Day 1 - Bloomington to Clearwater - It's been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon...

August 29, 2022

Day 1 - Bloomington to Clearwater

Wow. What a day of riding. I can truthfully say I’ve never had a day quite like today.

Packed and ready to go. The stickers are reflective. That will come in handy later.

I knew today would be a fairly slow day. I’ve ridden the trails to wayzata a few times both in the velomobile and on my bike. From home it’s a gradual climb to wayzata, and apparently for awhile beyond that. Looking at my ride profile, the first 25 miles were generally uphill with some downhill here and there sprinkled in. There are also some stretches of limestone trail with some loose bits of gravel over top. That does mean slow going. I think the first section of the ride I was averaging 12mph, which is a bit less than the 19mph I average riding around where I live. Granted that is all paved, I know the route, and it’s relatively flat. One climb riding along the outskirts of Baker Park in Maple Plain MN ended with a short 12% climb. Loaded up with camping gear that was rather a slog, but I did make it up the hill. My mapping software (Garmin Connect), claimed 1.180 ft of elevation gain today. That was not particularly accurate. My actual Garmin device registered 2000ft of elevation gain over the 70 miles. Definitely not the most I’ve climbed in a day. That would be a 60 or so mile ride I did on the north side of the Salzkammergut. I believe that was something like 5000ft. But then I wasn’t riding a 60lb velomobile with 15 or so lbs of camping gear. Still, I survived, my legs still work, and I’m proud of myself for getting through it. I haven’t ridden this far in a day in many many years.

Given the alleged elevation profile and mileage and based off other riding experiences, I anticipated I’d need around 4 hours for the ride today. I had some things to take care of this morning so I planned to leave by 2pm at the latest. And I did. I left shortly after 2pm. Fitting everything in the Quest XS velomobiel was a tight fit. I ended up deciding to leave the cooking stuff at home and stop at restaurants along the way for my food. I may regret that at breakfast, but it would have been a tight fit to add anything else.

The beginning of the ride was as expected. Hills are a bit slower with the extra weight, but still manageable. I didn’t push for top speed like I normally do, knowing I had a long ride ahead of me followed by 4-5 more days of the same.

Once I arrived in Wayzata, everything beyond there was new to me. Turns out all the roads heading north out of downtown Wayzata go uphill. Again, manageable, though it does put a dent in one’s average speed. From there it was a patchwork of sections on road and unpacked and paved trails to Long Lake. I’m familiar with Long Lake from visiting my dad’s cousin many times. I’d forgotten that coming in from the east involves going uphill. Points to Long Lake for at least having a nice paved trail along there. I swung through the neighborhood where my relatives used to live. Two girls tried to convince me to buy their lemonade, but I zoomed on past. You see, I was rather a bit behind schedule. I was averaging around 12mph when I had expected more like 15mph.

Beyond Long Lake I had somehow expected the Lake Independence Trail to be flat. You know, like a rail trail. Well, turns out it’s not a rail trail. And it was also getting crack sealing. With fresh tar. I dodged between cracks as best I could hoping my fresh paint job would not be harmed any more than it already is. I had weird sounds coming from my tires for awhile after that and had to get out and check that everything was okay a couple times. At one point I thought I had a flat tire, but fortunately it was just a ball of tar stuck to the tire. In the morning I’ll do a more thorough investigation, but it seems everything is okay. I will also have to reroute on the way back because the trial is closed for repaving in a section August 31-September 2. I was hoping to pass through on the way back September 2 so….

The Lake Independence trail is basically like the online reviews say. It is a north-south route right next to the road. It is not especially scenic, though the pavement is in reasonable condition. It passes through a series of rural towns on the way to Hanover. There is a short scenic jog in Hanover and then the trail ends. That is where I got off track. Twice. I ended up taking a back road north of Hanover. More scenic likely than my intended route, but of course I had to go up a hill to get back on course after quite a bit of uphill and short downhills on the rest of the trail.

Historic 1896 bridge in Hanover, MN. The most exciting sight of the day.

St Michael was where the real adventuring started. They have the main road torn up. I, of course, opted to ride through it thinking I could stay on the sidewalk. Turns out that was torn up too. I made it through and enjoyed the break from the sound of traffic. It wasn’t good for my average speed though and I think some mud may have gotten on my back tire because I had some weird sounds from back there briefly.

From St Michael I headed west with a touch of north toward Monticello and along the south side of interstate 94. The further I got from town, the quieter the road became. It was really the first pleasant riding of the day. There were some hilly bits here and there, but overall I was able to cruise much better than before. However, it was becoming clear that it was be very close to dark when I arrived in Clearwater.

