Posts Tagged ‘Tour of Minnesota’
Almost Gone
Today is my last day of work before my week off to go biking and camping. That produces a natural desire to wrap up loose ends and clear my head of as many lingering issues as possible. Already, the biggest burden has been lifted. We learned yesterday that a significant meeting that had been scheduled to happen during my absence, ended up needing to be postponed. I won’t have to miss it after all.
Tonight, I hope to cram in as many ranch chores as possible before diving into the challenge of deciding what needs to be packed in preparation for tomorrow morning’s departure. Will it be hot, cold, wet, windy, or a little of each over the course of the week?
This year’s itinerary for the Tour of Minnesota will be:
June 17th – camp in Brainerd
June 18th – bike to Walker
June 19th – bike to Park Rapids
June 20th – bike to Itasca State Park
June 21st – day off while camped in Itasca
June 22nd – bike to Bemidji State Park
June 23rd – bike to Pine River
June 24th – bike back to Brainerd
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At least I don’t have to worry about what to bring for a snack.
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Biking Pepin
It was about as pleasant a day yesterday as we’ve had lately for bike riding, with minimal wind and plenty of blue sky. Just perfect for a training ride that was planned to help us get some miles in before the Tour of Minnesota next month. Five friends that I met years ago on the annual week-long biking and camping adventure, back when it was led by Jim Klobuchar, gathered in Red Wing to spend a few hours pedaling around Lake Pepin.
The lake is basically a wide spot in the Mississippi River, 22-miles long, with a good number a sloughs in the areas where bridges cross on either end.
You might think that a 22-mile long “lake” would allow for somewhere around 44 miles of riding to circumnavigate. I wish. After only one brief ride of 13 miles this spring, I logged almost 75 yesterday.
That was enough mileage to sap most of my functional stores of energy.
We left Red Wing mid-morning and headed over the bridge into Wisconsin, riding toward a grueling 2-mile hill in order to face it with fresh legs. We stopped at one of many turn-outs and posed for a picture in front of the Lake Pepin sign. A lone motorcyclist who pulled off for a break at the same time as us obliged us with snapping the photo.
Notice how fresh we all look? It was early in the ride.
We took our time on the way to lunch in Wabasha, pausing often to keep the group together and fill water bottles. The day turned out a bit warmer than I am used to and required purposeful attention toward staying well hydrated. By the time we reached our lunch destination, it was almost 2 o’clock. Our first two cafe choices were closing.
Funny how that makes being hungry for some fuel feel a bit more significant. We needed to find a restaurant, and NOW! The kind woman closing the restaurant that was our second choice offered directions to Slippery’s Tavern, made famous by the movie “Grumpy Old Men.” This took care of my hunger pangs.
It didn’t do much for refreshing my energies. That meant the second leg of our trek was going to be a lot more work than the first. It occurred to me that our chosen direction of travel also meant we were now riding upstream. Logic would have it that it might also generally be uphill, what with the flow of the water always moving down.
Rich assured me it was mostly flat, which makes sense since the river widened into a lake there. My tired legs still noticed there were more inclines than declines. Toward the end, as I was standing up to get off the saddle and give my butt a break, both thighs instantly reported they weren’t interested in that additional exertion. I was running on reserves.
Back in the saddle, with Steve as a precious companion to distract me, we eased our way back to Red Wing at the dinner hour.
Lake Pepin had been circled and I was done.
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Road Shots
I may be home and back to the old grind (have I mentioned that I returned to the old day-job a while back?), but my mind is still lingering on the bike trip. Here are some images from this year’s trip that keep going through my head…
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Tired Legs
I’m home again. After a week of biking, my legs feel much stronger, yet thoroughly worn out, if such a thing is possible. I was awakened by thunder this morning, at the hour we would have been just waking up to pack our tents for the day, extremely grateful to be in my own bed and under a roof.
For the most part, the weather during our adventure was good for biking and camping. We even enjoyed a few occasions of a tail wind, which always provides a much appreciated ego boost when traveling by pedal power.
My body developed some stiffness from all the exercise, and probably from sleeping on the cold hard ground, but I didn’t develop any specific nagging issues from the prolonged hours of pedaling. That is something that I find particularly rewarding, as it hasn’t been the case every time I have done this trip. Joint pain or muscle strain can really mess with the pleasures of day-long riding.
I think most of my stiffness was a result of just a few games of pickle ball in Albert Lea on our day off from riding. I found that to be enough fun that it was worth the muscle soreness.
Participation this year was split almost half-and-half between returning riders and those who were doing it for the first time. Meeting new people becomes one of the highlights of the week for me, and this gave me plenty of opportunities for that.
I rode to breakfast with a group that included one man whom I felt had been with us before, but when seated in a booth beside him, discovered he was from Kansas City and it was his first year on the Tour of Minnesota.
