Archive for the ‘bicycling’ Category
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All too soon the trip is over, the time just comes, the dancing’s done
Bittersweet to reach the start again, don’t want to stop, can’t wait to get home
Imagine this: I didn’t take any pictures on our last day of riding from Hibbing back to our cars in Grand Rapids. However, I have scoured my files for some of my favorites from the week, several of which I am unable to credit because I can’t recall who the photographer was. In no particular order…
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Men in black.
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Prop wash!
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Bear butts in Ely on the WOWOWs.
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It wasn’t all trails all the time. That’s Gary approaching in the distance.
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.Geoffrey and Marylin arriving on the Virginia High Bridge.
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View from the bridge down to Roucheleau mine lake, a former iron mine partially filled with groundwater.
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The three amigos.
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Rich snapped a closeup of me as I breezed past.
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Rich captured us in front of a mine lake. There are lots of mine lakes.
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Music in the park. Thank you to Julie for this image!
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Posing in front of an iron man and handing phone to whoever is near to capture.
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Hanging out with the best-dressed guy on the ride. Gary, you do look dashing in that jersey!
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I absolutely love this woman and she has captured our joyful energy in this most beautiful selfie. Juuuuulieeee!
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And so ends another annual ride around. Thank you to all of the staff and volunteers of the Tour of Minnesota who provide these June adventures!
Peace, out.
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To Hibbing
It was a beautifully sunny day out of Gilbert. Rich captured this shot of Steve leading Laura and me on a particularly bumpy section of the Mesabi trail.
I took a picture of Steve and Rich later on.
No complaints about the weather yesterday. It was picture perfect. Tents packed dry in the morning, no significant wind, and lots of sunshine.
In Hibbing, we camped at the historic high school. I took a picture of the Steinway piano that Bob was banging on like Little Richard when he was yanked off the stage.
There is also a display case dedicated to the troubadour.
They seem rather fond of Dylan around these parts.
On the walk back to camp after dinner, we came upon a property with a labyrinth.
Today, we ride back to our cars in Grand Rapids. It begins the odd struggle of returning to real life again.
Bittersweet to reach the start again
Don’t want to stop, can’t wait to get home
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To Gilbert
The day dawned foggy in Ely, but not nearly as cold as the first few days. We stayed dry all day, which was nice because it was a day of the farthest distance. I clocked in at 68 miles by the time we reached Gilbert.
With dry weather, it was easier for me to get the camera out while rolling down the road.
I had a goal of capturing a shot of Gary at some point, and when the opportunity presented itself…
I happened to come across Angela and Cynthia mid-pause on the shoulder, so I took their picture, too.
I like the totally unposed aspect of that shot.
It was day flat tires for some unknown reason. I was riding beside Steve when he hit a piece of steel that he mistook for wood. It put a slice in the sidewall that required a custom insert to keep the tube from bulging out.
The riding has gone well for me and I feel like I’ve finally got my old skills and form back for long distance cycling.
It’s a lot like riding a bike.
Remembering song chords and lyrics has been more of a challenge than the cycling.
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Still Ely
Having a day off in the middle of our week of riding is a nice change of pace. Unfortunately, it wreaks havoc on the organization system I had established for keeping track of things in my duffel bag.
Yesterday was a chance to sleep in, pick our own restaurants for meals, and shop Ely.
After an early hike to get coffee with Laura, which scored me a chai, a larger gang formed for breakfast at Insula restaurant.
Breakfast salad was my choice and I was not disappointed. Poached eggs and smoked salmon! Mmm. It was delicious and just what I wanted.
Look at that morsel of blue sky!
We shopped the main drag and I got to visit my two favorite outdoor gear retailers: Wintergreen and Steger Mukluks.
One of our riders from California, Bob Murin, paints watercolors and I came upon him mid-picture.
In the afternoon, we visited the International Wolf Center and were lucky to spot the four males that made an appearance right before we left, three of whom are visible sprawled out in the image I captured.
It was all good, but paled in comparison to the social-hour surprise we got in the park where we tented.
An Ely cake baker, Susan Laine, showed up with a treat she baked to welcome us!
That is love, I tell ya.
To Ely
We dodged the rain yesterday, but no such luck with cool temperatures. That made for good riding, but was pretty chilly for patio dining.
It was the third day of biking and our spirited group wasted no time in embarking on silly shenanigans
The subject was unaware he had been pranked with the old pat on the back sign gag.
We visited the underground mine in Tower-Sudan and some folks took a tour, but I elected to stay above ground.
The Mesabi trail passes through some gorgeous northern Minnesota forest between the mine and Ely.
One highlight for me was witnessing a squirrel dash right between Steve Reynolds’ tires. Talk about timing.
Camped in park just off Main Street in Ely, where we did some power lounging in the afternoon before dinner. Once dinner had been devoured, we headed to Red Cabin Custard for dessert.
We will stay in Ely all day today, allowing for a one-day break from pedaling, and opportunity to amass embarrassing amounts of unneeded calories.
We eat like we think we have to
then have some more when it tastes so good
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To Aurora
It started out rather chilly yesterday, but at least it wasn’t raining.
We left Chisholm as a group and claimed a lane of the road until we got back on the Mesabi trail.
It was 16 miles to a rest stop for some snacking, a mere hour and a half after we left breakfast. No wonder we all tend to gain weight despite all the biking we do.
There is just one thing I asked for during this ride: it can be cold, or it can rain, I just don’t want cold temps AND rain.
Well, I didn’t get what I wanted. Between that snack break and lunch, the clouds started to spit a little bit. Then, it began to sprinkle, until it unmistakably turned to rain.
The optimist might say, “At least it wasn’t snowing.
Luckily, there was hot soup on the menu for lunch. Any food is good for recovering from being wet and cold, but hot soup was a welcome bonus.
The ride from lunch in Biwabik to Aurora took us through a picturesque stand of old growth pines.
Hanging out at our tents after hot showers (yay!), Rich sent up his drone for a bird’s eye view of our circle of post-riding silliness.
Then I took a picture from ground level.
All in all, another great day on the Tour of Minnesota, discounting
the fact it is so dang cold in the middle of June.
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To Chisholm
We were blessed with great weather yesterday for riding the Mesabi Trail from Grand Rapids to Chisholm.
The trail is a fabulous adventure of twists and turns with a variety of dramatic ups and downs.
There were a number of vistas that provided views of mining activity, as well as of the huge ridges of dumped leftovers. Eventually, vegetation starts to grow and reclaim the surface, but it is a little unsettling to see the way humans can alter the planet so significantly.
Has me struggling with the multitude of ways my activities and possessions contribute to demand for mining.
The trail just rolled past our tires…
That’s Rich and Steve vrooming around a corner.
In Chisholm, we camped at the mining museum and got a chance to see some big and historic equipment up close.
I asked Steve and James to provide a reference to actual size. Did I mention, big?
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To Grand Rapids
Commence camping!
Things did not go well in the waning moments prior to that critical point of finally heading out the door for a week of vacation.
In my last sweep of the counter after a quick lunch, I discovered ants marching to and fro.
I decided to search for ant killer that we might have stashed away from last year. Second place I looked was under the kitchen sink.
When I opened the doors, water came rolling out. Lots of it!
I have no idea where it was coming from and didn’t have time to thoroughly investigate.
I pulled everything out and mopped up, then slid a bucket into position under the drips.
What a lovely mess to leave behind.
I met Gary Larson in Edina, leaving my car at Cyndie’s parents’ house and rode with him to Grand Rapids.
It was as wonderful as ever to see the many friends and familiar faces of fellow riders and to be greeted so warmly.
Mere words can’t describe it
When you ride with us, then you know
After years of having done this
It gets more important for me to go
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Wetter Today
There is nothing quite like the ripping of rain-soaked air by the high heat energy of a lightning strike that explodes in close proximity. That ever so brief searing tear of the atmospheric fabric, then accented by a concussive BOOM! that startles even though it is obviously about to happen, is the stuff of my childhood terrors.
Even some of the kabooms from farther away that don’t trigger a panic reaction are powerful enough that the walls of our house creak and windows flex. And, yes, it makes our dog bark in a faux bravery attempt to shout down the perceived threat.
We knew this stormy weather was coming. A whole weekend of it. The future predictors (meteorologists) told us about it, right down to the hours when it would be intense.
I lucked out yesterday, as the partially cloudy day stayed dry in our area, though radar indicated it was rainy just to our south. It allowed me to get the already too long grass mowed in the nick of time, and then squeak in my very first bike ride of the season.
No pressure or anything, but I did register for another week of biking and camping in June, so conditioning my butt to tolerate extended hours on the saddle is once again on my to-do list.
There are worse burdens in this world.
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Getting back out on the open road, seeing an endless ribbon of pavement rolled out before me, breathing (panting) the fresh country air, having close encounters with protective old farm dogs, waving at folks gawking at the silly human pedaling for conveyance, is both physical exercise and mental refreshment.
Feeling the wind pushing against your face, as well as from behind, since I chose to ride in a big square of all four directions, connects with the elements in a way that car travel completely eliminates.
In my current living situation, claiming hours for pedaling along idly doesn’t happen without a bigger reason to force it, so the bike trip becomes something of a cause and effect. It’s not like the old days when I would ride my bike for miles, to and from work every day. Back then, by the time June came around, I was more than prepared for day-long rides.
I am grateful that I was able to launch my road bike for its season opener on a dry day yesterday. If I am to follow that up with a second ride this weekend, it’s going to be much wetter.
Just like those future-tellers predicted.
Hopefully, I can time it so as to avoid the lightning and thunder.
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Trip Photos
The 2018 Tour of Minnesota is in the books. It is not unreasonable to say that everyone who participated had as many unique experiences as we did shared ones. We all come to this ride from different perspectives. There is a wide mix of experience. Some have never ridden a multi-day tip before, and some haven’t ever ridden with a large group.
Many riders on the Tour of Minnesota have done this ride together for decades. My perspective about this ride comes from having done it around twenty times, but is limited to having no other multi-day group ride to which I can compare.
I figured out this year that we could use negatives to describe it thusly: The Tour of MN is not TRAM, not BAM, not RAGBRAI, etc. It also occurred to me that we could flaunt the ride as an eco-friendly vacation, in that, we (most of us) park our cars for a week and human-power our way around the state.
At the end of the ride, participants are invited to submit up to three photos from the week for a contest. I picked three from my collection, but quickly realized there were many other shots deserving attention, so I am tossing them out for you to judge.
I hope they help you imagine what my week was like…
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I am always amazed by the visual of our onslaught of bicycles showing up in unexpected locations where riders seek out any-and-every vertical surface to support our machines while we pause to eat.
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This image of Steve is one of my submissions to the contest. I doubt it’s chances in the judging, since it reveals one of the sloppy, wet realities of needing to reach destinations, regardless the weather.
The reflection on the new wet pavement was too irresistible to pass up. I pulled out my camera, despite the odds it would get splattered by the rooster tail spray shooting up off his tires.
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The covered bridge on the Lake Wobegon trail at Holdingford, MN was a real treat.
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I love the expression spontaneously captured by my reach-around snap of the riders behind me on this stretch of road.
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The Penn Cycle “ambulance” was manned by staff new to our ride this year, and they said they had a good enough time to want to return again next year.
I’m pretty sure we appreciated them even more than they did us.
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Relative Something 