Day 1 - Cannon Falls to Red Wing Round Trip - TOM

June 16, 2024

Day 1 - Cannon Falls to Red Wing Round Trip

Hit the Trail!

Last night the rain got serious. I was in the tent at 9:30 closing my eyes when the sky opened up. The rain came as a torrential downpour which lasted for hours. The major variable was the amount of lightning and thunder. The electrical storm slowly built until the thunder was a constant roar and the lightning flashes were blinding, even through closed eyelids. This uproar lasted for a couple hours until it finally subsided into the background and became occasional instead of continuous. Even after I finally got to sleep it woke me up many times during the night. The rain stopped shortly after 6:00 am, and by 9:00 the sun was out.By some miracle the end of the rain coincided with time to crawl out of the tent.

As soon as the rain started several leaks manifested in the tent. Luckily, after the afternoon rain I pretty much knew where the leaks were and had rearranged things so that my sleeping bag and pad were not under any of them, and everything else in the tent was in waterproof bags or covered by something waterproof. Interestingly enough, shortly after the heavy rain started the leaks seemed to heal themselves and the dripping slowly decreased and stopped. Otherwise I would have been floating on my pad this morning.

Breakfast this morning was provided by the Cannon Falls Lions Club. It was part of their Fathers Day pancake breakfast for the community. I think we were in line before any of the community showed up. I saw several Oklahoma Freewheel jerseys at breakfast and met some fellow Okies.

About 7:15 I rolled my bike down the gravel road to the bottom of the hill to take off on today’s ride. There was a weird noise while rolling. I checked everything I could think of to no avail, so I rolled it to the bike shop van. They finally decided it was a single grain of sand in the rear brake caliper (not the brake pad or the rim) and cleaned it out. Sound mostly gone. I took off and a mile down the trail had to ride through about 2” of standing water for about 50’. All strange sounds were now gone. I guess it was grit in the system.

The bike shop trailer. While diagnosing my weird sounds, they also discovered what I will call a bicycle tire hernia on the front wheel. The tube was caught between the tire bead and the rim for about 6”. Why it hadn’t blown out before now (I had ridden on it like this for 150-200 miles) is a mystery and a miracle. They replaced the tube and I was ready to go, only about 45 minutes late.

Image not found :( — Today’s ride was along the Cannon Valley Trail, a rail trail along the Cannon River from Cannon Falls to Red Wing, where it meets the Mississippi River.

Rest stop halfway to Red Wing. The volunteers wouldn’t let us pick up our own snacks. They had to hand them out with gloved hands.

Something new to me. The trail is a tollway. You have to pay to ride. The cost? I don’t know. It was included in the registration fee.

The Mississippi River here at Red Wing is crawling out of its banks.

Back on the Mississippi River Trail, for a few moments anyway.

Now for the botanical portion of today’s ride.

At one point the trail was covered with blooms that had been knocked to the ground by the rain.

These flowers were on stems up to 4’-5’ tall.

Looks like our old friend poison hemlock.

Multi-use trail. In town were snowmobile traffic signs.

When I returned to the Cannon Falls fairground about 12:30 the shower truck wasn’t set up yet and the pool wasn’t to open until 2:00 pm. I jumped in the car and drove to the Subway to buy a sandwich for lunch, then on to the brewery for a beer. I stayed there for about an hour and a half to take advantage of the air conditioning.

I asked the server at the brewery if there are falls at Cannon Falls, or is it a misnomer like Wichita Falls, Texas. Yes, indeed, the falls are on the Little Cannon River before it spills into the Cannon River proper. She directed me to go out onto the brewery’s patio to see them.

In all their glory, the falls at Cannon Falls. I don’t think Sioux Falls, South Dakota or Great Falls, Montana need worry about the competition.

Back to the fairground for a shower at the pool, then back in the car to drive to a shady spot in town to sit in the car with the engine running to enjoy the A/C for an hour or two while reading a book.

While sitting there I noticed the tire pressure light had come on. I checked and the left front t tire was 10 psi low. Great! A slow leak (I checked them 4 days ago) but I don’t know when it started. Maybe I will have a flat tire when I get back here on Saturday. I drove to Casey’s and pumped it up to 15 psi over the normal pressure. Hopefully it will hold out until I get back. Otherwise I’ll be driving back to Rochester on the donut spare. Stay tuned.

In case you haven’t gotten the impression yet, it was a hot and humid day, 90 degrees with 96 heat index. There’s an 80% chance of rain tonight and tomorrow with a high of 72. Depending on how heavy the rain, it may be too warm to wear a rain jacket and too cool not to, at the same time. I’m working on a way to take down the tent while leaving the rain fly up until the last minute. We’ll see.

Dinner at the fairground was okay but nothing to brag about. I was fortunate enough to find a shady spot to sit and eat. Now it’s just a matter of sweating it out until bedtime.

Today's ride: 45 miles (72 km)
Total: 45 miles (72 km)

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Kelly Iniguez36 degrees this morning when we woke up at Glacier Park. 50 degrees when we finished the ride!
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5 months ago

Ed ChimahuskyTo Kelly IniguezSounds like one of our nights in Yellowstone last June on our tour.
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5 months ago