Spring 1997 - Cincinnati to Yukon
Journals - 22 May 1997
Day 52 - Near Leech Lake I.R., MN
22 May 1997 (cloudy; rainy; not freezing cold! mileage = 66) -- A - We got
up and were amazed to discover it wasn't freezing cold outside! We didn't
have to put our gloves on until we were ready to start riding. Wow! It was
extremely possible it could rain at any time, though. It waited until just
after we left to start, but that was OK. We weren't concerned it could turn
to snow at any second -- it was 50 degrees! We climbed some hills for about
10 miles and found the Paul Bunyan Trail. Very nice! We stopped at a great
park and had oatmeal and hot chocolate. It was by a lake access ramp and as
we were leaving, two guys backed their boat in, only they forgot to hold on
to it and it just floated away. What a riot! We've decided we really like
Minnesota. We've had the best weather and experiences here. Along the trail
today, we even saw a sign "Bike-in camping 1/4 mi" and another hotel had a
sign "Welcome Bikers, Free Samples, Restrooms, WATER." Such hospitality! We
reached the part of the trail that's not paved and got onto the street
running along it. It had a nice, wide shoulder. There was some beautiful
scenery along the way. Stopped in Walker at a shelter for grilled cheese
sandwiches. Chris hung the tarp to block the wind. It was very effective!
It started raining hard while we were there and pretty much kept it up the
rest of the day. Then suddenly, Chris noticed the most spectacular sight in
a lake ... PELICANS!! Around 100 of them! Ohmigosh! I could hardly resist
the urge to swim out to play with them. They are white pelicans, so a
little different than the ones I've seen, but very cool! Earlier we had
seen a restaurant with a huge pelican on the roof. (Completely unrelated --
we saw some loons earlier in the day.) So back to the pelican-sighting
effort ... we took a dirt road to try to get closer and wound up getting
way off track and back on the Indian Reservation and stuck in some hills,
all dirt roads. We finally escaped the reservation and the dirt roads;
stopped to ask directions and are camping in the yard of Jay, a suspected
Native American. We managed to get the tent up and get in and are listening
to NPR, trying to dry out a little.
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