Monticello was a bit of an adventure too. I was able to pick up the Mississippi River Trail signed route there. That meant no more getting off track. I stopped in a park to use the restroom. When I came back, a lady across the street from a house with a giant Trump flag asked if she could take my photo. Her husband had seen me from their bathroom and told her she just had to go check that weird thing out. Of course she just had to ask if it had a motor and how fast it went. I told her no motor, and today not very fast. Cause there are a lot of hills. Oh, and a roaring wind out of the weat meaning either a major crosswind, or a major headwind. I think that held my speed back some too, but nowhere near what it would have on any of my other bikes. Mostly it just made it very loud with the wind whooshing past my head. Normally the wind whooshes past my head, but that’s because I’m riding fast. Not so much today though.

By the Mississippi in Monticello, the park where the Trump fan snapped a photo of me and my bike

Beyond Monticello the MRT follows the north side of 94, within close distance in fact. I was able to read the road signs to help gauge my progress as I rode into the ever more setting sun. Now I really was concerned about arriving before dark. The velo has dual headlights, but I’ve never actually tried them out in the dark. As I rode through the empty landscape listening to the trucks go by on the highway, I also watched a very lovely sunset. The road here was mostly flatter as well and it was a relatively pleasant cruise.

I was greatly relieved when I finally reached Clearwater. It was still more or less light enough to see. I decided to opt for Subway when I noticed they had a drive through. I’ve never done drive through in a velo. While a bit awkward to reach the window, it did work and I think the kids working there probably will enjoy going home after work and showing off their photos of the weird bike that came through the drive through tonight. While I was waiting for my order, some folks from the bar across the drive popped out to smoke. Ended up with a small gathering of smokers all gawking at the weird bike. One lady, the most talkative (or perhaps most drunk?) wanted to know how fast it could go downhill. I said I’d hit 46mph once. She misheard and proceeded to tell everyone I could go 64mph. I didn’t bother to correct her. I’ll just stick with the idea that she probably had had a couple drinks already.

This photo turned out better than I expected. It really was a nice sunset.

Finally in Clearwater. Supper, and a campsite of sorts. You have now seen all the pictures form my ride today. Very scenic.

Armed with food, I headed for the campsite just north of Clearwater. Warner County park has bicycle camping sites. Or so the website says. When I arrived at the park, I couldn’t find any signage for where to go. Oh, and it was dark. Quite dark. I first ended up at the beach. Then I consulted the website map and saw that I needed to find a trail by the bathrooms that would go back to the campsites. It took a couple tries in the dark, but finally I located the trail. So the trail? Naturally it went uphill hahahahahahha. Steeply. And on washed out dirt. It was absurd enough to be downright comical. I got out and pushed up the hill. And then I had to duck under a tree that had fallen over the trail. Frankly, I’m not sure if I’m actually pitched in a proper campsite or not, but I found a clearing along the trail which I have assumed to be the campsite.it’s dark. I’m the only one here, and I doubt anyone would care.

I haven’t assembled the lightweight tent I brought with in maybe 10 years or more. I was t even sure I had tent pegs with. Turns out you need to insert the support rods before you put in all the tent pegs (which thankfully I had with.. Once sorted, I did achieve a fully assembled and functional tent. Then I inflated my air mattress and got all my stuff arranged in the tent. The air mattress has Also not been used in quite some time. I did not inflate it at home. That was a mistake. It seems to have degraded over time and no longer holds air. I will be sleeping on my seat pad and sleeping bag and hoping for some semblance of sleep tonight. Tomorrow I will be making a detour to a sporting goods store to buy a new pad. That will be interesting with a loaded velomobile. I do have a lock and invisibility cloak (motorcycle cover) with me. My dad has tried to talk me into staying in a hotel each night, but I didn’t drag all this camping gear with for nothing! Also, this extremely rustic campsite is free. Nothing tops free!

This journal entry is coming to you from the lighted and somewhat buggy picnic shelter where I found functioning power outlets. This is quite critical as my main battery took a hit today running quite a lot of lights. I was down to about 50% left. I should have enough topped up now to get me to Sauk Centre where I’ll have a much more developed campsite.

The campsite doesn’t have showers, but it does have a lake. My plan was a nice wash up in the lake where I would also wash out my stinky clothes. Given that I arrived in the dark, I decided against that option. I washed out my shirt and washed my face and arms in the water fountain by the beach. The water fountain in the shelter sadly has very low water pressure.

And with that, I think you are caught up on my crazy first day of riding to Fergus Falls. The hills will end once I get to St Cloud. It’s all rail trail from there. I will likely stop overnight in Sauk Centre so I can shower and do some proper washing. And charge my electronics.

I have no idea how hilly it is between here and there. I believe it is 15 miles. Add 4 to that if I need to ride back into Clearwater to get any breakfast. And with that, I am headed to my air mattressles tent where the mosquitos can’t devour me. I get to fall asleep to the dulcet sound of semis on interstate 94. I have earplugs with….

Oh. and the seat pad, while very comfy riding in the velo, is a bit hard when laying on the ground. Now you know.

Today's ride: 70 miles (113 km)
Total: 70 miles (113 km)

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