Day Thirty-six: Lanesboro, Minnesota to Sparta, Wisconsin

July 20, 2024

Today was a nice day, with lots of friendly people, easy riding, and nice scenery.

I slept well, and was up early. I walked downstairs to the "common room" where I'd stashed my chocolate milk and soda pop in the refrigerator there yesterday evening. It was still there (not that I expected the kind of fancy people who stayed at this kind of place to steal my chocolate milk), along with some of the other guests' leftovers from the various restaurants they'd patronized the night before.

I had my laptop with me, and worked on this journal while I finished the chocolate milk.

It was very quiet this morning at the inn. I was the only one up.

After finishing the day's journal entry, I performed my morning routine, slowed this time by the need to carry everything down from my room to the bike in the storage shed.

Before leaving, I talked to the lady who owns the inn. She was friendly, which somewhat made up for my mild irritation at the way the place was run (the prohibition against bringing bikes into the room, the lack of in-room refrigerators, etc.)

I rode back onto the Root River Trail. It was five miles to the next town, Whalan, population 70.

Whalan looked nice enough, but nothing was open yet, including a place with "World Famous Pies", an establishment I would likely have patronized if I hadn't arrived so early.

The next town, Peterson, population 228, was very appealing. It seemed more like a "real" town, not a fake touristy place like Lanesboro.

I decided to make time this morning for a real, leisurely breakfast, something I've rarely done on this trip. I walked into Burdey's Cafe, where everyone was very friendly.

I ordered blueberry pancakes and a (vegetarian) breakfast burrito. This was not only the best breakfast of this trip, it was one of the best breakfasts on any of my bike tours.

While I was eating, various people came over and asked about my trip. One of them was another customer, a woman about my age, who walked up and asked if that was my bike outside. She'd done solo bike touring herself, including around the great lakes, so that was interesting.

In between these conversations, I listened to the old men at the table next to mine. They somehow spent 15 minutes or more discussing, in detail, the exciting subject of sheetrock.

I finished breakfast and walked around Peterson for a while, taking a few photos.

The bike trail continued to be pleasant. The other trail users were polite. That's not always the case on these multi-use trails.

I've continued to try to remember the many verses of Tangled Up In Blue while riding. Occasionally I'll "sing" some of them while riding. This morning I was embarrassed when a group of cyclists approached me as I was doing this, specifically when I was uttering the line "I must admit I felt a little uneasy when she bent down to tie the lace of my shoe... Tangled up in blue!"

I rode through Rushford, population 1,861. It seemed to be a thriving place. I could imagine living in this very attractive area. Except: What are the winters like? I imagine they are much colder than someone like me could tolerate. (I imagine my wife will laugh when she reads this.)

I rode several more miles on the trail, then exited onto the highway to ride to the next town, Houston.

Houston was another attractive little town, self-described as "The Best" of Bluff Country.

I stopped at a convenience store for a fountain pop, then rode onto some very low traffic and smoothly paved country roads.

I saw a road cyclist approaching in my rear view mirror. He quickly caught up with me, of course, and we had an enjoyable conversation for the next few miles.

We turned onto super-busy MN-16. Fortunately it had a wide, smooth shoulder separated by a rumble strip, so it was no problem. The roadie sprinted ahead of me to continue with his long day ride.

I made one last stop at a gas station for a 32 oz. lemon lime Gatorade, to fortify myself for the ride across the Mississippi. I entered Wisconsin, the ninth state on this trip, then rode onto the big bridge.

This was an easy crossing of the Mississippi, with a wide, completely separated bike/pedestrian lane.

I made my way through city streets of La Crosse, population 51,380. Urban riding is not my thing AT ALL, but this was relatively painless

I rode along a nice riverfront path for a while, then onto a bike path, and was taken aback to find that the tents of homeless people lined it. None of the tents encroached on the path itself, but they were lined up right to the edge. There were a lot of them. I rode through this area gingerly, but no one hassled me.

After I rode past the tent zone, I passed a "Trail Closed" sign. The trail was underwater. The water was brackish and smelled horrible, so I immediately abandoned the idea of wading through it. I backed up.

I was standing over the bike, looking at Google Maps on my phone, trying to figure an alternate route through the city, when a friendly woman cyclist, Jenny, stopped and asked if I needed directions. I told her where I was trying to go, and she said that was on her route home. "Follow me!"

We had an enjoyable conversation while riding a few miles to connect back up with the bike trail. Jenny had done some bike touring in Europe with her husband, and they were planning to do some sort of tour in the Northeast USA later in the year. I was able to provide a little info about that area.

I was now on the unpaved bike path I'd follow the rest of the day. It was shockingly buggy at first. How do people live with all these bugs!? None of them bit me, but they were annoying. The worst of them were in the first few miles, fortunately. After that they only came out intermittently.

After several miles I stopped at the first town along the trail, West Salem. I looked around and took a few photos. Half the businesses in the downtown were bars.

The trail continued to be nice, but something about these unpaved rail trails always makes me tired. I was counting down the miles now.

I stopped at a trailhead and had a conversation with a couple. The woman insisted that she'd briefly talked to me yesterday on the trail heading into Lanesboro. I didn't remember her, but I suppose it's possible. She had some odd ideas. Upon hearing that I'd ridden from California, she was surprised there were bike trails all the way from the west coast, and I had to inform her that most of the time I'm on roads, not bike paths. Apparently, living near a popular bike trail, she had never considered the possibility that cyclists ride on roads.

Not much else of note happened the rest of the way to Sparta, where I was stopping for the day. I did see this snake, the first one of the trip, I believe:

I arrived at the Best Western in Sparta to find a large group of motorcyclists checking in. I was obviously anxious to get to my room, but I exercised rare self restraint and didn't complain as I waited my turn in the long line. I had a nice conversation with one of the female motorcyclists in line ahead of me. Her group had done 260 miles today, and, as usual, were complaining about how tired they were.

The elevator was not working at the motel, and several of the motorcyclists were complaining about having to walk up the stairs to the second and third floor rooms. One of them pointed me at and said "I'd like to see that guy get that bike up to the third floor!" I laughed and easily hoisted my bike, but he still wasn't convinced I could get it up the stairs. Ha!

I did get the bike up to the third floor easily enough. Later I observed the man in the room next to mine arrive, badly out of breath. He'd had a lot of trouble with the stairs.

I ordered a pizza from Dominos and ate it quickly. I'd foolishly drank too much caffeine late in the day, and had trouble falling asleep.

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John EganI'm of two minds about bike trails. It's nice to be completely away from traffic, but I do tire of the "tunnel of trees" and, if it is crowded with inexperienced cycled riding two or three abreast, then it is hard to make good time.

You are getting pretty darn close to Manitowoc.
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4 months ago

Jeff LeeTo John EganYeah, I was annoyed at the bike paths on this day, but partly I was in a bad mood.

Today I was very glad the (much shorter) bike paths were there.
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4 months ago

Today's ride: 84 miles (135 km)
Total: 2,459 miles (3,957 km)

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John PescatoreJeff - three weeks ago my wife and did a supported tour that included riding from Trempealeau into La Crosse - and hit what looks like the same section of flooded trail you hit! It actually never got more than 1 foot deep if you stayed on the long side, but it was freshly flooded at the time.
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4 months ago