July 19, 2023
Day 33: Escape from Fargo
Fargo to Ponsford, MN
The blog below was written on Wednesday night, but I didn’t have very good cell coverage, so I am now uploading the blog on Thursday early afternoon after a blustery ride to Lake Itasca State Park where we are enjoying a lazy lunch on our way to Bemidgi. Lake Itasca is where the Mississippi Headwaters lie and was Minnesota’s first state park; we will go see the area after lunch. I hear it looks like a tiny stream; we will see for ourselves.
Wednesday Evening:
We are currently sitting in the tent while it “drizzles” here at Tamarac “Resort” at Round Lake. It was a scramble to get the tent set up before the storm came in. I was getting ready to prepare dinner, and Mike was checking the radar. Well, we should have just set up the tent when we got here, but there was ice cream to eat, a lake to check out and showers to be had…Another lesson learned. Dinner is currently under the picnic table; we will see if it is still there when this storm passes. Storm - that is how a Californian would see it, but Minnesotans call it drizzle. Mike is holding the entryway rainfly out with his foot as the entry stake was not secure. This is actually kind of comical.
Before arriving at the “resort,” and I put quotes as the term should be taken loosely as with many establishments that call themselves that name - we had an enjoyable ride. After we fled the Bison Inn and Suites at 6:25 am, we navigated our way through downtown Fargo, which seemed like a very pleasant part of town. It would have been nice to have stayed close to downtown to enjoy a meal and enjoy a stroll, but by rolling through, we got a sampling of the area. Mike navigated us to the start of my section of the trip. I started my section at the Fargo Brewery, which we did not go to, because I had no idea where to exactly start my section as we had no idea five months ago on an exact location in Fargo. On a side note, Mike planned the entire first half of the trip up until Fargo, and I planned the second half. We have very different styles of doing many things, and especially planning. I usually don’t enjoy details unless it is in my classroom, planning a trip or having a dinner party. Then, I like details. Mike sometimes is so detail oriented that it drives me nuts, but not when it came to his half of the trip; this half will be different.
I must say, my first day went swimmingly. There was about three miles of dirt, but it was good dirt. We could have stayed on the road when we discovered I routed us on dirt, but it cut some miles off and was pleasant. I guess when I created the route I saw “heat” from Strava or Ride With GPS thought it was a better route… I only have a 1% dirt section in 295 miles, so that is not bad.
Speaking of swimming, I was excited about a lake swim; I love nothing better than to end my riding day swimming or cleaning off in a fresh body of water; however, it appears that the lakes around here may be filled with lots of nutrients, so there is lots of vegetation on the bottom; something out of The Monster From the Black Lagoon, so we didn’t swim, but there were other shenanigans.
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Lastly, our first day in Minnesota was a good one: great riding weather and terrain, a pleasant place to camp, fun on the water, and learning experiences. Tomorrow we head to Bemidgi; we are looking forward to this as we have heard great things about this area, and are being hosted by locals who are friends of a friend from back home.
Good night from Minnesota,
Team Bean
Today's ride: 75 miles (121 km)
Total: 2,083 miles (3,352 km)
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