In a way, today's ride started last night with technology upgrades and additions.  We have had many troubles with communication, mostly with Cathy's phone.  It either was out of space to download something needed or it was unable to get a signal in places where mine worked.  We made a trip to the Verizon store in Grand Rapids and got a little more than we had planned.

What started with just the purchase of a micro SD card to expand her storage turned into a complete upgrade of her phone from her Galaxy S4 to the Galaxy S7, the same as mine.  We also purchased the SD card.  Then I remembered I wanted some kind of headset to make it easier to communicate with her by messaging, phone or our Life 360 app (more about that later). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, when I mentioned that we both sometimes forget to plug our phones in while in the car, the sales person recommended a wireless charger that is also a mount for the phone.  I couldn't pass it up.

 

So, armed with our new technological gadgets, I left Grand Rapids a bit after 10 and Cathy a couple of hours later.

 

The headset worked great.  I not only was easily able to answer a call from Cathy and talk to her while riding (the microphone has great noise cancelling), I even responded to an email from an Internet customer with an urgent problem.  I dictated the message and it was transcribed perfectly.  In my message I thanked the customer for the opportunity to test the device.

 

Below is an example of nearly 60 miles of today's route.  I followed the Great River Road from mile 2 to mile 57.  For me, one interesting thing was realizing that the rudimentary map displayed on my Garmin GPS did not accurately show where the river was.  For a long time, I thought I was crossing it without seeing it.  This is a picture of the roadside where Garmin said I was crossing.  I was convinced I could not see it because of the thick vegetation and believed the county must have used culverts to cross what was a miniscule stream at that point.

 

When I had this crossing a few miles later, I really believed it.

 

 

In fact, I was amusing myself trying to guess where the river was by following tree lines.  Boy can I be gullible! I finally saw the real river on my left.  It was behind so much vegetation and trees, I could not get a picture that would show the river.  Here is what was really happening.  Note that the river is always on my left as I proceed southwest.  I did not cross it once.

 

 

 I took the following pictures around miles 31, 45 and 51.

Around mile 35, I met a local cyclist.  She told me she had done the MRT in 2007.  She was originally from Sedro Wooley, Washington and was out for a day ride.  She stopped at her home and I was a half mile down the road before it dawned on me I had not gotten her name, let alone asked if I could take her picture.  I gave her this blog address.  If she reads it, I hope she will publish a comment with at least her name.

At about mile 49, I met Cathy at a local county park. 

 

The above picture was taken by Graham.  He is from Houston and is kayaking the river, starting at the headwaters and ending in the Gulf.

 

The weather was also interesting.  I was mostly overcast and the wind was kind of southeasterly.  Unless I was going due south, it was often somewhat favorable.  One of my concerns was that there was a thunderstorm forecast for Aitkin around 2:30.  Depending on stops along the way, I knew my arrival time would be between 3 and 3:30.  Cathy and I had agreed to meet at the Beanery, a coffee shop on the main street between 3rd and 4th avenue.  Coming into town on the main street, when I got to 5th avenue, it started to rain.  This is practically the only precipitation I have had in 387 miles and 25 hours of cycling.  Don't think I'm not grateful.

 

Data:

 

 

 

Before I tell you about today, I have to tell you I'm excited about Mrs. Ceglar's 4th and 6th Grade classes following this blog.  Note the comment on yesterday's posting.  Since they are also interested in technology, tomorrow I'll tell you about the purchases we made this evening to make things work better for Cathy and me on the trip.

The weather gods smiled again today.  For the second day in a row, it rained in the night and never again during the day. You will see from the pictures how cloudy it was at times and that the sun came out later.  Overall, this was the easiest century ride I have ever done.  The wind was a mild NNW and since I was primarily going SE, it was often at least partly at my back.  That combined with a nearly flat ride that even dropped 100 feet, I made very good time even with stops to take pictures or just enjoy the surroundings.

On the other hand, Google maps played a couple of tricks on me that lengthened my ride a bit.

Shortly after leaving the motel, I was routed onto the Paul Bunyan trail.  This shows the view at the start.  The trail wound around to the left and then followed the shoreline of Lake Bemidji for miles.  This was also the first trick played on me by Google maps. It showed an exit to the right that did not exist and I went an extra mile and a half East and then back again West to regain the MRT.  It was probably destined to be because it caused me to cross over the Mississippi.  All in all, I crossed the river five times today though one I didn't realize until I was over a mile down the road.

