So the start of my day was slow because I got my first flat: a slow leak from a lodged pebble that punctured my back gatorskin yesterday. The air escaped overnight leaving me a deflated back wheel this morning. The sweeps (Michelle and Derek) and I left the church at around 8:30, trailing the group by a half hour. The half hour delay was no big deal because the mileage was not especially high and the route followed a bike path (yay! No zooming cars and trucks, just a nice leisurely, mostly flat path!!). We started from Hinckley, MN and rode to Duluth which is 77 miles. We had the privilege of riding on the 63 mile Hinckley - Duluth segment of the Willard Munger State Trail which is the longest paved trail in the world. The trail extends between Hinckley, Willow River, Moose Lake, Barnum, Carlton, and Duluth.


The trail proved to be quite lovely and the weather as well. There was a strong sun and a cold breeze. The path was mostly shaded by pines and birch and we passed lots of lakes. The land and weather reminded me of Alaska. The morning rolled by quickly, we started playing a game of, “Would you rather…” which was mindless and entertaining. We determined that Michelle would rather be asthmatic than lactose intolerant and Derek would prefer to be a sloth rather than a turtle. We stopped for lunch in the quaint town of Moose Lake at the Blue Bear café which was yet another place of Norwegian heritage. We learned the difference between a malt and a shake…well sort of…malts have malt powder….and stopped again at the van lunch stop 6 miles later for snacks where we woke Joy up and ate more. We rolled out of our second lunch within a 10 mile span and continued would you rather, pedaled over some tar…Kim pedaled through quite a lot of wet tar…rode past a pretty high cliff, probably 35ft that some bike and builders jumped off of into a river. The trail also passed through a solid granite rock that was about 1/8 of a mile long that looked as if it had been dynamited. Pretty crazy.


After many beautiful sights, sounds, smells and much conversation our leisurely trail (that included a 12 mile slight downhill slope at the end) transformed into the streets of Duluth. The hills in the city have been compared to those found in San Francisco. Duluth is not especially bike friendly in terms of road maintenance and pathways, but not as bad as the streets of East Cleveland, so no complaints. We (the last ones in) reached the Temple Israel (which was our first non Christian church) around 5:30, and found the kosher meal to be quite lovely.


With a build day the next day people found the energy to explore. Some went to a Finnish culture festival while others went to the movies. We got back late night and were pleasantly surprised by pizza which had been ordered for us by our hosts as a midnight snack. We went to bed satisfied and excited to have a day off from cycling, looking forward to working with a land trust organization and Common Ground. That’s all…the best day we could hope for before the 1,000 mile stretch of route 2.



Kristen