Day 49: Winsted, Minnesota (or, the grass isn't always greener)

Today is a tough day to describe. It started off great and then deteriorated kind of rapidly. But all's well that ends well.

So, first things first. I got up at 5:15 and hit the road by 7:00 (if you haven't been paying attention, I was facing a 65 mile day with strong headwinds). I quickly found paved county roads that weren't heavily trafficked and headed South into a SSE wind that was still below 10 mph.

The Minnesota scenery grew on me during this stretch of about 15 miles. First, I finally hit a county or two where someone figured out to bury all the utility lines. It makes a big difference - at least to me - and all the green boxes warning not to dig there without calling the utilities first are: (a) unobtrusive by comparison to their above-ground brethren and (b) the perfect height for doing a hamstring stretch.

Second, the introduction of a lot of lakes, interspersed among the farms and the roads, was really pleasing to my eye and, although I didn't do a very good job of capturing it in any photos, I felt the aesthetics of the day were off to a good start.

I began getting a bit nervous when I realized that the 8 mile stretch that I had to ride East, to get to the tiny town of Cosmos and the start of the Luce Line State Trail, was on a very busy Route 7 with one of those shoulders that I really dislike: about 2 feet wide, 1 foot of which is occupied by rumble strips. You either have to ride to the right of the rumble strips and hew a very straight line (with a dropoff to your right into gravel), or ride in the lane itself, to the left of the rumble strips, and risk ticking off drivers who don't realize there's really nowhere else to go.

So I resurrected my eyeglass mirror (which I had abandoned after one day - mainly because I didn't like it always hanging out in my peripheral vision) so that I could ride in the lane, but then dive back onto the shoulder when traffic passed. An imperfect compromise, but it got me through.

But I was pleased to get to Cosmos and onto the Luce Line trail. It runs all the way into Winsted (my final destination after leaving Willmar) for a distance of about 35 miles. And it was very relaxing to get on the trail, and away from Route 7's traffic, for about all of...one mile, when the finely-crushed gravel surfaced turned to...wait for it...grass. Yes, grass. This is a bike trail?

Now, I must admit. My research may have been a bit shoddy. I did go online beforehand to research the trail, and saw that it was a crushed limestone surface (not my favorite, but OK, like the Mickelson trail in SD). Yes, there was a sentence at the end that said, West of Winsted, it was "a natural surface." But I thought that meant a natural biking surface. Couldn't they have just said unpaved or grass? Wimbledon doesn't brag about being played on natural surface - they come right out and say it -- grass.

I gave the grass about 20 yards of effort and realized quickly that it made gravel seem desirable (which came back to bite me later). I had no desire to revisit the tension of riding Route 7, so with a little map consultation (I had caved and bought the old-fashioned paper type upon entering Minnesota - OK, if truth be known, it was laminated), I found a route that would advance me the next 8 miles, to the larger town of Hutchinson, through taking two legs of a triangle, extending the ride by about 3 miles. But it was worth it.

But, what was this? As I entered Hutchinson, I crossed the Luce Line trail and it was now paved. Now, I wasn't born yesterday -- no doubt the pavement was within town limits and would end abruptly outside them. So I asked around and hit paydirt with the first person I talked to - Dennis, who rides his bike to Winsted regularly and loves the trail. He acknowledged that, yes, the pavement did end in a few miles, but he assured me that it was very rideable gravel thereafter, and that the scenery and wildlife (he was talking foxes, not bears) were well worth it.

So I bit. And went back on the Luce Line trail. And fairly quickly regretted it. There was a fair amount of sand mixed in with the gravel, and it really made the going slow, on top of the headwind. And although the scenery was pleasant, it wasn't worth this particular tradeoff. After about 8 miles of this struggle, I gave up, went back out to Route 7 (which had lost its rumble strips at this point, thereby marginally improving its rideability), reconsulted the map, found a couple of back county roads (which only added about another 4 miles to my route) and eventually straggled into Winsted at about 3:30, pretty exhausted after having logged more than 72 miles, almost all of it against a strong headwind. I thought that was pretty good, so I stopped and treated myself to a delicious Vanilla milk shake near the end of the ride at the type of hip coffee/ice cream shop I didn't expect to find in Winsted.

Winsted's sole motel made me wish that I had given into my consideration, earlier, of stopping in Hutchinson (which boasted a Best Western, among other brand names) and cutting the day short at about 50 miles. Yes, tomorrow's ride into Minneapolis would be about 20 miles longer, but strong forecast West winds would presumably compensate. Winsted's finest had hairs in the sink, old pizza in the refrigerator, soap shards stuck to the shower stall floor, hot and cold faucet directions reversed, no ice available anywhere, no shampoo packets -- I could go on. However, I think (hope) the sheets and towels are clean.

But the day ended on a positive note, as I did find a seat at the bar at The Blue Note, and enjoyed an excellent prime rib, a surprisingly good salad bar, and Minnesota's locally-brewed Nordeast beer (resisting the temptation to pair my prime rib with a Sutter Home merlot in one of those tiny airline bottles).

Severe thunderstorms are going on outside (complete with warning of 60 mph winds) as I write this, so crummy motel or not, I'm glad I'm inside and off the road.

