Posts Tagged ‘outdoor adventures’
Next Adventure
All too soon the trip is over. I am home again. Got home yesterday to a precious greeting from Asher who has yet to learn not to jump up on people. The return to reality is both comforting and overwhelming. I would like to process the lingering afterglow of the previous week at the same time as catching up on tasks around the property that I usually tend to on a daily basis. There is a week’s worth of manure compost to turn over.
After arriving home, I quickly unpacked my gear and set things out to dry before making my way with Cyndie and Asher down to see the horses.
Then I received a ping on my phone that lightning was in the area. The recent experience in Sauk Centre of walking to dinner under sunny skies and leaving my tent fly open was a lesson learned. Downpours can appear with surprising speed. I cut short the horse visit and rushed up to get my gear inside just as the first drops started falling.
The week of biking and camping on The Tour of Minnesota for 2023 was good for me. I didn’t even put my battery on the bike but packed it in my bags just in case. I credit the accumulating years of planking and stretching exercise routines for having me stronger than at any previous time in my life. Combined with my change from a classic touring bike to the Trek Domane made for the best riding I’ve ever done.
I stood up to pedal up an incline and Rich Gordon said, “Keep standing so I can take a picture!”
As I huffed and puffed the extra effort to climb while off the saddle, Rich fumbled to get his phone from the back pocket of his jersey. Then he needed to check traffic behind us before pulling beside me.
“Keep standing!”
He had to get the camera app open. Needed to get the orientation right. This wasn’t going to be his selfie.
“Keep standing!”
Pretty soon we were both laughing over his getting me to stand much longer than I would have otherwise done. At least he gave me the gift of a great shot.
The air quality was annoyingly bad enough that I needed to hit the Albuterol for relief on multiple days.
I hope to resurrect a few more stories from the trip in the days ahead and share plenty of fun photos after I find time to process them.
As always, the interactions and hijinks of the wonderful people who participate in such adventures are a highlight that can overshadow the natural wonders we bike past. The weather was both good and not so good. We coped just fine.
My tent was one of the last to come down yesterday morning.
I was eager to get home but I already miss the thrill of being out on the road early every morning pedaling long miles with precious friends under the mixture of trees and wide open skies.
This year’s Tour was a good one.
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Little Falls to Albany
We’re returning home today! One last time of packing up the tent and rolling down country roads on bicycles with 200 wonderful friends. If it’s anything like all the years before, talk will already be about what part of the state the tour will be in next year.
2024 will mark the 50th year of this event. Me thinks it will be one not to be missed.
How will it feel to be back in my bed again tonight? I know I will be looking forward to finding out.
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Sauk Centre to Little Falls
I have no memories of having been to either Sauk Centre or Little Falls but if we have biked to these towns in previous years, I will tend to recognize them as vaguely familiar. There are usually enough similarities to out-state population centers that they become blurred in my mind over time and I experience frequent sensations of having been here before whether I actually have or not.
My first ride with this group was in 1994. There were a handful of years when I missed out, so I am never certain if I have ridden into some towns even if they hosted us at some point in the past. I have pedaled with these fabulous friends annually in June for probably 24 or 25 years.
It’s Friday and we are on the second to last day of the tour. Don’t want to stop, can’t wait to get home.
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Morris to Sauk Centre
Today is Elysa’s birthday! In honor of her, I will pedal her age in miles and then add on about twenty more for good measure.
It would be fine with me if a cool breeze blows from the west all day.
I’ll be blowing kisses south in the direction of my wonderful daughter.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, E!
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Alexandria to Morris
Only 50 miles to travel today. That should be easy for those of us who didn’t stay out too late consuming adult beverages while cavorting with raucous crowds at the most popular Alexandria establishments last night. If I was true to form, the desire for a full night’s sleep had me tucked in just about the time mosquitos took over the air space.
I’m usually sleeping hard enough by the time late-comers return that I don’t even hear the tent zippers opening and closing. Sometimes I hear when someone trips over a rainfly guy-wire. Mind you, that happens whether or not the person has been imbibing freely –day or night.
