Two Dads and Four Kids Bike Camping

Group photo after loading up camp on Sunday morning

Lunch at the DQ a mile or so into our ride. Notice the 1984 Trek 520 loaded up and pulling a homemade cargo trailer plus guitar.

My Long Haul Trucker

Mid 90's Trek 930 converted into touring bike with rack and Top Touring 2000 tires

A Maruishi Mixtie with Conti Gator skins on 27 inch wheels. This is a very nice smooth bike
A 90's Trek 700 with upgraded stem, bars and seatpost.

A near stock GT bullet 24" wheels fitted with rear rack and panniers

A tree frog riding a 9 year-old boy.

Two takes on rice and hot dogs for dinner

Roasting marshmallows (Why's her other arm so small?)

Without moms around the kids could whittle. One of the girls cut her finger but didn't make a fuss at all.

We got lucky with the weather we stayed dry on both Saturday and Sunday. It did rain when we were sleeping so we broke out the rain gear because of dipping trees.

Another shot of the 520 with it's load

This sign and the changing weather made the kids think about XC ski season coming up. We all ski together too.

Q's Garage

Crayfish at Jay Cooke State Park

Duluth

Looking for something to do last Sunday, so we decided to take a day-trip to Duluth. Hung out on Canal Part for most of the day.


The port is what makes Duluth one of my favorite cities. This ship is called the Metsaborg. I did a search on it and found out it's from the Netherlands. The link tells about the ship and allows you to track it as it travels around the world. Upon posting the ship is loaded and back in the middle of Lake Superior. I think the kids and I will track it to see where it goes.

Climbing on the rocks is the kids favorite activity in Duluth.

Harris' camouflage at Grandmas

Bike Camping with Harris and Frogs.

Harris and I hung-out on an overnight bike camping trip on the Sakatah Trail. 30 mile round trip to Sakatah Lake State Park.

His 13" frame Trek 930 works well for him. I put a seat post clamp/rack mount ( see pictue below) and made rack stays out of stock aluminum. It took a while to figure out how to get a full size rack on such a small frame, but once I did, $15 and 1/2 hour labor set him up to carry his own gear.

The Trail head before our departure. My LHT and the boy in plaid against bricks.

Relaxing in camp having some Jiffy-Pop around the fire. Great night!

After dark we enjoy looking around lights for tree frogs taking advantage of insects drawn near. If you expand this picture our Gray tree frog has some legs sticking out of his mouth.

We saw this guy, I think a great plains toad, just as we were leaving camp.

It rained for several hours while we were sleeping. The rain stopped by the time we got up, but wore rain jackets because of dripping from the canopy of leaves above us. Harris and I value these times together.

Blue Ox, Blue Berries and Blue Highways.

(Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox in Bemidji, MN)

Left last Wednesday for a three-day & two night, solo, tour of Northern Minnesota. Fortuitous winds and dry weather were unexpected and appreciated during my 140 miles.

Starting from a friend's cabin near Park Rapid's, Minnesota, I rode 20 miles into Itasca State park. Itasca is famous for being the headwaters of the Mississippi River.

(My LHT at the park's East entrance)

(The marker at the start of the Mississippi you can read it if you click on the image)

On day two I rode for about 30 miles on the Paul Bunyan Trail. The rest of the trip's miles were pedaled on Minnesota's "blue highways." This term was coined by William Least Heat Moon in his autobiographical book Blue Highways. The term refers to small, forgotten, out of the way roads connecting rural America (which were drawn in blue on the old style Rand McNally road atlas).

(A stretch of blue highway with blue sky and blue water.)

Heat Moon's book tells of his travels and describes the people he meets during his 13,000 mile journey. I met one notable man. I was riding between Bemidji Lake State Park, where I spent my second night, and my starting point near Park Rapids. Tired, near noon, I was looking for a rare patch of shade to rest in. Finally seeing one spot at a crossroads, I stopped only to discover that a lawn of poison ivy had beaten me to the shade. Hence it was a standing break.

While enjoying my time off the bike, a beat up old pick-up truck stopped. A man in his early 70's approached me with a well used ice cream pail half full of freshly picked wild blueberries. He reached it out and said with a semi-toothed grin, "take a handful of these while you rest." I barely said thank you before he hopped in his truck and drove off. I gobbled most of my berries up before I thought to take a picture.

He wasn't the only person I met. Earlier in the day a woman and her daughter stopped by to visit me in camp. Every Harley Davidson rumbling by gave me a nod or a wave. What is it about bike touring that disarms and brings out the best in the people? Maybe they too have the romantic sense of the road that made Heat Moons' book so popular.

(The sweetest blueberries I ever had)

(Dinner in Itasca State Park)

(Bike at the start of the tour with front panniers on. I use them to carry extra food because of the relative isolation of where I was riding)

(Bike at the end of the tour with front panniers tucked into the rear bags.)

(Bike during a rest break on the Paul Bunyan Trail)

(The Paul Bunyan Trail)

Shoulders

Adequate road shoulder width is an important part of enjoying a bike tour. The video was taken while traveling East on a road between St. Paul and Afton State Park on a road with a fair number of cars. Yet pedaling felt relaxing because of the wide shoulders.




