Coasting UpHill

Chetek to Eau Claire The term “one of those days” is usually in reference to a difficult/overwhelming day. It’s most often a negative term. Day 4 of our ride, our final day, was the opposite. Everything was unexpectedly great – so many blessings.  Here is the backstory… The night before, the weather people promised it…

St Croix Falls to Chetek So, the way it worked out, one of our longest days also had the most hills, and ended up being the sunniest. Fortunately, we had a tailwind for nearly all of the 63 miles. It was also a beautiful day to ride and see the sights. This was the morning…

Danbury to St Croix Falls Our morning started with sunshine and the promise of no rain which was nice. We left the motel in Danbury and rode towards the Gandy Dancer State Trail.  47 of our miles were on a crushed limestone former Soo Line railroad bed. The first 22 miles were beautiful. The trail crossed several…

Superior to Danbury I always like to start and end our rides at a state line, or body of water, or landmark. Something just feels right about that. This year we started at the light house at Wisconsin Point which marks the main entry from Lake Superior to the cities of Superior and Duluth. It…

Overall the trip was a great success! We cycled 315 miles in 5 days in great weather. The bikes performed well and the riders ever better. We saw the humble beginnings of the Mississippi River transform from a stream into a large body of water with industry, transportation, and cities all depending on it for…

Our first day of this ride started in a state park and included almost 20 miles of country roads, a town, and then trails in the woods/fields of Northern Minnesota. By contrast, the last day was going to be all urban riding. We left the hotel and wove our way through Coon Rapids, a suburb…

One of the interesting things (to me anyway) is the transformation of the Mississippi in just a couple hundred miles. When we started at the headwaters we saw a narrow, shallow, clear running stream. Each time we crossed it (12 times thus far) it continued to grow in volume and width. It also began carrying…

When you are traveling by bike for 8-9 hours per day (this includes breaks, lunch, and site-seeing too) your mind wanders. Here are the places my head has gone on the long stretches of riding…solving the world’s problems, reflecting on scripture, engineering some improvement to my bike set up, planning a project at home, singing…

We started our second day in Walker with a planned 63 mile day. We were riding paved bike paths the entire day. These trails (Paul Bunyan and Shin-Go-Bee) are considered part of the national Rails to Trails project. Our morning started with a quick coffee stop, our lunch was at a local burger place and…