I look forward to finding what is in store for us in Morris.
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Alexandria
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day off
already
don’t have to ride
get to sleep in
eat wherever looks good
explore Alexandria
hang out with friends
laugh till we cry
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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Albany to Alexandria
Okay, so this morning is when it feels a little tender to climb back on the bike and sit. Like so many things in life, you get used to it soon enough and pedal away without a care in the world. It’s Juneteenth today!
We ride some on the Lake Wobegon Regional Trail today. I wonder how many new friends I will have made by the end of the day. The biking is great but it’s the people on the trip that make it so dang much fun that I keep returning year after year.
I sure hope the wildfire smoke isn’t as bad today as it was at the end of last week.
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Albany Loop
We leave Albany this morning and ride a loop that reaches St. Cloud and then returns to Albany. It is a bonus that we don’t need to take down our tents and pack everything up before we ride. A second night of sleeping in Albany might mean I will be used to all the sounds of the area and snooze solidly straight through this time. Not likely.
My butt won’t feel sore until I get back on the seat tomorrow morning.
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Touring Minnesota
It’s that time of year again. The middle of June and here I go again, getting back on my bike touring Minnesota with friends. I have modified the chorus of this song I wrote about the trip so it fits the current version of the weeklong adventure of biking and camping that has been happening for 49 years. The original song celebrated the founder of the “Jaunt with Jim” ride, Jim Klobuchar.
I haven’t committed to a firm blogging plan for the week ahead but as a backup in case I decide to do nothing more, I have programmed posts that will, at the very least, point out the towns where the scheduled camping sights are located. You can then check the weather and find out if massively dangerous thunderstorms have formed directly over our heads each night.
Not that such calamities occur every night. Last year it was more like every other night. I have a new rainfly for my tent this year so I’m ready for whatever nature decides to dish out.
I am meeting Gary Larson in Minnetonka this afternoon and we will travel together to the check-in at Albany, MN. Riding begins tomorrow morning.
MY VACATION STARTS TODAY!
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Riding Makwa
That was a heck of a ride to start my long weekend of biking in the woods of the Chequamegon area, especially since I haven’t been on my mountain bike for what feels like forever. It reminded me why I am more of a road rider at this point in my life.
I’m up at the lake again, this time as a member of an annual golf weekend that two of Cyndie’s brothers co-host. Since I don’t golf, I serve as companion to any former or part-time golfers who are also cyclists. Arriving early enough yesterday to sneak in a first ride with Randy and Paul, we picked the Makwa Trail as the nearby familiar option.
One of the main advantages of Makwa is its lack of any long or severe climbs. Other than that, it provides a brutal dose of unending roots and rocks on a meandering single track that taxes strength and forces constant quick navigating decisions. There are countless hairpin turns and tricky obstacles that show up right when the elevation makes a distinct change. Talking to self, “Do I go over this rock or around it? Should I downshift before I hit these roots? Do I have enough strength to recover from careening off-trail, holding tight as I muscle the bike back on course?”
It is, in a word, exhausting.
In a sentence, it is exhausting with several moments of fun rolling that don’t actually last long enough to catch my breath before rapidly finding myself holding on for dear life again to muscle through the next challenge.
We drove to a spot near the middle of the full Makwa length to start our riding toward the north trailhead. My computer logged it as being over 8 miles of trail. We opted to ride a parallel gravel fire lane road to return to the car. That distance was somewhere around 5 miles. That reveals approximately 3 miles of extra twisting and turning on the singletrack.
What it doesn’t expose is how much more effort it took to conquer the rocks and roots of the singletrack compared to the much smoother graded gravel.
Back at the lake, a soothing swim did well to help me forget how exhausted I was during the ride. We then dined at a nearby restaurant before driving to town to meet up with a majority of the golfing crew at Angler’s Bar. Festivities continued back at the “cabin” vacation home which kept many up much later than common sense would dictate.
I will be lobbying strongly today for a jaunt on our road bikes this morning before we return to the woods in the afternoon for more off-road punishment, I mean, fun.
I forgot, …why is it I don’t golf?
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Relative Something 