 

 

After leaving the trail, I rode six miles on County road 12.  This would have been the most boring part of the ride.  Instead it was the most annoying.  I was riding through clouds of gnats for what seemed like an eternity.  I was forced to breathe through my nose to keep from significantly increasing my protein intake for the day.  I don't know why that road was so popular.  The minute I left it I pretty much left the bugs behind.

 

For some time now I have been fascinated by two varieties of trees I see.  I hope my conifer friends who are looking at this can tell me what they are.  I know the first one is a pine on the and I'm pretty sure the conical tree in the center of the next picture is a spruce.  I have no idea of the varieties.  Farther north, many of the these pines were more sparse with nearly alternating branches as though the wind blew in only one direction that year.  An interesting feature of the spruce is that there is sometimes a bare section near the top causing the crown to be even more noticeable.  I have also seen the top of this tree bent and then straighten again as though the crown grew too fast for the trunk to support it.

 

After passing through Cass Lake, my next trail section was the Heartland trail.  At times I could see lakes on both sides.  The trail is nicely situated between the highway and the railroad tracks and is mostly forested.  I took the next picture as much to show the weather as the lake view from the trail.  Note the object on the left side of the screen.  The next picture is a close up of what seems to be a bird house.  There must have been fifty of these along the trail, usually in pairs.  Maybe someone can tell me what birds they are meant to attract.

 

Not long after this was my next map misadventure.  In this case, both my manual (the book I show in my first posting) and Google maps had issues.  The trailhead described in the book no longer seems to exist and the forest road (described as hard packed dirt) had not been used in so long it was completely overgrown.  Google also showed me a road that did not exist.  I'm going to report that one to them.  After trying in vain to find a connecting route to where I knew I wanted to be, I returned to the highway and found a sign for the MRT just another mile down the road.  When I went by where the forest road mentioned above joined the route, I could see that this end was also barely passable on a road bike.

 

I had a few less than interesting stretches on US Hwy 2.  At least in Bena, they give you this to make you smile.

 

 

The rest of the day had no unplanned adventures.  Cathy met me with a sandwich by Little Ball Club Lake but we had to eat in the car.  For the first time on the trip, the mosquitos were out in force.

 

I pretty much cruised the rest of the route.  As you can see below, the sun came out to give me this picture of my fifth and last crossing of the Mississippi today.

Data follows.  The mileage is off--I turned off my GPS when I stopped to get water in Deer River and forgot to turn it on for 3.5 miles.  If you look closely, you can see a very straight diagonal line going SE from Deer River.  I was actually on US 2 which is not that straight.

 

 

 



The MRT started today!  After a huge breakfast at Jean's place, we got on the road (later than planned, of course).  We arrived at Lake Itasca State Park around noon.  We drove the beautiful 11 mile Wilderness Road loop to get the lay of the land and I found myself getting excited for the first time since we started this journey.  After checking maps at the lodge, we located the bike path that led to the headwaters.  I rode the path and Cathy drove there. 

The official start location:

To prove I was there and to note the OFFICIAL START

 It starts to flow from the lake and continues on.  It's pretty easy to play in the river here.

 

The beginning of the "trail" is on (good) county roads.  The state of Minnesota has put up 640 of these:

Where the owner of the Lake Itasca State Park bike shop lives (really):

 Crossing the (not so) mighty Mississippi

and on it flows

 The brutal south wind was gone today.  Too bad--I went north a lot.  The wind was a mild westerly which did proved a tailwind at times.  The most pleasant thing all day was the aromas.  The lush forest within the park was so nice I rode a few extra miles there before heading for Bemidji.  The sights and smells of the maples,, oaks, sumacs and sundry vegetation was about as calming and enjoyable as any bike ride I have done.

Once I left the park, I was still blessed by little or no traffic and the pine forests that lined many of the roads provided yet another sensory delight.

I cruised into Bemidji just a few minutes behind Cathy.  She had located a nice restaurant where we had our "Celebrate the start of the MRT" dinner.  She had been craving walleye pike for years and I could see why. 

It's a long day tomorrow from Bemidji to Grand Rapids (I had to connect with the route from the border).  Data follows:

Tonight we are staying with Shelly Ceglar's mother, Jean Bakka.

Minor change of plans again.  Tomorrow will be a short day--riding 37 miles from the headwaters to Bemidji.  I have "work" things to do (I know it is supposed to be a vacation but some things I could not delegate) and need the time.  Also, Cathy and I will probably do about 12 miles in Itasca State Park.

