North Branch to Maple Grove

 No pictures today - No biking today.

It rained over night, and was drizzling at 6 AM.  The forecast was variable, but all weather channels agreed that at some point it was going to rain today.  Our leader and tour planner took a very democratic approach to the decision.  Although all of would like to have completed the loop, we also agreed that it has been a great trip & that completing the last 50 miles wasn’t worth the potential risk of going down on a trail covered with wet leaves, or getting caught in a storm.

This was the best day to have a washout.  The logistics were pretty straightforward.  Some of us drove the 50 miles to our starting point with as much gear and bikes as we could fit.  There we unloaded into the hotel lobby, picked up my big transit van & drove back to North Branch.

We were then able to get everything, and everyone else in the two vehicles.  We were back in Maple Grove by 10 AM.  When we arrived, the sun was out, but the forecast was still dismal.  No one regrets the decision to not ride.  This is all part of planning a trip like this.

Tonight we will have a final dinner where exaggerated stories will be told.  

I am very satisfied with the experience.  I’ve made 10 new friends from all around the country - Maryland, New Mexico, Colorado, Oregon & Wisconsin.  I have accomplished my goal of keeping my fitness at a high enough level to do a trip like this.  I continue to enjoy riding my Cruzbike Q45 recumbent.  I most enjoy the comfort compared to some others on the trip riding their upright bikes who spend too much time shaking out the numbness in their hands, or standing up on their pedals to give their butts some relief.

Thanks for following along these past few weeks.

0 miles today - 736 total miles for the trip

Sturgeon Lake to North Branch

Our extremely budget motel last night didn't have internet, or breakfast included, so some of us pedaled the first 8 miles, and then stopped at a diner for breakfast.  Others had a bagel and started riding, not stopping until lunch.  I had breakfast.  We were back on the Munger Trail today for the first 25 miles, and it was mostly rail bed, with a few areas of up and down and curvy trail just to keep us alert.

Most of the scenery is similar to what we have seen, but there was one open area that might have been logged 30 years ago or so, and now a pine forest is starting to grow up.  It doesn't look like a plantation because the trees are not in rows.  They are really randomly growing in this 80 acre or so area.  The thing that makes this a nice picture in my opinion is that the background shows some nice hardwood with colors changing.

Once the Munger trail ended we were back on the highway, traveling through small towns.  The road was mostly good, with nice wide shoulders.

You will notice it says "Old Hy 61".  This road runs pretty much parallel to a new interstate, which also means it is not heavily traveled.  Nice for biking.  

We usually spread out while riding because people ride at different speeds, and some stop more often for picture taking etc.  But we normally all stop for lunch at the same place.  It is sometimes an adventure for a small town cafe to handle an influx of 10 bikers, each wanting to pay individually.  Here 3 of us are in line waiting to check out and get back on the road.

Today we are back to a couple of features that I remember from earlier in our journey - corn fields & murals on buildings.  No corn field pictures, but here are 3 murals I saw.

A couple of other interesting things today was a huge statue of a Native American.  

I looked for a story to go with the statue, but couldn't find anything.

There was also a fully restored red caboose that I found picture worthy.

Unfortunately, the weather forecast is for heavy storms over night, and possibly extending into tomorrow.  We have one last day of riding scheduled, but we all agreed to wait until morning before deciding what to do.

65 miles today.

Duluth to Sturgeon Lake

 Sorry this post is late - we had no internet connectivity last night.

We started out the day climbing away from Lake Superior heading south.  I am pleased to report that although the climb was steady for the first 10 miles, it was not steep, so I was able to do it with no problems.  Soon after we got out of the city of Duluth we came to the:

This would be our path for most of today and half of tomorrow.  It was one of the nicer trails we have been on, except for the place where the sign said Trail Closed.  We decided to see exactly what that meant.

Not Good!  Some of our group decided to look for an alternative route, others decided to portage the mess.  I had not done a portage since my canoeing days, so I joined that group.  Turns out that a nice detour was marked which means we could have avoided the portage.

Once we got going again on the trail, we saw some new things we haven't experienced on other trails we have ridden so far.  Most of this trail again was old railroad bed, but the significant difference today was that they had to blast through rock in order to get the rails down.  That made for some pretty rock outcroppings.  The other interesting thing I noticed was that in a couple of areas where the rock walls were high above us on both sides, for some reason they painted stripes on both sides of the trail.

I don't know why.  It seems to me that if you get off the trail in an area like this, you might hit the wall, which would not be good, but I think it makes more sense to put stripes on an area of trail where there is a 20' drop off.  That would be even worse.  In any event, that isn't what was done.