I'm leaving Tuesday morning for another three day tour around Itasca State Park and Lake Bemidji State Park taking advantage of the Heartland and Paul Bunyan Trails. I will, however, also be traveling on some roads. A few years back I picked up Minnesota Department of Transportation maps giving traffic levels and notice of shoulders >6'. These maps are fairly out of date, so I decided to try using Google Maps to look at the roads I'd travel. What a pleasant surprise; Street View has images of the minor, rural roads I will use on my tour. I can actually see shoulder widths and plan accordingly. I sometimes curse Google for being everywhere, yet still find what they do amazing.

It's Never The Same Trip Twice

Time freed up from 4pm Sunday night until 8:30am Monday morning for my neighbor and I to do a quick overnight bike camping trip. We loaded our gear and cobbled together a menu including fresh tortillas, some butcher bacon and lettuce for dinner. Sans tomatoes we lacked the "T" in our BLT trilogy, but decided a run to the store would take too much of our short time. We agreed that we'd find something on the way.

(My 2009 Long Haul Trucker )

Nothing too far; just to Afton State Park and back; 34 longish miles with a couple of challenging climbs each way. I remember looking down between pants on one hill and seeing 3.4 miles/hour forward progress. What's my biking stall speed?

(Neighbor's 1984 Trek 520 loaded without sleeping gear. Notice his homemade frame bag)

Upon arrival we set camp and went for a swim in the St. Croix River which forms the border between Minnesota and Wisconsin. While lazing in the water watching a hot air balloon travel by, maybe it was the red tomato shape of it, I started thinking about the function of tomatoes in the BLT. I concluded that they offer sweetness and acidic brightness. Eureka! Wild black berries growing along the path became our tomato substitute. They were brilliant.
We spent the evening eating our BLB wraps around the fire. Fireflies, passing satellites and a few shooting stars made the night memorable as well.


We were up at 5:30am enjoying the mist lift over the St. Croix Valley as we readied for our return ride. The panoramic picture shows my neighbor checking into his flight just before we left camp. The berries, the lights in the sky, the mist and the trip were wonderful. I anticipate the unexpected joys of our next trip to the same location.

Bacalhau Chowder

A trip to a local Mexican grocery store netted a dried-salted, cod fish or bacalhau. After a 20 hour soak to remove excess salt, the kids and I used it as the sole ingredient in tonight's fish chowder dinner. Bacalahau, also called clip-fish, is wonderful; need to buy more.

The firm, flesh tastes clean with surprisingly different levels of salty goodness depending on the amount of direct contact with the soaking water. Flavor variability makes each new bite unexpectedly vivid.

It's exciting to eat such an ancient food. The Europeans, especially Portuguese, brought this to the new world 500 years ago. I'm proud that my children are willing to explore such new foods.

Hard Losses on a Hot Day

Soccer season ended today after a loss. The Girls had a great season.

Other notable events :

The US Womens' team lost to Japan today in the FIFA World Cup Final.


Hot, sticky Sunday kicked off what is shaping up to be an oppressive week in the Twin Cities and much of the Midwest.

The dew point, which measures the amount of moisture in the air, tied an all-time Twin Cities record of 81 Sunday. The last time it got that high was July 30, 1999. The state dew point record of 86 was also tied at Madison, MN Sunday night. Meteorologist Ken Barlow did some checking and found the only other spot in the Western Hemisphere with a dew point in the 80's Sunday was the Amazon Jungle in South America. Source

Child-Powered School Bus

Child-Powered School Bus Could Prevent Obesity

Bicycle Film Festival

Event Link
And in Even Larger PDF

Homemade Smokebombs

Finally here is what one of the smoke bombs looks like at night.

We Almost Went Bike Camping

Gear packed. Bikes loaded. New tent ready. Then, rain appears as my niece from Taiwan, daughter, son and I arrive at the trail head. The forecast had been for dry weather, but now it looked like it would rain on and off for the next 24 hours.

Let's go! We have fenders, rain gear and don't want to be wimps. If we're going to be bike campers, we can't let a little wetness stop us from having fun. This will be an opportunity for the kids to see that we can't wait for the right weather to enjoy nature. My niece agrees to go despite the rain too.

I spent hours preparing bikes and driving to the trail head; I don't want to waste that effort. After all both my kids have done early spring, 30 mile rides in hills, wind and rain . They can take it.

But would they enjoy it. Still raining after lunch. Thinking of my niece who had never camped out before, I wondered if my desire to soldier on wasn't affecting others willingness to go. On past trips, I carefully made sure the kids' experiences with bike camping were positive. Would this outing bolster their love of the sport, or make them less apt to go in the future?

I suggested we drive the hour home and come back another day. I could tell my niece was relieved. My son said he was glad because he thought it might be a "death march." My daughter protested my decision, but quickly fell asleep in the car.

Turns out it was a beautiful night. We roasted marshmallows in the back yard before the kids slept out in the new tent. I discovered I'd rather be a dad than hardcore biker.

Dusty Car Art