As always, I was carried along throughout the week by the incredible support and precious energy of friends Gary Larson, Julie Kuberski, Rich Gordon, and Steve Reynolds. I struggled with the challenging limitations of creating blog posts and taking pictures with my phone, and Rich and Julie were kind enough to offer some of their great photos to help me out.
I’m not quite the mobile device guy, and I am extremely happy to be back on the laptop today, writing and editing my words and pictures. Something tells me I may resort to my old ways of writing posts in advance again next year.
Today I have plenty of laundry to do, and if the rain stops and grass dries up, a lot of lawn to mow. Pequenita seems happy to have me home and has stayed close to my every move. Delilah appears to have bonded stronger to Cyndie again, in my absence. The horses show no change at all, though they each gave me some intimate moments of breathing in each other’s scent when I stopped down to say hello.
It’s really good to be back home, tired legs and all.
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Picture Party
The party’s over, let the party begin! We ride home today, saying goodbye to precious friends and new connections. I fell short of my wish to capture all the joys and charms of this ride on my phone for posting here, but luckily, my friends have provided some of their pictures to fill my gaps. Time for a picture party:
A very common sight
Steve making a call
Rich and me trying to warm Laura /photo courtesy Rich Gordon
Steve and I paced together a lot /photo: Rich Gordon
Julie, Steve, and me on the road /photo: Rich Gordon
Doobie visits garage sale /photo: Julie Kuberski
Gary dressed up! /photo: Julie Kuberski
Rhonda testing fit. /photo: Julie Kuberski
Varied Entertainment
Wednesday brought a variety of noteworthy happenings for me and our group, only a few of which involved biking. It was another short ride where we arrived at our final destination by lunch.
The riding was great, and included a stretch with a wonderful tailwind.
Other highlights included a stop at the home of the parents of one of our riders, a heavy downpour after we got our tents up, a visit to the bar at the bowling ally across the street from our camp, pizza (which I didn’t need because I just had lunch) at the bar while watching women’s World Cup soccer, and visits with a number of former riders who stopped by to say hello. We’ve also enjoyed a greater number of visiting family members this year than usually happens.
We are just starting to become efficient with the routine of this trip again, and the finish on Friday is almost here. Man, the week goes by fast when you’re having fun.
Increasing Connections
On our day off from riding, I started the morning by riding my bike to breakfast. I had the best banana-nut pancake that I recall having ever eaten. The referrals we received from locals were right on.
photo courtesy Julie Kuberski
Back at the park, I had an opportunity to sample the game of Pickleball. My partner, Doobie, and I went 2-0, after which I quit. Undefeated!
Then I rode the bike again, up to visit Myre Big Island State Park. After that, a few of us stumbled into an opportunity to go to lunch with our ride director, Bob Lincoln, to someplace that would have good salad choices for lunch.
We found the clubhouse restaurant at the Wedgewood Golf Club, also local-recommended. Got what we wanted, and thensome. It was gorgeouse and we were well-received. They made us feel like VIPs.
I made a rare attempt at a selfie:
Back at the park where we are camping, I was able to share some quality time socializing for the balance of the afternoon.
Finally, for dinner, I left the bike behind -it was our off-day, after all- and joined a group in walking to find a desirable restaurant that was open. Luckily, we were early to arrive at our choice, as the establishment was under-staffed and couldn’t help but fall way behind in serving eager customers.
Weather was beautiful and allowed us to enjoy a fabulous day of getting to know people who are new to the trip this year, as well as to know a few of the long-time riders even better.
Leisure Time
After a spectacular morning rest stop at a bar in Myrtle, MN, where they opened at 9:00 a.m. for us, we rode through the minor inconvenience of some light rain before arriving at Albert Lea. It was not only our lunch destination, but also the town of our day off, so we will be camping here two nights.
Not needing to bike anywhere today means we can work on our eating skills. My sugar addiction doesn’t have much to worry about this week. It’s pretty safe for the time being, and being well fed.
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Remembering Warren
On Sunday, I had a precious opportunity to ride in a jersey that once belonged to an amazing man I met years ago on this ride, who passed away last fall. Warren LaCourse was one of my favorite people to see every June when we gather on the Friday night before the start.
This year we had a brief ceremony in the evening of our first ride, where we honored the memories of 4 people from our group who have passed in the last couple of years. It was there that I learned about several of Warren’s jerseys that his wife, Barb, had made available for any of us who might be interested. I was thrilled to be able to have the jersey that Warren wore so many times it had faded from deep red to almost pink on the back.
I rode yesterday feeling as if he was hugging me all the way, and that made our longest day this week (77 miles) seem easier to me than it should have.
I am lucky to have known Warren, and feel especially blessed to have one of his favorite jerseys as a memory of him. Thank you, Barb. We miss him so on the ride!
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People Trip
I don’t know why I call this a bike trip. The main reason I do this is for the people. It is a thrill to spend a week with them.
We started the riding in a light mist of precipitation yesterday, and the day ended with passing misting showers, on a day that we expected a lot more sun.
It was a really fine day, regardless.
Relative Something 