The trail ran past a couple of towns, and we took the occasion to stop at a place called TJ's.  I thought of my grandson TJ, but I don't think the place is named after him.  Here is a nice picture of my fellow rider Keith sitting on a live edge bench next to a wooden cut out of the TJ character. 

There were a couple of other interesting features at TJ's, including a train carved out of a single log, huge pumpkins, and an old car with a leaky radiator doubling as a waterfall.

Something I noticed today, that I don't remember seeing before was multiple caterpillars making their way across the trail in front of us.  I am happy to say I didn't ride over any of them, but after seeing 4 or 5 today, I decided to get a picture.

The most interesting thing to me about this is that all of them were going from the east side of the trail to the west.  Why?

I've also talked some in previous posts about bad areas of trail where something is causing the pavement to protrude.  We always are on the watch for this because otherwise it can be a jarring experience.  Today I noticed in some areas it looks like they brought out a grinding machine trying to flatten out these "launchers"

We appreciated their efforts.  Not far before the end of our ride today, we crossed a bridge over a river and got some nice pictures of these rapids.

Overall a pretty nice day on the bike.

48 miles today.

Virginia to Duluth

 Today was mostly a day of traveling from one trail to the next.  It was our longest day, and except for about 5 miles at the beginning, we were on roads all day.  Here is a picture of the group (except me because I took the picture) waiting at a stop light in Virginia to get out of town.

I believe I have mentioned before that I've been surprised that there has not been more fall colors showing since we are so far north.  That started to change today.

Just as we were leaving the trail, we crossed a bridge, and found this nice picture opportunity.

We are too far east for this to be the Mississippi, but I didn't see a sign so I can't identify it.  Still a nice picture.

Once we got on the roads, I found nothing much picture worthy except for a few adventures.

A flat tire, but not on my bike.  This is only the second flat in the whole group since we started.  The first was mine, but it happened overnight and we were able to fix it before we left in the morning.  This one we had to fix while we were on the road.  We have some good bike mechanics, so it didn't take long.

This was our next adventure.  It is hard to plan for road construction.  Fortunately, we were able to walk around it with only about a 1/4 mile hike.

Beyond that, it was just a long day with a head wind.  The roads were good with mostly wide shoulders, some hills, but no steep grades until we got to Duluth.  Here is a picture of me with the Duluth bridge in the background.

As we entered Duluth, there was about a 5 mile drop to Lake Superior.  I was braking most of the way.  My main thought as I was going downhill was - "I hope there is a different way out of town tomorrow, because otherwise I'm going to have to climb this hill".  I will let you know.

Once we reached town, we weaved our way through a residential neighborhood before getting to our hotel near the lake.  This house caught my eye, especially because of the fancy moulding at the top of the pillar.

That's all for today.  Everyone agrees that we will sleep well tonight.

71 miles today.

Hibbing to Virginia

 It was a nice short day today & mostly on the Mesabi Trail.  It is obvious that the Mesabi Iron Range is the past, present & future of this whole area. Where iron is being mined, the towns rely on it.  Where iron used to be mined, towns struggle to survive.  We see lots of small towns with mostly deserted business districts.

Today’s ride was a perfect mix of old rail beds & newer bike trails designed to get us from one place to another.  Here is something I have not seen before in this area.

A lake with bright blue color.  I’ve seen that before, but not around here.  I know there is an explanation for what causes it, but I don’t know what it is.

As we rode along, there were a variety of displays connected to iron mining.  One place they were obviously putting together an outdoor museum with this large display as the centerpiece.

It appears to me to be the method they used to load ore into rail cars, but no signage was up yet, so I will just have to come back later to know for sure.

The next town had a park with some interesting displays.  I had Nettie stand in front of the tire to show some size perspective, and if you look carefully in the locomotive, you can see me & Keith getting ready to head down the tracks.

As we entered our destination town of Virginia, the route took us through the city park, which was large and well kept.  Signs indicated that much of the development happened during the depression with WPA funds designed to keep the economy alive.

I was surprised to see the fountain still working this late in September.  It seems to me that frost is not far in the future.  I assume they know what they are doing, and it was a good picture opportunity.  I don’t know if the tree carving is depression vintage, but again makes a nice picture.

Fortunately there was another sunset opportunity.  This time right in town behind as much of a cityscape as this town can create.

31.2 miles today

Hibbing, Minnesota

Today was a rest day for us, and usually there isn't much to write about on a rest day.  Today was different.  One of our riders set up a tour of the town we are staying in - Hibbing Minnesota.  It was a short ride of 13 miles, but there is surprisingly a lot to see in this small town.  

