Cold Spring to Little Falls

 We said goodbye this morning to a couple of riders who could not stay for the entire trip.  The route today started out on some country roads, rode about 30 miles on the nicest trail we've seen so far, and then finished off on a road that runs right along the Mississippi River.  There are still farms around, but it seems to me like there is more just "up north" forests, prairies & swamps.  We did see some Elk, but they were in a fenced in field, probably grown for the meat

After about 10 miles we entered our trail for the day

Lots of interesting vegetation, but only one picture of that today.  This particular plant/bush was in a number of places along the trail, and the red color just stood out to me

One of the benefits of a ride like this is the opportunity to think through stuff.  Here is what I was thinking about today. No pictures, because pictures would not do it justice.  I hope my words will.  The subject is rails to trails.  I have known that a lot of bike trails like we are riding are old railroad beds, but the thing that struck me today was the amount of effort that had to go into making the original railroad track surface.  I've heard that trains don't work nearly as well if there is a more than 4% grade, either up hill or down.  That means a lot of filling in and digging out.  We are in Northern Minnesota.  There aren't really any mountains here, but as I was riding along the trail, I noticed that there were some areas where the trail was as much as 20' above the surrounding landscape, and other areas where it was dug out by at least 10'.

I was trying to imagine the engineering that went into designing this, and the amount of construction work that had to happen.  And this was probably all in the mid 1800's.  We bicyclists are grateful, because we prefer to not ride uphill on more than a 4% grade.  The downhill would be okay, but it is a worthwhile trade off.  That's what I was thinking about.

We came to a town on the trail named Hollingford that provided a couple of interesting picture opportunities.  First off a covered bridge where I recruited some locals to take my picture

Another thing I have noticed about Northern Minnesota is that they really seem to like murals.  I've seen probably 6 of them so far, but this is the first one I really found worthy of posting.  The sign on the right even gives a history of the town, if you're interested.  I hope you can zoom in on the picture to read it.

And finally, riding right down main street was a one tractor parade.  This is obviously not a working machine, but fully restored, and classic.  It probably also stood out to me because it is the same brand that my grandfather had on his dairy farm as I was growing up.

Another 10 miles down the road, we came to our lunch stop in a small town named Bowlus.  Of course we had to get lunch at the cafe with the bicycle hanging outside above the front door.  Oh, and also we went there because it was the only place in town.

Now those of you who know me well enough, also know that I am far from what can be considered a food connoisseur (I'm not even sure if that is spelled correctly), but I just have to comment on my lunch sandwich.  I do enjoy a good Reuben sandwich, except I do not like Rye bread.  So any time I order one, I try to substitute the bread.  Unfortunately too often, they don't seem to be able to make that transition, and I have to send it back.  That didn't happen today, but when asking for alternative bread choices, they offered Wild Rice with Cranberry bread.  And it was so exceptionally tasty that I just had to share a picture.

It was more than I wanted to eat because I still had some miles to put on, and when I offered to share it with others in our group, there were multiple takers.  One liked the bread so much that she bought a whole loaf that we can share over the next few days with the whole group.

Soon after the lunch stop we were off the trail and back on the road to Little Falls.  The road was good, the Missisippi river was on our right side, and the wind was in our face.  Here I am at the bridge

Overall a very good day.  We arrived at our hotel, but our rooms weren't ready.  Being an enterprising group, we got a couple of six packs, a couple of bottles of wine & sat on the front porch until they were ready to check us in.

51 miles today.