Tomorrow, I get to see my sweetheart, and you'll have to excuse me if this blog goes dark for a few days. But I do have one more decision to make. I can take the Luce Line trail, with the crushed limestone surface I'm assured exists East of Winsted, for a 45 mile ride pretty much all the way into Minneapolis, or I can go a bit out of my way, and ride the paved (yes, paved) Dakota Rail Trail there (not quite sure why it's named that in Minnesota), but at the cost of adding about 5 miles. I'm leaning paved, but, either way, the start of the day will be on Luce Line for a few miles so it's conceivable, if the surface seems good, that I will revisit the scene of the crime, so to speak (I can already hear some of you screaming, "no, no, Roger, don't do it!").

Here are today's route and metrics:

Day 48: Willmar, Minnesota

Today's ride was relatively short by recent standards -- and I kept it that way! I left Montevideo, MN, at the luxurious hour of 9:15 and arrived in Willmar, MN, 43 miles later, at about 1:30. I fought Northeast headwinds the whole way, but they were relatively mild, in the 5 mph category.

There's not much to say about the ride -- it wasn't particularly scenic or, except in parts, untrafficked. In truth, I'm having some difficulty adjusting to the post-Glacier, post-Black Hills/Badlands portions of this trip. Acres and acres of farmland just aren't the same in my scenery book (no offense meant to farmers). I'm hoping when I get more into lake country, the vistas will pick up. At the moment, at least on the routes I've been riding, it's been jarring how many power lines, telephone lines, cell phone towers, etc. mar the landscape in whichever direction you look. And, although a corn field, in and of itself, is pretty gorgeous, corn field after corn field after corn field (OK, maybe interspersed with a wheat field) gets a bit monotonous. I never thought I'd say this -- I miss the ranches with their cattle, horses and sheep. The cattle and horses would always stare as I rode past (the horses, in my humble opinion, stared more intelligently than the cattle). This portion of MN really doesn't boast of any significant livestock (I asked locals on this latter point, just to confirm my observations).

In terms of roads, today started off on a fairly deserted county road, which was pretty lovely. But, after about 10 miles going East, guess what? Yes, it turned to gravel. Fortunately, it did so at an intersection where I could head North on a paved county road to another Eastbound paved county road. Unfortunately, the new one, as well as my last 20 miles into Willmar on Route 23, all had pretty heavy traffic, which was jarring in its own right. It's actually kind of amazing that I've been  able mostly to avoid meaningful traffic this entire trip until now. Fortunately, all the shoulders were wide and in decent shape, which, I guess, is a consolation (and beats the alternative).

Tomorrow is a longish ride -- 66 miles to Winsted, MN -- against forecast headwinds of 10 to 15 mph -- so I'll aim for an early start (assuming the Olympics don't keep me up too late). One nice feature, however, is that the last 35 miles of the ride is entirely on the Luce Line Bike Trail. So no traffic there (I certainly hope). This same bike trail continues into Minneapolis, so, assuming it's a pleasant trail, I plan on staying on it for the duration of what will be about a 45 mile ride on Saturday (thunderstorms forecast, however).

Looking forward to seeing you in Minneapolis, Laura! That thought has certainly helped to keep me pedaling these past few days....

Here are today's route and metrics:

Day 47: Madison...No wait...Montevideo (Minnesota in any event)

I thought today was going to be a relatively easy ride because it was less distance than I've been doing recently -- 53 miles from Watertown, SD to Madison, MN -- and, more importantly, the forecast was (at last!) for a tailwind out of the West.

I felt so good about these factors that I lingered at the hotel (Hampton Inn - luxurious by this trip's standards), even revisiting the whirlpool in the morning to try to loosen up my achilles tendon. So I didn't get on the road until about 9:15, but that was going to be OK.

And it would have been -- if I had stuck to the game plan. First, I obviously didn't learn from yesterday's lesson: the back roads in South Dakota are gravel. Repeat after me. But I tried again nonetheless (these are major county roads, right?). And once again, it was deserted and lovely. But all gravel, all the time. It quickly got tiring to ride and, when I came to the crossroad that I actually had some confidence had to be paved -- and it wasn't -- I cut my losses and went back to Rte 212.

Where the tailwind was just great. I think I had forgotten what a good one was like. So with that, and the smooth surface and good shoulder,  I was cruising, and had completed 40 miles in no time (so to speak), when I began thinking about the next two days' ride -- each about 65 miles -- and how it would be a "waste" to "use up" this tailwind on the shorter day. Especially since the forecast for both days was for headwinds (alas, back to normal).

A quick consultation with Google Maps and the town of Montevideo appeared -- a "mere" additional 27 miles past Madison -- and, yes, it was a town with motels. So my second error was to assume that the wind would stay favorable. It didn't. And, if you want to keep counting errors, I also assumed that the heat wouldn't bother me much, even though it was in the 90s and sunny -- oh, and humid. That was a new one on me -- all our heat to date had been pretty dry.

So, by the time I got to Montevideo, around 5:00 p.m. and after 81.5 miles, my relatively easy ride had become quite difficult. I (and my tendon) were very glad to get off the bike. Especially since a severe thunderstorm watch was in effect and dark clouds were fast rolling in.

So will I learn? Tomorrow's ride is now a "comfortable" 40 miles -- although the anticipated headwinds will make it harder. But I intend (really!) to keep it that distance.

Oh yes. I'm now in Minnesota. Honestly, I can't say I see much difference -- at least not yet. Did I mention it's more humid? I saw a ton of farms and corn and wheat fields, combined with a touch more density in terms of farmhouses, but maybe a few less ranches. And maybe a few more rolling hills (eastern South Dakota was flat!)

Here are today's route and metrics: