June 29-July 3 - Fargo, ND rest day

 We will take Amtrak from Fargo to Havre, MT on July 3.  So, Fargo is our home for the next 3 days.  We will rest our legs and have some needed days off before tackling the 35,000 feet of climbs during our last 700 miles of this journey.  Update:  I added wrong - its 45,000 feet of climbs (oh boy).

Today we tried a local craft brewery called 'Swing Barrel Brewing'.  I was really excited to try their New England IPA called 'Cheaters', which I thought was a super clever name to call a NEIPA (after the New England Patriots and Deflategate).  Unfortunately, they were out of Cheaters and I settled for something less memorable, but not a bad brew.

No pictures unless you are interested in seeing our old pizza box left on the hotel counter from last night.

June 28 - Hungry Man Campground to Fargo (103 miles)

 Well, the rain didn't stop until about 8:30 am after raining all night long!  We started the morning by going through the slow process of drying out all our gear, especially our tents.  If we roll them up wet, they will get mildew and smell.  So, we took the time to set the rain fly out into the sun until fully dry.  Needless to say, we got a very late start out on the day.  I think it was at least 11am by the time we left camp.  We had about 1mile of pedaling through the dirt/gravel road before we got to pavement.  It wasn't as bad as we had thought it might be, but definitely a bit mushy. 

We are just over 100 miles from Fargo, ND.  Our original plan was to travel half-way to Fargo and we had decided that there were two options for stopping - both camping.  One was about 50 miles and the second about 62 miles.  Both options were at very small town city parks and descent stops right on, or close to the route.  But Jake and I were feeling strong and both looking forward to a good shower, nice bed and good food.  So at the last convenient store stop, we made the decision that we'd try to make it to Fargo, but with the late start, we were short on time.  We had about 3.5 hours of daylight and about 45 miles left to get there.  I think a bit of our motivation was also to log at least one century during this adventure, so we decided to go for it - all the way to Fargo.  See you later, Minnesota.  We enjoyed you!

The terrain was mostly flat and we had a side-wind from the north.  The route is mostly due west.  We kicked in pretty hard, worried about getting into town after dark.  I can speak for myself, I started gassing at about 85 miles and relied on drafting Jake (who was a machine).  I'm super impressed with how strong Jake was during this whole ride.  As we approached town, we called a hotel reserve a room.  We pedaled into town and to the hotel (my cycling computer had logged 99 miles when we arrived).  But, when we went inside the hotel, they said there was a delay between our booking and their hotel filling up - there were no rooms available.  So, we called around some more (by this time it was fully dark) and ended up at the Radisson hotel downtown Fargo.  The location is great and the hotel is nice.  There are plenty of food options all around us.   But for tonight, it was late and we had a pizza delivered to us.

Section #5 is complete!

States Completed:

Maine

New Hampshire

Vermont

New York

Pennsylvania 

Ohio

Indiana

Illinois

Iowa

Wisconsin

Minnesota  - CHECK!!

June 27 - Bemidji - Hungry Man Campground (52 miles)

We started our day by going to breakfast with Mary and a great restaurant she picked out in Bemidji.  The food was excellent.  We got a few pictures of us with Mary, below, said our goodbyes and away we go onward.  Mary - no worries... we will let you know when we finish! :)

Maybe 15-20 miles outside Bemidji, we came across the Mississippi headwaters, also pic and video below.  It's quite amazing that there is a beginning to such a majestic river as the Mississippi, where it begins a small stream that you can literally jump across.  

During our lunch break, we had a bunch of butterflies trying to join our feast by getting in my handlebar bag.  They did get in, but I'm afraid that it wasn't very fruitful for them.  We caught a couple of videos of them, one in normal speed and the other, Jake captured in slo-mo.

The ride through Itasca State park was really pleasant - super nice path and lots to observe.  It seemed to be a pretty popular getaway, and after cycling to Fargo, I can see why - it's really the first encounter with woods and camping outside of Fargo (at least Eastward).  

We got to our camp site fairly early and there were not many other campers around.  We picked a good spot near the lake.  Unexpected, there were not many bugs to bother us.  We took our 'showers' in the lake and then hit the hay early.  It rained pretty much all night long.  I remember the elk were bugling all night long, some animal (not sure what) getting into the trash cans, and what sounded like deer cruising through our campground.  At one point, I clapped my hands together, and they took off sounding like horses.  I highly doubt deer were in the trash though, as it seemed to be picked through and the lid had to be taken off.  Either raccoons or bears, I'd guess???

This is my blog office.

June 26 - Pine River to Bemidji, MN (64 miles)

All 64 miles were ridden on the Paul Bunyan trail, which was a bit bumpy for a while until Hackensack, where it was very nice and smooth the rest of the way into Bemidji.

The town of Walker ended Section #6 of our route, so we've completed sections 11,10, 9, 8 ,7 and now 6.  Obviously we are doing the route backwards as Adventure Cycling has labeled the course starting from the west coast and ending at Bar Harbor.

As we approach Bemidji, we entered the Chippewa National Forest.  Most of the trail is covered with vegetation and trees on either side of the trail, so it's difficult to know what lies beyond our small scope of view.  Occasionally, it opens out to more of a prairie and so I try to capture some pics to remember that as well.    

When we arrived in Bemidji, we rode downtown to Bemidji Brewing and had a local craft beer.  I had a summer IPA and it was really excellent!  Bemidji Brewing got 2 separate recommends - one from a rider that stopped to talk to us on our way into Bemidji and also our Warmshowers host, Mary! 

