Archive for the ‘bicycling’ Category
Hastings to Cannon Falls
Day 7 of riding the 50th Tour of Minnesota
First of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my daughter, Elysa!! How many June twenty-twos have I been away from you on this trip? I’m looking forward to seeing you soon!
The last day is always bittersweet. Vacation ends today. We ride back to Cannon Falls and our vehicles to drive off to our real lives with a wealth of new memories and hopefully added friends to our precious collection of Tour of Minnesota alumni.
Look at that. We finish by riding half the distance of the Cannon Valley Trail again. I’m okay with that. Not needing to think about the next turn allows my mind to be more meditative. It’s hard to say goodbye to so many friends who have shared the ups and downs of a weeklong adventure and it’s hard to switch to driving a car again but I am always VERY happy to be back in my bed and private bathroom again.
I suspect I might also be very happy to sleep in a house, sheltered from storms if the previous week played out like the forecasts predicted.
Tomorrow, I hope to be back to posting fresh content again and will be able to regale you with the details of what actually happened while I was off galavanting on my bike with 300 friends for a week.
I hope I make it safely all the way to the end. By the end of today, this year’s Tour of Minnesota is in the books.
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Stillwater to Hastings
Day 6 of riding the 50th Tour of Minnesota
Since we are basically riding “with the current” from Stillwater down to Hastings, it should be downhill the whole way, no? Not exactly.
The route deviates from the shoulder of the St. Croix River and cuts west where we will cross the Mississippi River on our way down to Hastings.
The itinerary shows we are arriving in Hastings for lunch. Really? Almost 60 miles to lunch? Might as well make it a century and ride another 40 before dinner.
Maybe this is just a reflection of how fit we will be by this point of the tour. I wonder if we have figured out a way to be waterproof on a bike in thunderstorms yet.
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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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More Miles
Not only did I get back on my bike for a second day in a row, yesterday I logged a new high for total miles in one outing. Sneaking out of the house a few minutes before 6 a.m., I drove down to Red Wing to ride the Cannon Valley Trail down to Cannon Falls and back.
The distance between the two cities is 20 miles so I knew I was biting off at least a 40-mile day, but I figured since it was all on a relatively flat paved trail, it wouldn’t be an extreme 40. Two other factors played in my favor: the return leg of the loop would be traveling with the flow of the Cannon River, so “downhill,” and the wind would be at my back.
The wildlife creatures were out in force and showed up almost everywhere I looked. There were so many bunny rabbits darting around the trail that I feared they would end up causing a crash. Who wants to run over a little bunny?
I saw a pheasant, a turkey, deer of all ages, a couple of eagles sharing carrion of some creature in tall grass with a flock of turkey vultures, snapping turtles digging holes for eggs right at the edge of the pavement, a red squirrel that crossed inches from my front wheel, and more rabbits than I have ever seen in my entire life.
When I got to Cannon Falls, I rolled up to the Veteran’s Memorial where I was able to pause and reflect on the significance of D-Day.
I found a bench in a park beside the river to eat a little breakfast I’d brought for the occasion. The Cannon River has risen well beyond its banks and was flowing with big energy.
After my short break at the halfway point, I was feeling pretty good and kicked it up a notch to celebrate the tailwind and the downslope. That lasted almost 10 miles before my body started tiring of the routine.
When your whole body gets tired of being on a bike, it becomes really hard to find a position that feels comfortable for more than a few minutes. At first, a new adjustment seems like just what I needed, but when it only lasts for a short time, the result is an endless rotation of standing up, sitting back farther on the saddle, moving hands to new hold on the bars, coasting, stretching, and looking for any distraction for my mind.
I got a kick out of the deer that was munching greenery at head height with its butt sticking out on the trail. I had a full broadside view of this big doe. I saw her turn toward me but then she just went back to eating as if I wasn’t there. I wondered if she might not have seen me or just didn’t recognize I was approaching.
She chomped a large bite of leaves and turned toward me again. This time her eyes grew wide and she froze like maybe I wouldn’t see her if she didn’t move. I had been coasting toward her at the same speed the whole time wondering how close she’d let me get, standing stiff with a garden salad of leaves sticking out of her snout.
At maybe ten yards and closing, she bolted up into the trees with her mouth still full. I hope I didn’t give her indigestion.
I made it back home by 11:00 and spent the afternoon leaving muddy tire tracks all over the place as I mowed with the riding mower. My legs were way too tired to walk behind the push-mower.
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Weather Luck
My assessment at the end of our bike ride on the hills around Wintervale is displayed visibly in this image captured by Beth Bertelson:
It rained much of Friday night but we woke up to a pause in the precipitation and the ground was only a little damp outside. However, radar evidence indicated another batch of potentially heavier rain moving in our direction at a rate that would put it over us right when we wanted to head out.
Undaunted, the group of my friends who ventured the roughly hour-long drive to our place were going through the preparations to ride without hesitation.
As the minutes closed, I sensed the trend of movement on that next mass of wet weather was going to slide just south of our location. Instead, we ended up getting a dose of ground fog that faded the beauty of the fall colors and obscured the distance view of the horizon at the high spot that usually offers the best vista.
Soon after descending the invigorating glide down from that potential view, the fog dissipated and the dryer air hinted we were going to be granted perfect conditions for our time on the road.
One highlight of having my cycling friends join me on these roads was the combination of ride buddies from two different worlds. There were people I met on the annual June rides now known as the Tour of Minnesota and two riders I grew up knowing in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.
Paul and I have known each other since grade school and shared a number of epic biking adventures over the years. That shot is taken at Vino in the Valley restaurant near the Rush River. You can see in the background we were blessed with periods of blue sky at the midpoint of our route.
After a pause on a bridge by a limestone cliff, we started the long, slow climb up the steep hill that marks the transition between the two worlds of lush valley and wide open farm fields.
We made it back to Wintervale in perfect time and celebrated our accomplishment with a delicious lunch feast. The laughter and riding afterglow was precisely what I was longing for and very reminiscent of the week-long Tour of Minnesota we have every June.
Cyndie and I added a few tours of our forest, the labyrinth, visits to the horses and interactions with Asher to top off a perfect adventure that fit surprisingly well between bouts of inclement weather.
We needed the rain and I really wanted to ride with friends. I am very lucky that I was able to have both. Overnight last night we received 1.25 inches of rain. Ahhh. Perfect timing.
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Relative Something 