It's all about speed

After work ride...strong legs....best pace of the season of 14.3 mph on the Gateway Trail. Passed the 400 mile mark for the season.

Neither rain, lightning nor broken bolt....

A 4th of July weekend to remember on the Central Lakes State Trail. If you want to see lakes this is the trail to ride. And then throw in pelicans, herons, egrets, night heron, cormorants, belted kingfishers and you're in Heaven. We started biking in Dalton, a very small town with alot of traffic for some reason, and rode out to Fergus Falls. This is the most scenic part of the trip with one lake after another - some just small glacial puddles while others stretch into bays with islands covered with birdlife. A fawn crossed our trail and alongside the trails were purple coneflowers, yellow clover, false sunflowers, daisies, etc. Unfortunately the trail stops abruptly in Fergus Falls and we didn't even see the town. There is a trailhead at Pebble Beach which we skipped. We rode back toward Dalton toward Ashby hoping to see Lake Christina and Pelican Lake. Despite the weather forecast of fair skies we were caught in a rain shower just outside of Ashby. No thunder or lightning so we waited under the branches of a tree for the shower to pass. The tree as umbrella worked well and we headed out again once the rain let up. Unfortunately the dark clouds started to fill in once we got to Pelican Lake. We smartly turned back and rode like the wind only to hear ominous thunder in the distance. To the South it looked clear but not right over us. We did pause to see a kestrel (small hawk) on the utility line along the road. Large raindrops turned to a heavy shower. We tried the tree trick again but the rain was getting serious as was the thunder. We were within five miles of Dalton. Rats. So off we went into the rain, thunder and lightning and the back spray coming into my face. By the time we got to the car (35 miles round trip) the gutters along the road were overflowing. Will threw the bike into the car; I covered the seats with our raincoats (which we had left in the car). We stripped off our shirts and at least had dry t-shirts on. Driving into Alexandria toward our B&B, The Cedar Rose Inn we noticed the roads turned dry just past Ashby. There was no rain anywhere but right above us. Waiting for us at the B&B was a decanter of sherry and a huge bathtub. We washed up, went out for dinner, and slept like logs.

July 4th was a perfect day. We had a full table at breakfast with folks from the cities in Alex to watch their kid play baseball and another couple from North Dakota on their way to the Twin Cities. We decided to bike out from Alex to Garfield and then back to Alex and on to Osakis for close to 50 miles. Halfway to Garfield we heard a crack. Will said those famous words, "that doesn't sound good" and I look down to see the support for his seat hanging loose. It looked like our ride was over. Will found some adhesive tape and managed to bandaid the support and we rode back to Alex. We remembered walking past Ace Hardware the night before and decided to ride a few more blocks to see if it was open. We drove down main street - not easy for us - and pulled up to find the store open. YIPPEE! The helpful clerk found Will the right size bolt; we screwed it in and off we went back to Garfield. Thank you Ace Hardware! In Garfield we met a 77 year old biker and his wife. He biked 77 miles on his 77th birthday. He looked like he could give most of us a run for our money. Very inspiring. From Garfield we turned around and headed to Osakis. The scenery on this end of the trail is not as inspiring as the Fergus end but we saw tons of wild flowers including a prairie lily, thistles, red clover and purple coneflowers. There were the occasional killdeer trying to lead us away into the corn fields, lots of goldfinches and one rabbit. We were looking for shade and frequently rode along the wrong side of the trail to get some cool breezes. We did travel past Oakis to see where this trail hooked up to the Lake Wobegon Trail. We almost have both trails complete - just missing small sections. Arriving back in Alex and went immediately to Dairy Queen and ordered large cold things to each and drunk.

That evening we headed back down to the Depot restaurant and sat outside on the patio looking over the trail and Lake Agnes. Pelicans and cormorants flew by, fish jumped, about 20 ducklings waddled by. We drank and ate and ended a great day together.

Notes on the trip: we saw a few remnants of the trains besides the rail left in Fergus Falls including a few crossing markers, mileposts and a water crossing post. Alexandria has a charming downtown but it was almost totally closed over the holiday. We'd like to see the Runestone museum on a return trip. The speedway in Alex operates from Memorial Day to Labor Day on Saturdays. It is very loud and kind of intrudes on early to bed people like ourselves. Alex is a very walkable town and has a number of interesting buildings which I have on Facebook. We ran into fun and gregarious people each morning at the B&B. Everyone sat around for more than an hour eating and talking.

Our zen moment with the screamer

Gray clouds all week but they broke briefly for our one bike ride before the Central Lakes trail. Traffic was uncharacteristically light going through St. Paul where we headed for a 20 mile ride on the Gateway trail. The temperatures were cool; I actually wore a hoody for most of the ride. There were way too many rollerbladers on the trail. Fortunately for us they were on the final leg of their trek and we were just starting out.

We were in the groove last night. More uphill going out means downhill coming back. It is so exhilarating when you're humming. I really felt one with the bike. It's amazing to me how you can shut out the world around you when you are focusing on one physical task. Last night I tuned into my pedal action; thinking at first about each stroke then moving eventually to just an automatic cadence. This doesn't happen with every ride.

But let me also complain about our bike. Will worked on the brakes today so we don't come into stops with the customary shriek. Nice. However, everything else on this bike makes noise. Maybe if two lightweights were riding it would be fine but with us the seats creak! Now we also have a noise in the back crank. Will thinks it just crap falling off the chain from the silicone spray he puts on the chain. Whatever, it drives me crazy. And drives him crazy because I complain about it all the time.

We were so focused on the ride that we hardly noticed wildlife. We did see an egret and were serenaded by frogs. You really have to be there to hear the different frogs calling back and forth. There were more horses than usual on the bridle path lending an aromatic smell to the woods.

We ended up the night at 299.9 miles for the season. Didn't think fast enough to go that extra .1 to round it off.