All the hotels, campsites, etc are full in Bemidji.  We had contacted a Warmshowers host (thank you Mary!) on June 25 and she responded right away.  *Warmshowers is a community of people who open their homes to cyclists.*  Anyhow, we arrived at Mary's home and had some nice conversations on her backyard deck.  Mary is heavily involved in her community and told us a lot about the area, and the indigenous people, cultural events, etc.  

I found it interesting that at the grocery stores, they've labeled all the items with the indigenous words.  So if you buy some milk, in front of the milk, there will also be a label with the Chippewa word.

June 25 - Little Falls to Pine River, MN (72 miles)

Jake and I are making our way north toward Bemidji where the headwater of the Mississippi river is found (or so the legend goes).  We made it to the trail head of the Paul Bunyan trail and it will take us over 100 miles into Bemidji.  

At any rate, our concern over the next 2 days is mostly where we will stay.  I think the combination of people trying to escape outdoors after all this time with covid as well as apparently workers from the K3 pipeline are consuming all of the motels, hotels and campgrounds!  Jake finally found a camp spot in Pine River, which is not well published - not even in google maps.  We are just happy to have found a spot rather than squatting somewhere in the woods.  Plus it had water and a bathroom - what more can you ask for?

 

June 24 - Dalbo Bunkhouse to Little Falls, MN (70 miles)

 Somehow, I managed to only take 2 pictures.  One of Jake waking up to find a frog roaming around in the bunkhouse and the second a picture of Margaret and John leaving for the day.  Needless to say, this is probably one of our more uneventful days.  

The summary is:   headwind, deciding to ride through closed road (paid off!), hungry for a long 30 mile stretch, veer off course and catch a shortcut to Little Falls, stay at Country Inn and Suites.  I guess that I should also add that we ran into 2 more cyclist - Dale Steinke, who was cycling from Seattle to Boston.  We had a nice chat with him.  He is also blogging at https://dalesteinke.com/  I may have the day wrong... I think we met Dale on Jun 23 just prior to the BunkHouse.  The second was a lady in a recumbent, who was pulling a Burley buggy and had a little dog running alongside her...  She seemed very happy.

Side Note:  As I type this, we are at the 'Hungry Man Campground' and it's beginning to storm a bit and I can hear elk bugling in the background...

June 23 - Osceola, WI to Dalbo, MN (Adventure Bicyclist Bunkhouse) 56 miles

 After a few border crossings back and forth between Wisconsin and Minnesota, I think we've finally officially checked off Wisconsin.  Weird, but I never really ever felt that we were 'in' Wisconsin, probably because we were always right on the border, along the Mississippi river.  Anyhow, later Wisconsin... I liked the small town Prescott.

We've fully embraced Minnesota now.  The scenery has been gently changing over the last several hundred miles.  The countryside of MN has a lot more trees and even pines!  We shortened our ride today to 55 miles, even though we had a tail wind.  Reason being is that we wanted to stay at the Adventure Cyclists famous 'Bunkhouse'.  

The Adventure Cyclists Bunkhouse is an amazing place where a farmer (retired military pilot) Don and Sherry host bicyclist in an old converted barn.  There are cots, a kitchen stocked with lots of foods and drinks and a shower and bathroom and it's free!  Of course, we will make a generous donation to the coffee jar and pay for food eaten.  There were two other people that arrived to stay at the bunkhouse as well - John and Margaret, from near Albany, NY.

States Completed:

Maine

New Hampshire

Vermont

New York

Pennsylvania 

Ohio

Indiana

Illinois

Iowa

Wisconsin - CHECK!!

June 22 - Prescott, WI to Osceola, WI (53 miles)

 What do you all imagine riding across the country on a bicycle is like?  Do you imagine lazily swaying from side to side as you pedal slowly along, seemingly without worry and unaware of time?  I think that is the fantasy that most of us have about doing this sort of bicycle tour.  The reality is that each day we have to worry about the basics - food, water and shelter.  And we are out in the elements most of the day and nature is not always kind.  Today, however, was more like a fantasy.  

Prescott to Stillwater is fully beautiful in scenery.  As we enjoyed our morning ride, we could smell strawberries in the air.  It turned out that we had come upon a pick your own strawberry farm!  So Jake and I stopped for a while and picked a couple of pounds of strawberries - alongside what looked like a group of kindergarteners out on a field trip.  It cost us $3 and we ate all our strawberries before continuing the ride.

We crossed into Minnesota just briefly today but returned to Wisconsin.  Stillwater - super nice town in Minnesota.  Happy, friendly people and the downtown is full of charm. Everywhere we go, people approach us about our adventure.  No different here... even the beer guy got in on the action.  After eating lunch at a place he was supplying, the beer guy ran across the street to meet us and give a a couple of fresh, cold Lagunitas IPA's.  Seriously!  

Stillwater is also the endpoint of Section #7 of the Northern Tier Route!

Then we pedaled onward to our destination Osceola.  On the way into town, a lady (say lady 'A') briefly talked to us as she passed us riding her road bike into town.  When we arrived, while searching for a place to stay another lady (lady 'B') came up to us and said she had just talked to lady 'A' about us.  Lady 'B' then proceeded to offer letting us pitch a tent at her farm.  Wow!  So nice - however we'd have to back track 6 miles... but what a gesture!   Then we go to a place for dinner (finally, we found super excellent food -see pics) and what the heck - lady 'A' comes up to us and talks to us again, giving some good local advice for breakfast food.  I'm telling you - throw panniers on a bicycle and people are immediately disarmed - it brings out their friendly self.