July 8, 2015
Would You Like Live Bait Wiith That?: Day 36 - International Falls Mn to Cook Mn
The entire lakes region from Kenora on through to this area of Minnesota appears to run on two things, cutting timber for the pulp mill at Ft Frances / International Falls, and sport fishing.
Every motel, every restaurant, every general store has a big sign "Fisherman Welcome". The vast majority of trucks are pulling boats. I've lost count of the number of "world class" fishing lodges. We even saw a 20 ft high cement Walleye that had a saddle so you could ride it!
But the most astonishing thing is the ubiquity of live bait. If you buy gas you can get live bait. If you buy groceries you can get live bait (but too small for sashimi). If you get your hair cut you can get live bait. It is everywhere.
As a cycle tourer you can certainly feel like a fish out of water (pun intended .... it was just so obvious!) however most of the locals have been welcoming and as helpful as they can.
The countryside is still pretty much the same .... trees, lakes and a few small dairy farms. What is much different on this side of the border though are the roads. We are on highway 53 going south. It has about the same traffic vume as highway 11 in Ontario but with full sized shoulders. We are starting to really appreciate our decision to take this southern route around Lake Superior. So far so good.
We broke camp at a good time this morning and were on the road at 7:40. We rode 535m to the Golden Arches, got a coffee and wifi, and sat down to update this journal and load pictures. I thought I had retired, but now I have two full time jobs. Riding a bike all day and writing a journal all night. Sometimes the night shift rolls into the morning and this was one of those days.
We rolled out of Ronnies at 10, leaving Bill still updating his journal. We agreed we'd meet up in Cook if not earlier on the road.
There was 60 km of construction on hwy 53 but it did not impact our biking. In fact it made it better as the road crews waived us through and held up cars, sending them trough in batches.
At the 40 km mark just as we were getting thirsty and hungry we came upon the Lake Kabetogama general store. Aside from live bait, they also had chocolate milk, 25 cent bananas and fresh baked pastries. Perfect.
Even better, they had a small interpretive display giving some of the history of Voyageur National Park and the pièce de resistance, a massive cement Walleye. Not only could you stand and look at this, you could also walk up the platform behind it, mount the saddle (who knew you could saddle a fish?) and ride it.
The Calgary Stampede is on right now and we were feeling a little homesick so up we went. Yahoooo!
Back on the bikes and we continued south into a fairly strong headwind. We pulled over for lunch in the small fishing resort town of Orr at the 85 km Mark. While we were finishing up lunch Bill pulled in. We took this as an opportunity for a longer rest and then we all set off together for the final 30 km's to Cook.
There's no campground in Cook, the nearest being more than 10 km in directions we don't want to go so we got a room at the only motel in town. It's pretty nice. Bill bought the beer, we bought the pizza and that was supper in the room. We compared notes and checked maps for potential routes to Sault St Marie. However, our plan for tomorrow is pretty straightforward, 140 km south to Duluth. Looks like there's a steep downhill into Duluth. Should be fun at the end of a long day.
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Song of the day:
Keep on Walking by Passenger .....
When this came on today it reminded me of the vignettes of conversations we had or overheard in the RV park we camped in last night and the McDonalds we were in this morning. On a tour like this we are effectively homeless, and although we have far more resources at our disposal than true homeless folks, everyday we face the need to find a place to stay, get wifi to stay in contact, and get food. Unfortunately, many of the people we saw at both the park and the mcD's are faced with these same challenges, without the resources we have. This is a much closer exposure than I've had before on these issues. I don't have any solutions to offer, but I do have much more empathy for homeless folks than I had before. At least that's a start, and Passengers song made me think about this.
Historical monument of the day:
The history of Lake Kabetogama, one of the gateways to voyageur national park
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Today's ride: 117 km (73 miles)
Total: 3,643 km (2,262 miles)
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