Hibbing is the home town of Bob Dylan, Kevin McHale (a pro basketball player), and the Greyhound Bus Company.  There is also a huge iron ore mine here.  So - off 3 of us went.  The first thing we came to was the old railroad depot.  It has been turned into an Antique Store, which was closed, but outside we spent some time investigating a drill press that can be operated by a hand crank, or with a flat belt from some other power source.  An engineering marvel from the 1800's 

From there we rode to the Greyhound Bus Museum.  When we got to the door, there was a handwritten note on a piece of accounting paper which said "Volunteer went home sick, Sorry".  So we didn't get to go in, but we did learn about the history of the bus company from exhibits outside.  We also got this picture of an old time bus.

It turns out that the Museum is very close to the huge iron ore mine, so we rode over there.  The machines they use in the mine are unbelievably large as you can see in this picture comparing me and my bike to a dump truck.

The size of the mine itself is also hard to comprehend.

 Climbing on my bike up to the top where the displays were is not something I was able to do, but one of my fellow riders did get this picture of me rolling down the gravel drive from the mountain.

After that adventure, we were back in town, studying the city's displays honoring their favorite son, Bob Dylan.  Right outside his boyhood home, they have an interesting way to paint a crosswalk.

I'm not sure which of his songs the crosswalk displays.

At the high school there is a wall with one side commemorating his Nobel Prize.

And the other side having a permanent chair in front of a mosaic of his lyrics.  I am sitting in front trying to soak in all the wisdom.

By then it was time to get back to the hotel, go to dinner, and catch another sunset.

Not bad for a day off.

13 miles today

Grand Rapids to Hibbing

We had a relatively short ride today, almost all on trails, and there were lots of picture opportunities.  The forecast was for sunshine, but relatively cool weather, so we all put on sunscreen and wore our cool weather clothes.  Turned out the forecast wasn't completely correct, but we were able to adapt without problems.  Here is the start to our "sunny" day.

I suppose the sun was out above the fog, so maybe that counts.  The fog didn't last real long, and soon we were on our trail for the day.

This trail is privately managed, and they have a registration fee of  $10 per rider for a 3 day pass.  Well worth it in my opinion.  It appears to be a combination of old railroad beds & just trails laid down through the landscape.  From a bike riding perspective, the railroad beds are easier riding but typically not as scenic.  It is nice to get a five mile stretch of flat riding after struggling up hills for a while.  I only have two complaints about the trail maintenance considering they have my $10.

In fairness, I guess they can't be everywhere instantly, but we did have to walk around this tree that was obstructing the trail.  The other problem is something that we have experienced on and off the whole trip when we are on trails.  

In some areas, the trails have horizontal cracks that are jarring on the bike, although I have an easier time with my recumbent seat.  Our upright bike riders have a bigger problem.  This picture shows a single crack, but it isn't unusual to have as many as 15 or 20 cracks in a 200' stretch.  The  other problem is identified by the white circles painted on the pavement.  These are sometimes affectionately called "Launchers".  They protrude up through the pavement, and just plain need to be avoided.  The paint serves as a warning, but the preferred solution is to get rid of them.  I'm glad to say that more than 90% of the trails don't have either of these problems.

Now on to some of the more interesting features seen today.  I stopped to take a picture on a bridge and noticed that some ambitious spiders had built webs on the bridge itself.  I found this picture more interesting than the lake.

A little further down the trail, there was some evidence of logging activity.

And then I came around a corner and thought I saw snow on the ground

I knew that couldn't be correct, so I got off the bike and investigated.  The area looked as if it had maybe been logged in the last 10 -15 years.  Some young trees are starting to come back, and this is some kind of moss or something.  Here is a close up.

The next interesting sight was a floating bridge.  I'm sure it is cheaper than something more permanent, and since the transition point to the trail can vary depending on the water level, the sign was appropriate

I did walk my bike across as suggested, but someone not in our group chose to ignore the advice.

When we were obviously back on the rail bed portion of the trail, we also traveled through a few small towns.  The other day, I put up a picture of a colorful tire fence.  Well there must be a lot of extra tires up here, because here is one I found that has a bunch more tires, might actually serve as a fence of some sort, but isn't nearly as colorful.

Another thing I haven't noticed before on the rail bed trails is shown below.

Chin Link fencing on both sides of the trail.  This is an area where the trail was at least 20' above the surrounding landscape, so the only thing I can imagine is that they are trying to keep bicycles, and maybe snowmobiles from falling off and down the embankment.  Seems like an expensive deterrent to me.

I don't have any sunsets or rainbows today, but here is the most picturesque scene available.

41 miles today.

Next up is our final day off before we finish next Saturday.