In Semi-Paradise Twas I

July 12, 2022

Willow River State Park, Wisconsin

In the first paragraph of my last post, I wrote about my excitement over the newness of this mini-tour. You remember--all that junk about a new month, a new beginning, a new tour, a new direction, a new ME, etc. I'm holding out until the second paragraph of this post to gush about the DIFFERENTNESS. (I'm going to ignore the red squiggly line that appeared under the word "differentness." Is that not a real word?)

There is a subtle distinction between newness and differentness, I think, but I'm not such a wordsmith that I can explain the distinction. Nor am I pedantic enough to even understand the distinction. Rest assured though, that I'm going to make a big deal about differentness--not only today, but on every day of every one of my Touring Differently mini-tours.

Besides being a different month, a different direction, a different beginning, and a different ME, I'd also like to point out some obvious differences between last month's mini-tour and this month's mini-tour.

First off, there's the bike. I'm riding The Reckless Mr. Bing Bong once again. Last month, I rode it's figurative offspring, Son of Bing Bong. Freshly tuned-up, The Reckless Mr. Bing Bong carried me up and down, here and there, twisting and turning, all morning and all afternoon, like the old pro it is.
Likewise, I'll be sleeping in a different tent tonight. Yes, this marks the return of Jim the Tent. Who names their tents? I do, that's who. Jim served me well on backpacking & cycling trips for hundreds of years. The least I can do is enlist it for another tour, even though it weighs almost twice as much as its successor, Mike the Tent.
Speaking of weight, to help make up for the added weight of my old tent, I've eliminated paper maps this time. That's different, and it will save me about 1/100th of an ounce. Now don't go thinking I've gone to the dark side with GPS mapping devices. NO WAY! One of the advantages of touring locally is that the only maps I need are stored in my head. It's still possible I could get lost, but I think I have the ability to get un-lost before riding too many miles out of my way.

Boy, that was a lot of wordiness without telling a single thing about the today's riding conditions. I'll get to that right now.

Dare I say, it was nearly paradise, just like I said in the title of today's post. When I left my house at 9:00 sharp, it was in the lower 70's. It never got above 82-degrees until after I arrived at my campsite. I had a moderate headwind/crosswind and that did almost nothing but help to keep me cool and to moderate my crazy speed on some of the fine downhills along my route.

I purposely chose a hilly route (for this part of the country anyway) because I've been feeling a little whimpy compared to some Cycleblazers who are doing some serious climbing. I even went off route a few miles to try to get as close to 2,000 ft. of climbing as is possible in only 37 Minnesota/Wisconsin miles.

Here are a few scenes from the first ten miles:

Crossing MY Town's bridge over the Mississippi River

That looks like dirt on the bridge deck, but it's not. Last week, MY Town had it's annual infestation of Mayflies. The hatchlings rise up out of the river by the millions, fly around for about one day, and then die by the millions.

I forgot to mention that this part of the Mississipi River is a National Recreational River Area, and rightly so. And what you see here is the confluence of the Mississippi and the St. Croix River, which is also protected as a National Wild & Scenic River.

Then I rose out of the St. Croix River Valley. Squiggly arrows usually indicate nice roads, quiet roads and hilly roads. YUP, on all three counts.

For the first time in many years of bike touring companionship, my cartoon alter-ego gets to ride solo in the map case. Good for you G-2. You should feel lucky I didn't discard your burdensome weight along with those maps.

Then the road leveled for a while, with farmland on the left and forests on the right. I consider it to be scenic. I also saw a lot of hawks along that stretch.

In case you were bored, the next stretch provided a little more excitement and some history too.

I like this country church. According to the sign, it's been there since 1863, which makes it older than any Episcopalian (Church of England) church you'll find anywhere in England. (I could be wrong about that. I'll check it out.)

Uh oh, I've seen this kind of thing before. Here comes the exciting part, where I find out if a tough-guy can ride, walk or carry his bike over the road closure. Or will I have to ride back and take a four-mile detour?

Flashback to my Cheesy Rider tour this spring.

I humbly asked if I could carry my bike down and up the culvert to the other side. To a man, the road workers were more than happy to accommodate me. They showed me where to go, the guy operating the mechanical dinosaur stopped swinging around, and I was able to carry The Reckless Mr. Bing Bong under the dinosaur's breast and over the big rocks without twisting an ankle.

Here is my picture from the other side. I was out of breath because that was a bigger effort than any of today's hills.

I made a side trip through the hills of Afton State Park.

The road dove deep into the valley. The whole time I was thinking, "I don't have to do this." Still, it was a personal challenge.

Good thing it was only a personal challenge, because there wasn't the reward of a good St. Croix River view at the end--unless I felt like riding my brakes down the hiking path to river level and walking my bike back up.

When I exited the park, there were some more hills. I know, they're only Minnesota hills, but still.

Another nice thing about touring locally is that you know what to expect. I've ridden out west and I never know when the summit is near. Maybe a GPS would help in that regard. On the other hand, I LIKE the unknown. Such a dilemma.

The next section of the St. Croix Scenic Trail was the most scenic part of my day. There were more ups and downs, then a big downhill, under a shaded canopy, all the way to the little town of Afton.

Bike riders of all kinds like to visit Selma's. I'm told they have really good ice cream. Today it was a large group of 10-15 year-old girls. On the weekends, one can see cyclists of all ages and abilities lining up half-way down the block for a scoop of some exotic flavor piled onto a waffle cone. I'm not an ice cream guy myself, so I only stopped for a picture.

The St. Croix River from the Afton boat marina.

A mid-19th century inn that rivals anything you'll find in all the other continents.

That brings us to the final section. It began by riding a fairly busy highway through the little towns of St. Mary's Point, St. Croix Shores, Lakeland, and Lakeland Shores. They all cater to the motor boating crowd. If you live in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area and you are looking to laze on your yacht, your pontoon or your fishing boat, this is the place to be.

Soon, I was ready to cross the river. I could not believe how peaceful it was. I'm pretty sure there were no more than 10 cars per second crossing the bridge with me. NICE!

I took my break under my own private gazebo, with the tourist boats in the distance. I shouldn't cast too much negativity on tourists since, in a way, I am a tourist. But I won't be riding one of those boats.

It's time to wrap this up. Once again, I had to ride upward out of the St.Croix River Valley. Hudson was surprisingly busy for a weekday. All of the trendy bars and restaurants were filled with people.

The heat was building up and so was the wind. In another hour I arrived to the Willow River State Park, though part of that time was going off-course again to pick up a few snacks.

When I asked for a campsite, I was surprised at how full the campground was on a Tuesday night. I chose a site, sight unseen, and it was great. I set up my tent, washed myself with my bandana, and commenced to blogging. I also wrote my wine review, but you'll have to wait til tomorrow for that.

Today's ride: 37 miles (60 km)
Total: 150 miles (241 km)

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