7-2-10 Day 27: Grand Rapids, Minnesota to Bemidji: 78miles in 5:15 hours. Rt 2 west the whole day.
Damnation was it hot! Got up at 5:45 AM and packed. Then went over to the little office bldg for their free breakfast. Had a several breakfast muffins with strawberry jam and some coffee. Loaded the bike and was rolling at 7 AM. Forecast for today was for high 80’s in temps and a WSW wind at 20+ mph. Yea, gnarly wind today in the future. But when I started the wind was just barely noticeable out of the southwest. Sure wasn’t the cross tailwind from yesterday.
Could tell from the first pedal stroke that the heat was going to be a factor. But not only the heat, but the dewpoint, which was forecast at 70%. Now I started with my light longsleeved jersey, and this only because of one thing………the freaking bulldogs. Yea, I’m back in bulldog country, and yesterday they were swarming in 10 or so at a time. They were bouncing off of my helmet and smacking into my hands. But my jersey really helped to keep them from biting my shoulders, arms and back. So as much as I wanted to cycle topless or with a tank, just couldn’t take a chance getting bitten and/or enhancing the “swarm attraction” of the big old bulldogs.
Yesterday I had talked about how awesome Rt 2 was when I entered Minnesota, but today….well the first 20-25 miles were on the nice big berm, but the nice big berm was just a mess in places. There were cracks that ran perpendicular to the berm every 10-20 feet. Some weren’t noticeable and others were like riding over big broken sidewalk cracks -kind of jolting on the bigger ones. Then, and this was the closer on how bad it was, there was the sections where the dude who put the rumble strips on the left edge of the berm, well he was either falling asleep or drunk. So places on the complete berm were shaved with rumbles. I mean it was hideous – ten feet wide and completely shaved with rumbles. Had to admit that I was cussing out loud at times with how bad that was. Couple that with the bulldogs, the heat and the wind, and ouch!
Nice thing was that the day was just awesome, with blue skies and cotton ball clouds. I stopped at the Mississippi River crossing. Now up here in Northern Minnesota is the headwaters of the Mississippi. And the crossing where I was at on the Mississippi, the river was just like a big creek, not more than 20 feet wide. Finally got on a much better section of berm. By this time the humidity was just all encompassing, kind of stifling and suffocating. Didn’t dare take the jersey off though because the bulldogs were in the attack mode. So I just tried to keep it in the moderate range and not push too hard to where I’d be expending way too much energy and work into cramping my legs up. Felt kind of like I just was loosing gas fast. The heat made me lethargic and not really able to put some meat into each pedal stroke. Heat is just NOT my element!
As I had said yesterday, I was going to push on to Bagley today if the wind was right and the day was good. Well, 4 hours into the ride today I was thinking otherwise. By 11 AM the temp had climbed to 85 and the humidity was…..well, pretty torrid. At times the wind was totally a crosswind, and other times it was a cross headwind or a cross tailwind. Just depended which way the road twisted and turned. But it was against me way more than with me. I had my sweatband bandana on and it was just soaked by 11 AM, and I was forced to remove my glasses pretty often to wipe the sweat off of my forehead. I mean it was just running like a spigot by then.
I stopped at a visitor’s center at Cass Lake, which is this massive expanse of lake bisected by Rt 2, and I asked one of the people about camping/moteling in the town of Bagley up the road 22 miles west of Bemidji. She said she wasn’t aware of any amenities in Bagely. Drank about a half gallon of water at the water fountain and then continued on the final 17 miles to Bemidji. Still kept kicking it around as to going for Bagley, or laying up and hanging back at Bemidji. And there were stretches where I was thinking “go for it,” and other times where I was just feeling totally spent from the heat and considering hanging it up in Bemidji. Then I came to the Bemidji exits, four of them. Rode past the first three thinking I’d shoot for another 22 miles. But at that last exit I decided to stop for a coke at a gas station to get some sugar back in my blood. That and just to take a break in the shade out of the burning sun.
Asked a local about the amenity situation in Bagely and he said I wasn’t aware of any. Well, that about solved my dilemma. So I bagged the coke idea and decided to just ride up the road and see what I ran into. Found the KOA campground just outside of town, the one I had researched when I was putting together the itinerary. Nice place, though a little too much for camping – 30 bucks! They have a good air conditioned lobby with free wifi, so that kind of makes up for the high camping fee. First thing I did was to about drain the water cooler in the lobby and ask the lady if there was a Subway back in town. Affirmative on the Subway. Set my tent up and got on the bike and rode into town to a Subway and destroyed a Chicken Teriyaki and a Seafood footlong each. Just hung in the Subway for an hour soaking up the AC and continuing to drink glass after glass of ice water.
Rode back to camp, showered and then came into lobby to work on computer with the AC in here. I mean I’m a weenie today with this heat. It’s just crazy freaking hot. Don’t even want to go near the tent until the sun goes down. Just too hot, even with the vestibules open on both sides.
Well the forecast calls for the potential for showers and thunderstorms tomorrow afternoon and tomorrow evening. If I get a good jump on the day I might be able to make Crookston before the thunderstorms start firing up. It’s a solid 80+ miles away. But….temps are supposed to soar into the 90’s up here tomorrow – that will put a crunch on me for sure. This heat spell has kind of come along day after day, with each day getting like 5-10 degrees hotter. Tomorrow is the culmination of the heatup, and then more reasonable weather is supposed to come along, back into the 70’s. I hope to make North Dakota on Sunday and then ride on to Bismarck to visit with some of my clients out there.
P.S. Man, the tummy gremlin is in full go. I had to go back to town for more food…….a 6-piece bucket of KFC and a dessert of Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia at the grocery across the street. Ate them on the spot. I feel disgusted with myself for giving in to the gremmie. Not really! Damn, I just cannot eat enough. So I had that great Subway food earlier, and then the junk ……fried chicken and ice cream.
Also, I had seen two groups of two riders pass me today, both groups heading east – smart move for a crossing. And I also ran into a couple doing some touring on recumbents. Got to give them credit for cruising along fully loaded down on recumbents. They weren’t doing the trans USA, but had ridden from Portland way up to Northern Washington state. Then took a train to Grand Forks and were heading back by bike to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. That’s a hard way to go. From now on, when I bum at only being able to do 11 mph for the day, I’ll think back to Vern, the gentleman on the recumbent today. Here’s to you Vern. Late…….Pete
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