I exchanged emails today with Bob Robinson, the author of the book I mentioned in my first posting.  He advised me of some route changes and gave me a couple of other tips.

Thunderstorms forecasted for tonight and late tomorrow afternoon.  Chance of precipitation is about 25% most of the day so I may get damp.

Below is the view from Jean Bakka's yard.  Most call it a pond.  Cathy, from the time she was very young growing up here calls it Bakka Lake.

Somehow, the only picture I got of the family has everyone but Jean.  Her sister Donna has her back to us.  Nancy, her daughter, and Nancy's son Garrett are having a conversation about the meat being grilled.  Shelly is hiding behind my wife.

I swear this guy said you are going to do what??

 

I'm not riding today but I did have fun with my bike.  I rearranged the mounts for the phone and GPS.  I learned yesterday that I do not need to keep the ridewithgps app running for it to provide audio cues (which came in very handy).  This helped with battery life.  However, I was fighting the phone mount.  Either it was in my way when I was out of the saddle or it was pointing in the wrong direction when I wanted to contact Cathy.

The first picture below shows my view when on the bike.  The next shows the portable battery mounted in case I need to recharge.

If yesterday was about the destination, today was about the journey. Though the first 11 miles were like most of yesterday (South on US 53 into the wind), once I turned off onto the Mesabi trail (check it out at www.mesabitrail.com), the rest of the day was wonderful.  Of the 77 miles I traversed today, over 60 were on this trail.  I could not resist stopping a couple of times to take pictures.  There were a few places were tree roots made things a bit bumpy, but overall it was one of best maintained trails I have ridden.

I stopped for a break in Keewatin.  There I met a bunch of cyclists out for a day ride.  It was the first time I have had a chance to chat with other cyclists.  They were kind enough to take a couple of pictures.

Here are a couple of shots of trail scenery:

And for the data junkies:

Tomorrow is a day off while we visit more of Cathy's family.  Monday we go to Lake Itasca to start the MRT. 

We had a treat last night.  Cathy's cousin, Shelly Ceglar (who speaks and teaches Ojibwe) drove us out to a spot where we could see the Northern Lights.  The pictures below do not do justice to the show we had.

 

By the way, the Objibwe word for bike is "ditibiwebishkigan" and a cyclist is a "ditibiwebishikiganiwinini"

 

Finally, in case you ever wondered how the Mississippi got its name, the Ojibwe called it

"misi-ziibi" or great/spreadout river

I just realized the video Cathy took of me starting out this morning did not work.  I uploaded it three times.  It looks right in the draft but not in the preview or after it is published.  I'll have to ask Google when I get home.

Today was one of the hardest rides I have done in a while.  The wind was out of the south and relentless.  Nearly steady 6-10 mph with frequent gusts of 12-15.  I was tired at mile 66 and still had 25 to go.  As you can see below, I was going South a lot.  It's what I get for wanting to start at the border.

On the bright side, if you have to ride a US highway, you could do a lot worse than US 53.  Smooth pavement most of the way, a shoulder as wide as the auto lanes and separated by a rumble strip.  Scenery a bit boring but at least it is mostly forested both sides.  I went by one lake small enough to call it a pond (Ash Lake) and Pelican Lake where I took a break.

I am having fun with technology.  I have each day's course loaded into my Garmin GPS as well as my phone.  My phone does a super job of telling me about turns and the Garmin better keeps me up to date on my progress as well as showing me the elevation profile coming up.  The downside of my phone is that the battery goes down rather quickly.  To counteract that, I have a portable battery zip-tied to the handlebars so that I can plug it into the phone when it gets low.

Below is for the data geeks like me (I know you're out there).

 

 

We are staying with one of Cathy's cousins in a beautiful home with a great yard.  She is treating us royally and I should be ready to head for Grand Rapids tomorrow.  The forecast is for more wind out of the south.  It will be another slog but at least about half the ride is more Southwest than South and I will be largely be on a trail that should protect me from the wind.

 

 

Here I go.

 

We had a beautiful drive today in Southwest Ontario. If you ever get a chance to drive on Highway 71 don't miss it. We must have gone by fifty lakes and through some gorgeous Conifer Forests.

Where we stopped for lunch:

We spend tonight in Fort Frances Ontario. Tomorrow I ride.