Fall Tour 2000

Day 5: Hudson WI to St. Paul

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Friday morning was again a beautiful morning, the sixth or seventh in a row. For Minnesota in October, we were having excellent luck. I suppose (in retrospect) that we were in the midst of "Indian summer."

Jean had had her usual excellent night's sleep; I was a little bleary from having not slept well due to the odd electric motor noise, which was gone by the time we woke up. The proprietors had left coffee and tea outside our door, a very nice touch. We went down for breakfast, which included ourselves and the family convention. Breakfast was a very pleasant four course affair, served at a leisurely pace. Baked grapefruit was the first item, very unusual and delicious. B&B breakfasts don't seem to be low-fat, as a general rule, and the rest of the breakfast made up for the grapefruit. We didn't mind in the least!

At breakfast we got an explanation of the noise that had kept be awake. Each of the rooms at the B&B is equipped with a Jacuzzi. When we checked in, the tubs were explained to us and we were told to use the bubble bath "sparingly." The lady in the room below ours had a different definition of "sparing," apparently, and flooded her bathroom with bubbles. After cleaning up the mess, she left the vent fan on all night to dry out the room. Mystery solved! If you stay at the Baker Brewster in the Cottage Rose room, you will probably not be kept up by mysterious electrical noises.

After breakfast, we drove over to Art Doyle's to put down a deposit on the tandem. After a pleasant chat with Art, it was time to hit the road. I elected to finish the tour by riding back to St. Paul. There were several options, including riding north on Hwy 35 and crossing into Stillwater over the lift bridge which is at the center of some controversy in Stillwater. The other options started with crossing the St. Croix River on the pedestrian/bike bridge at I-94. I chose the latter, thinking it was probably the shorter of the options although definitely less scenic.

Crossing the St. Croix from the height of the I-94 bridge results in a nice view of the river looking upstream. The confluence of the St. Croix and the Mississippi is about ten miles downstream from this point, near Prescott WI and Hastings. On the Minnesota side, I turned north along a road that paralleled Hwy 95. I was able to ride into the south end of Stillwater and then, following one of Richard Arey's maps, worked my way north and west to County Road 12. (The map shows the route going west to Stagecoach: I went north immediately after crossing the St. Croix and rode up Hwy 95 to 5th St and then west to 47th, picking up Richard's route from there). On this I was able to travel due west across rolling terrain (into a slight headwind, of course) until I intersected the Willard Munger Gateway Trail. Willard Munger is a Minnesota legislator of some antiquity, who has worked at environmental protection for many years. There is an intermittent trail corridor from the Twin Cities to Duluth that bears his name as a testament to his efforts.

Turning south-west, I rode on the Gateway Trail into Oakdale. The Gateway is a very convenient trail, reasonably wide and on this day not particularly burdened with the rollerbladers and pedestrians who make cycling on the trail a chancy business on weekends. Fast-moving bicyclists and slow-moving pedestrians are a hazardous mix, and for that reason I feel that bikes belong on the roads rather than on primarily pedestrian corridors. Rollerbladers tend to take up a lot of ground and seem to almost universally wear headphones, complicating the problems significantly. However, the Gateway was the fastest way from Point A to Point B for on this day, so I cheerfully took it.

The Gateway goes all the way from Pine Point Park, north-east from where I picked up the trail, to very nearly downtown St. Paul. I got off on Wheelock Parkway (joining the route of the St. Paul Classic) and went west to Lake Como Park. Rounding Lake Como, I picked up Como Avenue and rode past the Minnesota State Fairgrounds to Raymond Avenue. South on Raymond and within minutes I was rolling into my yard. With wonderful timing, Jean pulled up about five minutes after I got home!

It's hard to condense a trip into a few pages, although photos help tremendously. Our original plan, which as it turned out had some unanticipated problems, had to be modified in the light of newly discovered medical problems. Jean was only able to ride her bike one day, which was the Cannon Valley Trail ride, and we spent some time on Thursday and Friday test-riding our soon-to-be tandem. I found that riding while touring is a very different thing than riding to train for racing, commuting or even recreational riding. The different emphasis- on exploration and discovery rather than fitness or simple enjoyment- makes touring a very different experience. I rode four days of the planned five, missing two days of the route as originally conceived. We didn't ride from Red Wing to Wabasha, riding the Cannon Valley Trail instead; and we didn't ride from Wabasha to Maiden Rock. I didn't mind not riding the planned route on either day because it would have meant missing out on being on vacation with Jean. And there's always next year!

We learned a lot in doing this, which by the way was our first attempt at a bicycle tour. The first was that estimating mileage from maps is not so easy; I underestimated the mileage by anywhere up to 15 miles. For me this wasn't a problem, but had Jean been riding it wouldn't have made her happy at all. It's no good pushing the less-trained rider beyond his/her limits. If the stronger rider wants a few more miles, that's easily done after getting to the destination. A better plan would have been to ride from St. Paul to Hastings, Hastings to Red Wing, then to Wabasha, Maiden Rock, Hudson and home. In this case 7 days should have been scheduled, to allow for a rest day.

We had phenomenal luck with the weather- steady mild breezes from the south or southwest for five days in a row, with highs in the low to mid 50s and sunshine, sunshine and more sunshine. This made packing clothing very easy- a long sleeve jersey, light tights, heavier wool socks, light full-fingered gloves and a nylon shell were all we needed. The days were long enough that lights really weren't necessary except for the first day when I got into Red Wing at dusk.

It is easy to over-pack for something like a tour. I had everything I needed for five days in a Carradice saddlebag, and it weighed less than 10 pounds total. Had this been a tour at the height of summer, I would have had lots of spare room in the bag but as I had some heavier clothing it was a snug fit. Good maps were important. The maps I got from Richard Arey's book, while minimalist, were completely adequate for the task. The only downside was that they were photocopies thus would have suffered in the rain had the weather not been so nice. The Adventure Cycling maps were printed on some sort of waterproof material and seem quite durable. The routes on these maps were quite well thought out, obviously the result of people actually riding on the roads, although there were a few very minor errors I noticed in terms of street names an the like. Alternate routes would be a good thing, as much of the route on the Adventure Cycling maps between the Twin Cities and Hastings was under construction and closed most of the year.

The upshot is that I enjoyed the trip tremendously and am hoping to do some other small tours like this one, once Jean's health challenges are corrected. I like the sense of freedom that bicycling brings- whether commuting to work, riding for fun or touring. I have the sense of being able to stop at will, to check out whatever interests me. It's one of the best things about riding a bike.