Day 3 - Sitting in Grand Marais...

Greetings from Grand Marais, Minnesota...right off the edge of Lake Superior. I had initially planned to stop about ten miles earlier at Cascade River State Park but the legs felt good today and I was in good spirits all afternoon so I decided to keep on riding. Plus, it allowed me to do my laundry tonight instead of tomorrow morning and have a little less to go tomorrow. Another reason is the campground here has a few more modern amenities and it is a lakefront edge. But a big reason is the state parks tend to be long drives in to the campground. Last night it was a mile and a half uphill to my campsite (my bike computer said I climbed 250 feet in that stretch) and I made the mistake of getting firewood before that. Not fun. Anyway, this site is better.

Right now I am doing some laundry because I only brought two days worth of cycling clothing. I am sure that most people wouldn't want to come near me if I kept wearing the same stuff over and over without washing. Riding today was good. The first 25 miles or so were a little hairy because of traffic and not much for shoulders. I had one redneck in a truck blare his horn at me and try to come close to hitting me (I even took to the ditch) but I figured that would happen sooner or later. Most people are really good up here. Here are some pictures from the morning portion of the ride.

 

There are some sections of the highway that have 10 foot shoulders. It's awesome. There was a lot more of that down by Duluth but it is a little more rare up this far north. Mostly only outside of the major towns. Otherwise I was dealing with 2' shoulders at best and not the best shape so it was safer to ride near the white line, believe it or not.

 

So by lunch I was a little discouraged because there was a lot of traffic and it was a bit nerve wracking. I pulled into Schroeder Baking Company (the town was tiny) because it was advertising pizza, subs and coffee. A couple of gals about my age walked in, got coffee and went out to leave. They looked at my bike outside (loaded up quite a bit) and came back in and asked me about it and where I was going. Michelle was from New Jersey and visiting her friend Katie who lived in Wisconsin. Extremely nice and we chatted for a bit. It was a highlight of the day to have a good conversation with good people. Anyway, they asked about my trip, the route and some of the things they liked to do as they were both active people as well. As they were about to leave they asked if they could say a prayer for me and I of course said yes. We snapped a photo before they left and I told them it would be on here and they asked for the address so they could follow the trip. Here they are below.

 

Michelle is in the middle and Katie is to her left. Thanks so much for chatting! Was a highlight of my day. After that, the ride was great. The next few pictures are from Temperance River State Park.

 

 

 

 

 

That was a really neat place right off the highway. It's nuts how much stuff is so accessible up here. Seems like there is a state park every 15 miles. These next several were near Cascade River State Park...where I had initially planned to stay. I was riding by and saw this spot and it was a short climb down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

From there I cruised into Grand Marais but made a few more stops. These were from a rest area.

 

 

 

If you wanted to know my setup, there it is. (you're welcome, Bryan...)

After that it was a short cruise downhill into town.

This downhill made me think of this...

 

Overall, a really good day. Next stop, Grand Portage!