Minneapolis, Little Falls, Park Rapids, Itasca, Bemidji, Grand Rapids, Minneapolis

I didn't have internet on the road, so I haven't had a chance to write a post until now. I left Becca's place in the morning - I crashed on her couch (super hungover from the night before; I don't think it was really necessary for me to finish every other person's drink except John's, mostly Wondrous Punches, but it was fun, so I did) and rode over to meet some old coworkers/friends, and I met Joel at 12:30 pm on Tuesday, September 1. I met Joel and he rode with me for an hour or two, which was awesome.

Here is a picture of me and Becca:



and one of my bike at her place:



Here's a picture of Joel and me at 10 near Able street in some northern suburb:















I don't remember what roads I took, but I somehow got to Zimmerman as the sun was going down and stayed at the campground at Sand Dunes State Forest. I went 65 miles in all that day. This was my first of three nights I spent at a campground. I now prefer stealth camping (or pitching my tent in someone's yard if they offer to let me) as it's free.

I slept in way late the next day and biked 85 miles to Little Falls, and stayed in Charles Lindbergh State Park. Got up at 5:30 the next morning (Thursday) and biked 105 miles to Park Rapids and found a hidden away area to pitch my tent. On my way into Park Rapids I met an awesome dude, a chiropractor who worked on me a bit the next day. It was only 20 miles to Itasca, where I was to meet my family Friday night, and spend the whole weekend there with them, so I had most of Friday to laze around. I checked out the bike shop there and bought a couple things, grease and a rear light - I had lost mine the night before.

Between biking around town and up to Itasca State Park on Friday, I did a total of 40 miles. I didn't do much biking Saturday and Sunday, I mostly spent time with my family, ate a lot of food, drank a lot of beer, and walked around the park a lot.

Monday I biked to the headwaters and took some pictures there and left at about 12:30 again.

Here's my bike at the headwaters:



and here am I, in the headwaters:



Biked along River Road and ended up at Knutson Dam Campground on Cass Lake in Chippewa National Forest. I got to camp right on the lake and saw a beautiful sunset. Total miles for Monday was 70. I heard a lot of loud explosions in the night - not sure what they were. They sort of sounded like cannons.

Tuesday I got a late start again - waking up early is hard for me. I had a strong headwind for most of the day, which I thought kind of sucked. I biked through Bemidji and into Grand Rapids. When I got into Cohasset, right before I got into Grand Rapids, there was road construction. For the first part of it, I was able to ride on the shoulder, but later there was nowhere for me to ride, so I rode in the ditch. That's how I got my first flat, after about half a mile. Something (not sure what, I removed it while feeling for the leak; I didn't actually see what came out) punctured the sidewall on the rear tire on the brake side. I replaced the tube and walked the bike a mile and a half until the construction was finished.

There was a pretty decent Chinese buffet in Grand Rapids. I had about eight plates full of food, and about 8 Mountain Dews. They brought me my check after the fifth plate of food. :) I then checked out the bike shop in Grand Rapids, and they were friendly and helpful there too. My hub (I think it's my hub at least, I'm going to get it looked at in Minneapolis) had been making some noises for a while, but it rode fine. To have them work on it in Grand Rapids I would have had to come by in the morning as I showed up as they were closing, and I didn't really want to do that, so I kept riding.

It got dark out but I still wanted to ride. I wanted to ride all night and then all day on Wednesday, until I got back to Minneapolis. My front light is supposed to run for 10 hours, and I had barely used it, so I figured I had quite a bit of juice left in my batteries, and there was almost no one on the country roads, so I kept riding. I rode through almost 10 miles of torn up street where they were doing construction. I got chased by a lot of dogs, and by about 1 a.m. my light started getting dim. I didn't have any extra batteries. At about 2, I pitched my tent on the river near 169 somewhere about 10 or 15 miles north of Aitkin. My total for the day was 128 miles. My average was quite slow because of the wind, though. It was about 9.5 mph whereas it is usually around 11 or 12. I couldn't sleep at all, so at about 4:30 I got up and rode 153 miles back to Minneapolis. I stopped for coffee a couple times, I rested by a lake for a while, I biked over 90 miles straight on 169, from north of Lake Mille Lacs to Elk River where it joins up with 10, and then I got on River Road and took that back into Minneapolis. With all my breaks, I was thinking I'd get back to Minneapolis at around 2 a.m., but then at midnight or so, in the parking lot of a PDQ where I had stopped to have a snack, I met a dude named Andy, whose team won the four-person division of the 2009 Race Across America. Very cool dude, I talked to him for probably close to 2 hours. Here are some pictures he snapped for me (I only have a disposable camera at this time - I intend to get a digital camera soon):





Got back to Minneapolis at 4 a.m. or so, and slept all day. Did 153 miles Wednesday, bringing my trip total to 646 miles. I will be here in Minneapolis for the weekend, and leaving again to continue south on Monday or Tuesday.