Thanks Marian. It's always nice to belong to a club, or something, or anything. I managed to last longer on Crazyguy than I thought I would, but I knew my banishment was inevitable.

Welcome to the club!

P.S. I think that little settlement seen across the river in this page's only picture is Maiden Rock. In fact, I think I see the cafe. If I squint my eyes enough, I can look in the window and a guy enjoying a nice piece of blueberry pie. There is a fly on his hand. (Only the first sentence in this message is true.)

A few years ago, a guy I knew invited me to go on what he called "The Pie Ride." He explained that every year he and a group of friends ride from Hastings, cross the St. Croix River at Prescott, and ride down the Wisconsin side to Maiden Rock, have a slice of pie, then ride back to Hastings on the Minnesota side of the Mississippi River. I have to believe they go to the same place you just mentioned, and I have to believe that little town doesn't have more than one pie place, and I have to believe they must serve some pretty good pie.

I had other plans for that day or else I would have joined in--even though I don't particularly care for pie.

Thanks for reading,
Greg

Hi Greg,
Lots of memories for me in this ride. I’ve probably ridden every inch of it at one time or another. One of my favorite rides started in Cannon Falls and swung south on county roads before looping north to Welch to join the trail and eventually finish back where I started. My club used to do a loop of Lake Pépin every year, too. There was a great little cafe in Maiden Rock WI that we always stopped at for pie. 169 had nice shoulders, but as you know it’s rather busy.
Thanks for the tour, it was a lot of fun even if the protagonist was a bit naive.
Cheers,
Keith

Thanks Paul, that sounds pretty cool. Keep me in mind when the time gets closer.

Greg - if you ever want to "bikepack" in the desert, let me know. I'm headed back to the SW to do the Arizona Trail when I retire (18mo? 2 years?) and if you want to ride all of it or part of it let me know.

Thank you for the compliment, Paul. Generally my tours aren't in exciting places, or foreign places, or historically significant places, so all I've got to offer are my goofy observations and a joke or two.

Just yesterday I was reading your "Bikepacking the Fool's Loop" and enjoyed it a lot. I'm a big fan of deserts. Also, it made me think that what I was doing in this journal is sort of an early form of bikepacking. Okay, that's stretching things a bit, but that's what I do.

Once again, your writing keeps one reading the journal. Thanks for another entertaining description of your journey.

I forgot the main thing I wanted to say. I don't think the Whitewater River, despite its enticing name, is canoeable. It's mostly quite shallow and rocky. But the fast moving water and the intermittent deep pools make it very popular with trout fishermen.

I've canoed the Cannon and the St. Croix and the Rum in Minnesota, and the Brule in Wisconsin. Three National Scenic Rivers in the Ozarks too. And quite a few lakes. I wish I could share that meal with you so I could console myself for not having canoed COUNTLESS lakes. I had to look up "poulet facion" and it sounds delicious.

Hi Greg,
You’re welcome. You mentioned canoeing. Have you ever canoed the Whitewater ? The name suggests that it might not be easy. Other than people the thing I miss most about Minnesota is my canoe. I’ve coined the Zumbro, the Cannon, the St. Croix, the upper Mississippi near the headwaters and countless lakes. (OK, you COULD count them, but I’d probably forget one or two and they might have their feelings hurt for being left out, and there is nothing more pathetic than a lake with hurt feelings, except for some old fart assigning feelings to random bodies of fresh water.)
I miss cheap hardwood lumber, too and your oak tree made me nostalgic. I’ll just have to console myself with a poulet facion Gaston Gerard washed down with a crisp Chablis.
Cheers,
Keith

Your wife's "weirdness detector" might just be as well-tuned as my wife's.

Thanks for pointing that out Keith. I am suitably embarrassed.

Hi again. Maybe spell check is not such a good thing. I meant « moo «  not moi. There’s some bad puns in there somewhere.
Cheers,
Keith