Tag Archives: Upper Mississippi River Cycling Tour

Pre-Cycling Trip Jitters

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It’s always the unknown that gets to me.  ThisIMG_0891 is now my second long distance cycling trip, so I’m feeling a lot more comfortable than the last time around.  I know what to expect in terms of cycling day after day.  I am looking forward to experiencing the countryside close-up and meeting interesting people along the way.  And I’m even ready to enjoy Rich’s deviations from the path to see something wacky.   Basically I’m ready for our Upper Mississippi River Cycling Tour.

The uncertainty that looms over me is the weather.  Spring is a fickle season.  And this spring is crazy!  With the long lasting winter, I’ve been revisiting the cycling clothes I’ll need, planning to squeeze in an extra layer for warmth.  But today, now that we’re just 2 days out from our start, I can look at the advanced forecasts.  And lo and behold, I see 80s!  Really?  With lows in the 50s, maybe I won’t need the extra clothes after all.  Maybe I should trade them for one sleeveless shirt.  What a quandary!

And then there’s the rain.  Last trip we had so little, it never mattered.  This time I sense we are guaranteed to get wet.  Nearly every day has some chance of rain and thunderstorms.  We have invested in good cycling rain jackets, so that’s a start.  And I insisted on fully waterproof bags for our sleeping bags.  I’m not arriving at a campground to sleep in a wet bag.  For the rest, heavy duty freezer ziplock bags will have to do the trick.  It makes me wonder, why didn’t we get waterproof panniers?

I’ve cycled through rain, but only on relatively short day-rides.  On a cycling trip, the necessity to get from point A to point B in a day rules out a bit of flexibility.  But our distances are reasonable enough that we could probably wait out the worst of it, if necessary.

I’m sure we’ll be able to deal with whatever Mother Nature throws our way.  And it’s always the adverse conditions that leave the most lasting memories, right?  Not that I’m wishing bad weather on us.  Just trying to put a positive spin on it.  To soothe my jitters.

A Mississippi Preview

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We’re under a week now, until the start of our  Upper Mississippi River Cycling Tour.  I was in the Twin Cities for the weekend to spend Mothers’ Day with my children and grandchildren, so I decided to head over to the Mississippi River as a warm-up for our trip.

5-12-2013 5-18-22 PMWe have a favorite cycling circuit we call our “Sunday Morning Route.”  Typically, we do it in the very early morning hours, before the rest of the world wakes up.  But with the chilly spring weather (plus a delicious Mothers’ Day breakfast with my son!) I waited until mid-morning to start.

IMG_0885I enjoy taking the Greenway into downtown Minneapolis, and cycling under the Twins’ stadium.  From there, it’s not far to the river – the Mighty Mississippi.  After following the river through the populated areas downtown, the path became quieter and the river spread out into a more pastoral scene.  I could then start to imagine our trip.

IMG_0888We’ll be following the Great River Road for major portions of our trip through Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota, so it was pleasing to see the signs appear on my route.  We won’t usually have a bike path like Minneapolis does along the river, and we’ll be schlepping a whole lot more gear than I had.  But it will be the same river.

Looking for tips on weather and temperatures for our trip, my sources said that the air was cooler near the river.  I definitely found it to be true – just like “cooler by the lake,” the river threw off chilly breezes from the late spring runoff.  Note for packing – an extra layer may be needed.

IMG_0893Leaving the river, I returned on the Midway Greenway.  It’s the bridges that are the highlight for me on that portion of the route.  First, the cycling bridge with its single support and soaring cables.  It reminds me of the bridges in Rotterdam.  That is followed by the sequence of road bridges overhead as the bike path travels below street level through the city.  The parallel structures spanning the distance make a pleasing display.  And down below, it must be warmer as I found blossoming tulips to brighten the spring day.

Covering only 4 1/2 miles along the Mississippi River on this jaunt was definitely only a small preview.  That leaves a whole lot more to discover next week.

 

 

Test Cycling “Fully Loaded”

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IMG_9901 Today we tested cycling with all the gear we will bring on our upcoming Upper Mississippi River Cycling Tour, including camping gear.  We’re pretty good at packing light for a long distance trip, but adding tent, sleeping bags and sleep mats was new.  So we thought we ought to figure out just how we were going to carry it all on our bikes, and find out what it will be like cycling with it.

We each took one sleeping bag, and divvied up the rest – the tent to Rich, and the sleep mats for me.  Strapping them down over Rich’s panniers was not too difficult.  At 6’2″ his seat is so high it easily cleared all the paraphernalia with room to spare.  For me, at 5’1″ the trick was to leave room to sit on my bicycle seat without being impeded by gear.  But we ultimately prevailed.

