This is the third time I've threatened to ride from my house in the southwest suburbs of Minneapolis to Fergus Falls and back during the course of Covid.  Now normally this time of year I'd be in Germany or Austria cycling some highly compelling dedicated and well-signed cycle route.  However, if you read my journal from last year, you'd know I spent at least a portion of that trip worried about people not following Covid precautions.  A year later, Covid is still here, but any semblance of precautions are long since gone.  Meanwhile, international travel has become more and more challenging with airlines understaffed and reports of lost luggage.  Having experienced lost luggage, specifically my bicycle, twice now, I didn't fancy taking my chances with a lost/delayed bike, or covid.  

So why Fergus Falls?  Well, it's the shortest and least boring route from my house that is mostly on paved rail trail.  There are three options really: the Paul Bunyan Trail from Brainerd to Bemidji, and the Willard Munger Trail from Hinkley to Duluth, and the Lake Wobegon/Central Lakes trails.  I've ridden all of them before.  The Paul Bunyan is used in the winter for snowmobiling and has annoying cracks across the trail every few feet.  When I rode it, I intended to do an out and back.  I ended up bailing and getting a ride back.  It was also boring, at least by my usual cycling standards.  The Willard Munger is in better shape, or was many years ago when I rode it, but Duluth is farther than I want to ride from home and frankly, most of the trail was less than compelling riding.  There also isn't much for camping or towns with anything remotely related to services along the way.  And so that leaves Fergus Falls and the Lake Wobegon and Central Lakes Trails.  I have ridden as far as Lake Osakis in the past.  While the trail is not exactly exciting, it's slightly less boring than the alternatives.  Because the trail is in the vicinity of Interstate highway 94, there is better access to things like food and water.  Added bonus, because it's kind of in the middle of nowhere, I'll have the trail mostly to myself.

The next question on your mind may be why I am riding from home and not just tossing a bike in my car and driving to the trailhead.  Valid question.  The answer is: I'm not riding my usual bike.  I'm taking my velomobile.  I will detail in a separate post exactly what a velomobile is, but trust me, one would not fit in a Toyota Prius.  ON a Prius, perhaps, but certainly not IN.  There's also a part of me that objects to the idea of using a gas-powered polluting vehicle to drive somewhere to ride a bike when I could just use the bike to ride there instead.  

So why the velomobile?  Well, if you are asking this, clearly you have never ridden in a velomobile.  Aside from the advantage of having ample space for gear, in this case camping gear, and the fact that it is more or less an unairconditioned car that you pedal and sweat bucket loads in, it is also incredibly fast.  Routes where I average 13mph or so, I ride at more like 19-20mph in the velomobile.  Frankly, the entire lure of this trip is long flattish trail with minimal users and very few road crossings where I can just cruise.  I never get to do that here in the cities and I really want to know just how long I can cruise around 20mph when I don't have to keep stopping or dodge walkers and cyclists who are confused about which country they are in (it appears quite a few folk here think they are in England and walk on the wrong side of the road.)

The trail, last I recall quite a few years ago, was in good shape.  However, I have no idea what the ravages of time, winter, and snowmobiles have done to the surface quality.  Given the nature of a velomobile, I am rather keen to avoid bumping down a trail full of cracks.  This is the one point that could lead to an alteration of plans or final destination.  There are plenty of roads in the area that sort of parallel the trail, though viewing from google maps, they look like they could use resurfacing.

In summary, I'm riding to Fergus Falls simply to see what it's like to ride a velomobile in a remote area where you rarely have to stop.  An ego trip in essence.  How fast am I when not hindered by the insanity of a city.

Will my riding be strong, my velomobile good-looking, and my speed above average?  We'll find out.  Probably.  Unless I bail on this trip for the third time....

(I bailed on trip one because my coroplast velomobile body that I attached to my trike turned out not to be very fast.  I bailed the second time because of weather and lack of training.  If I bail this time, I promise to come up with a more compelling reason.)