June 2022 – Page 3 – JC's iPhone Blog

Day 4; Fergus Falls back to Alexandria

Today started off with some lovely hang time with out Warmshowers host Jake and his two kids Gus and Lulu. This was our first time being hosted, after hosting tons of riders in Ridgway over the last several years.

After a quick breakfast, they took us to a local park in Fergus Falls with several cool attractions. First off, there’s an amazing rookery of egrets and another waterfowl that we couldn’t identify…

These old dead trees were full of waterfowl nests, as were many of the live trees on the shore surrounding where I took this photo

Next up, as in so many midwestern towns, there’s the requisite cement statue; in this case, of “Otto the Otter”.

That’s Jake’s daughter Lulu (short for Louisa!)

After that, we hit the trail, only to discover that we were riding into a headwind, again! At least the scenery continued to be spectacular…

Today was more of a slog than any of the others, mostly due to the headwind, so we were very happy to find a beach to take a quick dip at Brophy Lake, just a few miles short of Alexandria…

It looked so inviting that I even partook!

Another notable feature of the riding has been the frequent clouds of dragonflies along the trail. Here’s a video I shot that hopefully gives you a taste of that…

Dive-bombing dragonflies!

Tomorrow we ride back to Albany, where we’ll load back into the car and drive to Pequot Lakes, and stay with another Warmshowers host there before starting up the Paul Bunyan Trail.

Hope you’re enjoying the ride as much as we are! 😉

Day 3; Alexandria to Fergus Falls

This morning began with a lovely breakfast at our B&B (a real one, that served a very nice full breakfast, shared by all 8 of the guests), along with a lengthy history of the house (the Cedar Rose). After breakfast, we hopped on the bikes and headed to the trail. Right at the trail entrance there’s a typical Minnesota ‘sculpture’, of Ole the Viking…

Statue of Ole the Viking — Ole the Viking

Today was a huge improvement over yesterday, weather wise. The wind had largely died down, and it was warmer as well. While we were a little sore from the day before, it felt good to be back on the trail.

As we rode along, we continued to be amazed by the lilac hedges. We came upon one that had to be 20 feet tall, covered with blossoms top to bottom…

I had to get a panorama to capture it in all its glory.

A little further on, I managed to capture this Great Egret

…and at one of our rest stops, a farmland still life with touring bike

There’ve been a ton of Midwest tableaux like this one as well

Just outside of Fergus Falls, our destination (and the end of the Central Lakes Trail), we finally found a beach for Mal to be able to get to swim. A perfect way to end the ride for a water-lover like her

And after dinner, the requisite daily selfie, with Fergus Falls in the background.

Tomorrow, we beginning riding back towards Alexandria, with a guaranteed headwind (even if it’s only a few mph) 😉

Day 2; Albany to Alexandria

Today was the first real day of riding, starting in Albany, MN, about 90 minutes west of Minneapolis. We stayed in a motel there last night, and this morning we packed up our panniers for four days of riding and headed out! We’ve planned this trip ourselves this year, and it was quite the ordeal figuring everything out, booking places to stay, etc.

We’re riding parts of three different longer rails-to-trails options, starting with today’s combo of a portion of the Lake Wobegon Trail, linked up with the first section of the Central Lakes Trail. When we were first planning the trip, we initially thought we’d do the entirety of the three different trails, but when we realized that meant we’d have to ride 60-65 miles a day, when we’ve never ridden more than about 45 miles in one day on any of our other adventures. After sleeping on it for a day or so, we decided that we would cut the trails short by staring farther along, so that we didn’t ride more than 45 miles/day. And man are we glad we made that change.

Today was a beautiful day, but it was only in the 50’s when we started out, and quickly realized we’d be riding into a fairly strong, cool headwind all day! We persevered though, and it was so worth it. Here’s a selection of photos from the day…

Welcome to the Lake Wobegon Trail. We were a little discouraged to find that it ran right along the interstate for quite awhile, but it eventually veered off and was much more peaceful

Once we got onto the Central Lakes Trail, the path tended to be much more idyllic like this; quiet and peaceful. At one point, we saw a blue heron, some mallard ducks, a white-tailed deer and a chipmunk, all within a couple of minutes. The cool headwind never abated though

The stats from today’s ride, from my Apple Watch: 4 hours and 36 minutes; 48.98 miles, and an average speed of 10.6 mph — The stats for today’s ride from my Watch

Tonight we’re staying at a very lovely B&B called the Cedar Rose in Alexandria (where we’ll stay again in two nights when we’re riding back to our car in Albany). This is the stained glass in the living room.

Tomorrow, it’s on to Fergus Falls!