Day 41: 100 Miles!

Yesterday's ride reminded me of what taking five days off the bike can do.  At our age, you lose fitness much more quickly than we did even ten years ago.  So it seems five days off the bike was probably a bit too long.  But not so long that we couldn't get that fitness back fairly quickly.

Today we combined for out first 100 mile day.  After our experiences bucking the headwinds in North Dakota, we wanted to give ourselves a little cushion against bad weather.  Plus we really should have left Joe's a day earlier, but we felt the visit was short enough as it was.

We didn't start thinking that we would put so many miles together today, but a few things conspired to make it happen.  First, we thought we would camp at Ashby, but we checked online and that particular campsite wanted $40 for a site with power AND another $5 for the dog.  We clearly weren't staying there.  Next, at Fergus Falls our route turned onto the Central Lakes Trail, which later became the Lake Wobegon Trail, giving us a smoother riding surface and easier grades.  And to top it all off, we had a quartering sidewind or tailwind all day long, plus some cool temperatures that prevented us from overheating.

After the campground at Ashby, our next choice was near Alexandria, though that would mean driving several miles off our route to a State Park.  While that was an option, we've found that camping in town usually means fewer bugs.  So we looked for a third option.  That was Sinclair Lewis Campground in Sauk Centre, another 50 miles east.  At $30 per night for power, water and a shower, that was acceptable to us.  But when we arrived, we were delighted to find out that it was now officially "off season" and the campsite was only $20!

Early in the day we drove through Fergus Falls, which happens to be where Alea's great grandparents were married.  So while Alea was riding I tried tracking down their marriage license, as that often will include names of parents, witnesses, and other interesting details.  We weren't so lucky in this case, as only the marriage record was available, which only told us that Halvor L. Sando and Louise Ann Nyhus were married on 25 Dec 1881 in Fergus Falls (Otter Tail County Marriage Records, Book C, page 190). 

Alexandria, MN Birthplace of America?
(Based on the claim that their Viking rune stone is older than all the others.)

The trails we were riding on today were convert rail grades.  That means while the roads running next to them were going up and down, the paths we rode on had a steady incline/decline of not more than 3% (the maximum grade for steam locomotives).  Add to that the fact that the path surfaces were in good shape, and it's easy to understand how we were able to cover a lot of ground today.

Central Lakes Trail, with the main highway to the right.

So Alea pushed off around 8:45 this morning (it was about 48 degrees when we got up and never got above the mid 60s).  She covered her 48 miles by around 1 pm in Ashby.  That's when I took over, managing to cover an additional 52 miles by a little after 4:15.  So that was 100 miles in 7.5 hours, including breaks.

Having the extra time cushion allows us to take some time off for shopping once we get closer to Minneapolis, and to shorten our mileage on days where the weather is less than ideal.