph, Marilyn, Geoffrey, Ed, Deanna, Mary-Jo, Luke, Staci, Jennifer, Dan, Jim, Peggy, Lance, Mary, Cindy, Scott, Jackie, Mary, Jerry, Ellen, Joan, Melanie, Dusty, Karen, Dick, Jan, Pat and the rest whom I will recognize but not remember their names, plus the many people who I will be meeting for the very first time.
Here’s hoping for a safe and adventure-filled week pedaling two wheels and sleeping on the ground with friends.
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Branches Pruned
When things go smoothly, I am generally surprised. In my experience, DIY projects commonly involve a fair amount of problem-solving. Not yesterday, for me. The only thing that didn’t go as planned was the surprise of a large branch falling on our driveway sometime while we were eating breakfast. Besides being rather shocking to find that unexpected mess on the driveway that was clean just an hour earlier, it was pretty funny because we were coming outside to trim branches in that same vicinity.
It seemed like it would be a simple process of cutting down a few branches in order to give Cyndie’s garden more sunlight.
However, things went so smoothly that a few branches soon became a lot more than a few.
I needed to get the ATV and trailer to haul three loads of branches away. That ended up being a breeze. Without complication, the Grizzly started easily, the trailer connection was painless, the ATV didn’t create a muddy mess anywhere, the branches were tossed onto brush piles without incident, and everything was put away just as the farrier finished trimming the horse’s hooves.
The airspace above the garden opened up nicely.
There was plenty of time left in the day to trim more fence lines and even mow grass on the back side of the barn before dinner.
With any luck, the ground will be dry enough to mow most of the rest of the property today. I’d love to finish it all since I leave for the bike trip tomorrow.
I wonder what other projects I’m forgetting to address before I go…
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Rain Chances
“Don’t worry about the future” is wise advice. “Live in the moment” is a great idea. However, in order to pack for a weeklong trip, I need to visualize how the future days might turn out. Will I need any warm clothes or not? Should I pack a raincoat? I need to put myself in that future place.
Well…
That forecast indicates my biking and camping future next week has a pretty consistent chance of being a wet one. I think I’ll want a raincoat.
Today and tomorrow I will strive to fully appreciate the comforts of home before setting off on an adventure against the elements on Saturday.
I wonder if it’s possible to ride a bike while holding an umbrella.
We received a fresh soaking of under a half-inch of rain yesterday, forcing me to delay mowing until today and tomorrow. I salvaged a tiny amount of the day by fence trimming for an hour before dinner. It felt a bit like “too little, too late” but it was better than nothing.
Our weather forecast for the next two days shows no sign of precipitation. I’ll be cutting grass wherever the turf supports the tractor tires enough to not leave mud streaks.
We’ve decided to try sawing branches from a maple tree shading Cyndie’s garden and then need to prepare the horses for a farrier appointment before noon so it looks to be a busy day on the ranch.
At least I shouldn’t need an umbrella. Yet…
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Reclaiming Fences
In addition to regaining the upper hand on our trails, I think I mentioned that I’ve worked some fence lines, too. Yesterday, after I got home from a successful morning of shopping, I strapped on the Stihl power trimmer and headed to the far side of the hay field to make the fence visible again.
I burned through two tanks of gas but probably haven’t reached the halfway point yet. It’s taking so long because we didn’t get after this earlier and now the grass is so tall and thick it takes twice as long to knock it all down.
The days to departure for my week of biking and tenting are dwindling faster than the amount of work I’d like to complete around the property can be achieved. I’m splitting my attention between tending to things outdoors and gathering my gear in the house to pack. Half attention to each goal tends to result in half-sized results for both.
It is what it is. In the end, time always wins. I’ll get done what I can and pack up and go when it is time to go.
As of last night, my weather app showed this forecast for Saturday through Thursday: an alternating percentage chance of storms or rain each day, 50%; 40%; 50%; 40%; 50%; 40%.
Oh, joy.
Like I’ve said, that’s why we call it adventure!
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Reclaiming Trails
Counting down the days until my next Tour of Minnesota adventure, I popped out for a 2-hour loop on local roads for a 25-mile bike ride yesterday morning. Picking a route with roads I’ve not ridden before, I found myself climbing a curvy road that rose skyward to such a degree I needed to walk my bike up a good portion of it. This had me wondering if I’d made a mistake in doing my Monday morning exercise routine before asking my legs to work so hard on a ride.
The highlight of this ride was discovering an old man seated on his walker on the side of the road a long way from any buildings. What caught my eye at first was a couple of fine-looking cats that seemed out of place in the middle of nowhere. As the road I was on ended at this crossroad, my mind was contemplating which direction I wanted to turn when I finally noticed Mr. Meyer facing to my left, looking oblivious to my arrival.
I offered a greeting and rolled up beside him to chat. The cats were his and followed him on his walks. He told me he was 93 and this was the spot where he turns around after resting for a spell. We had a wonderful visit until both of us felt a need to get moving again before stiffening up.
Limiting myself to just two hours of riding got me home in time to join Cyndie in tackling a few chores on the property. First, I pulled out the chainsaw and we removed recently tipped trees that were leaning precariously across two different trails. From there, I switched to the power trimmer to whack a trail from the jungle of overgrowth taking over while Cyndie used our ratcheted lopper to cut back encroaching trees and branches.
It is very rewarding to reclaim space from the relentless growth that overtakes our trails this time of year. It seems to get easier each time since what needs cutting is all new growth, not well-established thick-stemmed plants that foil the string trimmer.
I made my way through two tanks of gas in the trimmer, moving on to work along the back pasture fence line and around the footbridge over the drainage ditch before going as far as I could up one of the narrow internal trails.
We’ve barely covered a fraction of the trimming that needs to be done so this project will be ongoing for multiple days. We’d like to get all the fence lines cleared because the guy who cuts and bales our hay field is planning to come as soon as he gets all his own fields tended. It makes it easier for him to cut close if the fence is clearly visible.
That was plenty of exercise for one day. I may take advantage of the predicted rain due this morning to do a little shopping before departing for the Tour on Saturday. It’s time to pull out all my camping gear and take inventory. I haven’t used any of it since last year’s Tour. Hope I remember where I put everything.
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Relative Something 