Green Fields, Great Lakes and One Grand River

Day 124, August 3, 2011, Green Fields, Great Lakes, and One Grand River

Route from Aitkin to Prairie Lake Campground, Grand Rapids, MN

88.2 miles, averaging 13.8 mph

Worst Moment – A huge chunk of glass embedded itself in my rear tire and I had to fix a flat tire only two miles from the campground.

Best Moment – For all of the flats that I’ve had on this trip, today is the first time that someone stopped to ask if I needed help.  I was on a wide county road with a huge shoulder replacing the tube and a motorist about my age with a bicycle rack on his car pulled over, got out of his car and walked back toward where I was to ask if there was anything that I needed.  That was really above and beyond, like WOW!

Today’s ride was about as good as it gets!  The weather was perfect sunny and 65 degrees to start turning to low 80’s at the end.  With the exception of a short section on a busy narrow state highway, the route was on wide county roads with very little traffic.  I crossed the Mississippi River several times.  Sure is a lot different here than in Louisiana!  A good portion of the route was on The Great River Road – pretty cool!

Again, there were lots of amazing farms – the fields are so green!  The information section of the Adventure Cycling Association maps discussed the uses that the early Native Americans had for the cattail.  “The leaves could be woven into mats and the fluff used to insulate moccasins and even prehistoric disposable diapers.”  There sure are a lot of cattails along the roadsides.

Lots of more beautiful lakes in the area too.  Interestingly the historical markers here aren’t about our country’s wars with the British, French or each other, but about our attempts to move the Native American tribes out of the area. One such marker was about the Sandy Lake Tragedy where several hundred of the Ojibwe Tribe died of starvation, disease or froze to death as part of the government’s relocation strategy.

 Big Sandy Lake 

Grand Rapids is the birthplace of Judy Garland.  This is something that the city seems to be sort of proud of.  They have a museum for her here.  The city is also only 150 miles from the start of the Mississippi River as a sidewalk marker before the bridge indicates.

If you would like to donate to my ride, my link for the Lance Armstrong Foundation is http://grassroots2011.livestrong.org/billsbigride197.  I really appreciate your support.