day trez

Again I wake up to copious ammounts of dew on the surface of everything. I really would have liked to have gotten an earlier start but due to the dew that did dew I had to dry everything off which took a bit since I had to wait for the sun to peek out from behind the tree line.
I took a short walk around the "campgrounds" and was not surprised to find no evidence of actual camping. every trailer/"camper" was cozily plugged into their power outlet and air conditions whirred as the morning birds chirped. Ahh the greatoutdoors eh?
I walked back to by camp and packed everything up. As I left the campground the dude at the front desk house (which included a small convenience store, and an ARCADE) and recomended I take a scenic route in which cars would not pass (and in fact, in the ten or so mile tract I think i may have passed one occupied automobile) and was a nice morning route. sweet. I proceded to take it and as soon as I began daydreaming about a nice warm cuppajoe I was chased by the first dog of the day which coincidentally not only woke me up, but also brushed the caffeinated dream right out of my brain.
I passed only one guy, an older native american gentleman out on his morning run. At some point I was also priviledged enough to witness a red-tailed hawk carrying off its breakfast for some morning time nutrition. Not enough time to stop the bike, get the picture-take to thus take the picture, but awesome nonetheless.
as I continued along this road it went from farmland, to forest. Curiosity got the best of me and I decided to stop. Awesomeness. NO SOUND OF hUMANITY was evident. truly a beautiful moment. if only my presence was not an issue than the beauty would have been complete, but removing myself would invalidate my ability to witness the spectacle, so... here's a picture of the road.







this tree caught my eye. its a bad picture but I'll put it up anygwayz


luckily enough the road was mostly downhill so I had some good coasting with no wind, and the almost complete silence of my freewheel only added to the mood of the morning, which was an excelent one.
the road led me down to the wisconsin border on the St. Croix river. the route i took was a tad bit longer than the one I would have taken, but It was well Worth it. I sat next to the St. Croix for a while because there were no people around and only every ten minutes or so would a vehicle pass by. usually a rig or a motorcyclist.




st croix


and i saw a friend

I left when four vans pulled up filled with people. As I headed into wisconsin I was faced with a rather sizeable hill. my guess is that it was AT LEAST a mile and a half long and the incline was a good one. by the time I reached the top I had a great view and a great sweat worked up as well. I pushed on for several miles and passed this which I thought deserved a picture.



yeah


I pushed on and was enticed by the thought of some food so I stopped here



the cozy cafe, bar and lounge. Looking through my wallet just now, i discovered that I have lost the buisness card of the guy who ran the place. really nice guy. he offered to left me stay in his camper out back (which was air conditioned) and use the facility's showers if i was ever back around in that area. its a shame i forgot his name, but if you're ever in the area, on state highway 35 in wisconsin close to the minnesota border, just a few miles past the st croix river, pay him a visit, he made a killer omelet which kept me going for a good while.








the day continued relatively uneventful. beuatiful contryside, plenty of hills and valleys to coast and pedal up, yet the whole time I had a steady headwind so only coAsting was not exactly an option.


sweet.


When discussing this trip with a fellow bike tour-er I was asked how much I enjoyed the hill into superior; a gradual yet nicely-inclined hill which, in ideal conditions, would get you up to a VERY nice coasting speed for a number of miles. My answer, was not much. due to the aforementioned headwind I had to pedal through pretty much the whole hill into superior proper. the shadows began lengthening at this point (i dont use clocks much so i judge time by the length and position of shadows) so the night's lodging situation crept into my mind. I still had a number of hours until it was to become an issue, but the thought was now there.



the second to last blurrage on the horizon is superior. in ideal conditions, I could have coasted there...especially considering the load i was carrying.


after a mediocre burger right outside of superior I pressed on into downtown superior which seemed like a pleasant little town to visit at some point in the future, but for now, it was time to find my way into my destination city. Duluth, minnesota.
i stopped to take these pictures of the outside of the house/studio of "sean's chainsaw woodcarvings"...sweet.






in superior i asked for directions and was directed to:


:D

...just kidding.
I was directed to highway number two whose bridge has a seperate bike lane to keep me safe. I also don't know what the wisconsin bike laws are so i diddnt know if i had the same rights and responsibilities as cars do like in Minnesota. the bike/walk lane was virtually impossibleto find due to lack of signage on the wisconsin side. since light was becoming less abundant, I went for it.


left side is superior, WI and right side is Duluth, Mn



I ride into town and call some folks from Minneapolis to try and decide what to do. I inquire someone in the know as to the existence or whereabout of a/some punk houses at which I could crash for the night, but none to their knowledge. So i figure I would find a college campus on which I might be able to find some resources. I was informed of the distance of all the college campuses relative to my position and decided to change my plans. I wandered around town and stopped in at a bike shop to buy some new gloves since my hands were hurting and I had lost my pair somewhere between taylor falls and st croix falls.
the guys there recommended spirit mountain, a sports facility whose non-summertime-operational ski lifts were surrounded by forests in which I would not be bothered. I waited for the sun to go down a bit as I wandered around west Duluth. When I got to spirit mountain I had to maneuver around the gate a little bit and passed a few mountain bikers as I did so. I found the aforementioned ski lifts which I passed and found a good patch of forest that looked like a lovely place to spend the night.



on my way in, taking apart my bike's cargo so as to reposition it in the woods according to camouflage.


almost hidden, not yet draped

ski lifts and a wee bit of a view



here comes the fun part.
getting set up for the night.
somewhere in the distance I heard some, what i imagined to be mountain bikers doing mountain bike stuff. I tried to stay hidden and this is where my olive drab/woodland camo stuff came in handy. the pannier I had on my bike bright freaking orange so I used my woodland camo poncho to hide it and my bike until it became too dark to montain bike and the aforementioned fellows were on their way.



le velo
somewhere down there there were people. i saw a guy walking his two dogs and I just sat behind my veil and waited for them to leave as I ate my dinner.




when everything was safe I set up my hammock and got utckered in for the night. my plan was that If it began to rain I had my rainjacket over my dry goods and I would rapidly break down my hammock and sleep in my poncho.

I fell asleep nicely, the weather was such that IT WAs not very humid at all and the air had a slight nip to it, so i wore my hoodie and dozed off.

during the night i had some weird dreams verging into the nightmare category which eventually woke me up in time for me to look up into the sky past the treetops to see a nice light show.
If you have ever heard the sound of a saw-whet owl, you would know that if you were hearing for the first time without knowing what it was, by yourself in the woods in the middle of the night, you might just have thought that there was a chainsaw murderer coming after you.
****EDIT****
after listening to recordings of saw-whet owls it has been determined that what i heard was NOT, in fact, a saw-whet owl and the culprit of the chainsaw sound was actually a chainsaw murderer on his way to saw the limbs off of a van of teenagers. i now remember giving him directions...turns out he turned left at Albuquerque instead of veering right.
p.s. I will also find out the culprit of the sound
****END EDIT****

so, anticipating a deluge, i undid my hammock, stowed it, and got ponchoed up with my back to a tree. nothing more than a few droplets ended up falling, to my half-disappointment, so as I sat and awaited the downpour, I fell alseep right there on the forest floor on my side.