IMG_0823 trimmedIMG_0825 trimmed

Walking the bikes or getting them to stand up on their own was a challenge.  They were awkward and heavy, and very tippy.  But once we started cycling, we moved along easily, barely noticing the extra weight once we were rolling.  Hooray!  I admit we picked an easy route for the test.  We rode up the North Shore to Stony Point and back.  With little traffic, flat terrain, no wind and nice big shoulders, we had few worries.  Add beautiful sunshine and a sparkly flat blue lake, and it was easy to forget we were toting all that equipment.

IMG_0752And there were other distractions.  Apparently, the Kamloops rainbow trout were running.  Approaching French River, we could see an army of fishermen lined up across the mouth of the river.  The photo opp was too good to pass up, and worth the added effort of getting our bikes balanced.

We unanimously declared that we passed the test.  Tomorrow I intend to take it to the next level, and load up for a longer and hillier route.  Here’s hoping I can make the grade.

Upper Mississippi River Cycling Tour Plans

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It’s under two weeks now until our next cycling trip, and our training continues to stagnate.  If skiing counts, we’re in good shape.  We just may not quite be ready for eight days in the saddle.  But the preparations continue, regardless.

Upper-Mississippi-30th-Anniversary-TourRich is our master planner.  He avidly reads cycling journals on Crazy Guy on a Bike, the premier website for bicycle tourists and their journals.  That’s probably his best source of trip ideas (and their viability).  He researches the roads, taking Google Maps down to street view to check on road conditions and make sure they are not dirt roads.  He calculates mileages, and researches lodging options.  And he makes the necessary reservations.  It’s like having my own personal cycling travel agent!  Here’s a map of the route he’s planned for this trip.

We’re trying a few new things on this trip. First, Rich found a great organization called Warm Showers, a world-wide community for touring cyclists and hosts.  It is built on the premise of reciprocal hospitality.  By signing up, we agree to host cyclists traveling through Duluth, and in return we can request lodging with other members in cities on our cycling routes.  It seemed like a win-win situation – not only would it save us money on lodging, but we would meet interesting people who share a common interest in long distance cycling.  We are eager to try it, and already have two Warm Showers homes set up for this trip.  We are also looking forward to hosting our own guests.

IMG_0726Second, we will be doing some camping.  We have a 2,000 mile, 2-month trip planned in the Maritime provinces of Canada later in the summer, and know that some nights a tent will be our only option for lodging.  So this is our test run with camping gear.  On last year’s Trans-Superior Cycling Tour, we had the luxury of staying in a motel each night.  So lugging extra gear and sleeping on the ground between cycling days will be novel.  We plan to carry minimal equipment – 1 lightweight tent, 2 small sleeping bags and 2 short sleep mats.  That’s it.  It’s lodging only, not cooking.  We plan to test packing our panniers this week to see how it all fits.  We’ve added handlebar bags too this year.  I can already see this is going to be a bulkier trip.  And if spring doesn’t arrive soon, we’re going to need more layers of clothes as well.  I think a few fully-loaded test rides will be necessary.

This year I’ve added cycling shoes and pedals to my gear.  After a year with “mousetraps” I was ready for the real thing, and Santa delivered.  I’ve been practicing with them the last few months and had my first requisite klutzy fall when I didn’t unclip fast enough.  But I’m already sold on them.

Plans in place.  Gear purchased.  Reservations made.  Training in progress.  Bring on the Tour!

Upper Mississippi River Cycing Tour – one month countdown

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It didn’t seem like a stretch at all.  Planning a cycling tour for mid-May left plenty of time for training beforehand.  Or so we thought.  After all, by this time last year I had already logged over 500 miles on my bike, and I was a novice to boot.  But we didn’t figure in the fickle behavior of Mother Nature.  Last year was an incredibly early spring.  This year is the winter that won’t quit.  Indeed, as I write, snow is steadily falling outside and is likely to accumulate enough to make this the snowiest April in Duluth.  Ever.

It’s not like we can delay the trip.  The timing of this Tour was very deliberate.  It was intended to commemorate our 30th wedding anniversary.   Most people might plan a romantic getaway for the occasion.  But we’ve never exactly been mainstream…  we’ll be spending the night of our anniversary in a tent!  We will have other nights to spend in comparative splendor, as we sprinkled in a few modest motels along the route.  And we have a proper celebration awaiting us at the finish.  Our tour ends at the home of our daughter and son-in-law, who will be hosting a family BBQ in honor of our anniversary upon our arrival.

There is little chance that the purpose of our trip will escape any casual observers who happen to see us cycling by.  Rich takes great pride in designing eye-catching custom jerseys for our trips.  The shirts speak for themselves.

So exactly one month from today we will push off and start cycling.  We may be training en route, if this winter keeps up. But I’m not worried.  With a winter of steady cross-country skiing to keep us fit and our previous Trans-Superior Cycling Tour under our belts for experience, I’m confident that we will manage just fine.  After all, we’ve weathered 30 years together.  What’s another week on bicycles?