A Bike Overnight in Minnesota -- Finally!

 
This week's story tells the tale of our first-ever Bike Overnight in Minnesota. Can you believe that? It's a state that seems practically custom-designed for bicycle touring and camping.

As an aside, there are around 15 other states not yet claiming even one Bike Overnight adventure. Among them are Maine, Indiana, Kentucky, Nebraska, and Wyoming. Go figure -- or go to BikeOvernights.org and check out the "Categories" listing on the right-hand side of the page to see if your home state is represented. If it's not -- well, get riding, writing, and shooting photographs!

Anyway, thanks to Al Ringer, shown above, for breaking the Land of 10,000 Lakes drought.

"One of the advantages of living in rural northern Minnesota is the availability of many outdoor recreational options," writes Al, "and many lightly traveled roads. One loop I like to bicycle is close to our house and 50 miles in length. I've done it in a day, but this time I decided to camp overnight halfway.

"So, I loaded up my REI Novara Randonee and BOB trailer. BOB usually stands for "Beast of Burden," but on some uphills it felt more like "Bucket Of Bricks." My trip started at Hugo's Bar, from which point I headed north on County Road 44, passing the Cloquet River and Indian Lake Campground."


After visiting the old Toimi School, where he says folks can get a sense of what life was like at a Finnish School at the turn of the twentieth century, Al continued along Forest Highway 11, "reaching my destination for the night, Sullivan Lake Campground. Its forested setting makes you feel like you?re in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, but with road access. There are eleven sites, most of them right on the water, and it?s usually very peaceful. There was only one other site occupied on this particular night."


Read Al's story in its entirety at BikeOvernights.org, where you can also scroll through our collections of stories and Photos of the Week -- including this week's image, which comes from the August 6, 2012, post Two Days on the Natchez Trace, by Robert Hendry, aka RandoBoy.


BikeOvernights.org Photo of the Week, 09.28.12.

Top 3 photos by Al Ringer; bottom photo by Robert Hendry. 

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BIKE OVERNIGHTS is posted every Tuesday by Michael McCoy, Adventure Cycling?s media specialist, and highlights content from BikeOvernights.org. Previously, from March 2009 through January 2012, Mac posted weekly at Biking Without Borders. He also compiles the organization's twice-monthly e-newsletter Bike Bits, which goes free-of-charge to nearly 47,000 readers worldwide.

Source: http://blog.adventurecycling.org/2012/10/a-bike-overnight-in-minnesota-finally.html

cycling exercise

Tweaking the Pacific Coast Route

This past spring we received an online map correction card from the Orange County Bicycle Coalition in California. They were offering suggestions for tweaking the Pacific Coast Bicycle Route: "North or Southbound in Southern California we have established "safe passage" routes through the towns of Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, and Dana Point. Please consider these "alt routes" for rider safety."

We love using local and from-the-road feedback to improve our routes and will look into making these changes the next time that map section Pacific Coast #5 is reprinted.

In the meantime, you can take advantage of these alternates routes via their well done Alt Routes on PCH web page. They have maps and turn by turn instructions for both directions.

Give them a look and let us know what you think.

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GEOPOINTS BULLETIN is written by Jennifer 'Jenn' Milyko, an Adventure Cycling cartographer, and appears weekly, highlighting curious facts, figures, and persons from Adventure Cycling's Route Network with tips and hints for personal route creation thrown in for good measure. She also wants to remind you that map corrections and comments are always welcome via the online Map Correction Form.

Source: http://blog.adventurecycling.org/2012/10/tweaking-pacific-coast-route.html

cycling events

Another (surprising) reason to cycle

We?ve all heard of the common reasons to cycle. It keeps you fit, you avoid the congested underground and it?s cheaper. However, there?s a new reason I just came across, that I was wondering if you guys would agree with. I?m currently reading The Power of Habits. It?s a fascinating book that I?d recommend to [...]

Source: http://www.londoncyclist.co.uk/another-surprising-reason-to-cycle/

rapha cycling

Tour de France 2011, Stage 1 Report

And so it begins, the 98th edition of the greatest show in cycling, a 3,436-km (2135+ mile), 21-stage professional cycling race consuming almost the entire month of July as well as most of the geography of France. That distance is the span from New York to California. The claim is that it is the largest [...]

Source: http://www.teamradioshack.us/tour-de-france-2011-stage-1-report/

cycling exercise

TdF Stage 10 ? Klöden Well Positioned

A very hilly 158-kilometers (about 100 miles) of warm, humid conditions over 4 categorized climbs saw the peloton working hard today after Monday?s rest day, with the sprinters teams looking to neutralize any breaks to choreograph a bunch sprint finish. And that?s just what happened. It looked like HTC-Highroad?s well-honed sprint train would once again [...]

Source: http://www.teamradioshack.us/tdf-stage-10-kloden-well-positioned/

descente cycling

Olympic Road Race Weekender : We?re at the Box Hill Festival of Cycling

If the excitement of the first ever British Tour de France winner and Cav winning on the Champs Elysees wasn’t enough, next weekend sees the worlds best riders including both Mark Cavendish and Tour de France champion Bradley Wiggins racing on UK soil. Come and see both riders in action at the focal point of the [...]

Source: http://blog.bike-science.com/2012/07/23/olympic-road-race-weekender-were-at-the-box-hill-festival-of-cycling

assos cycling

Stahl & Wam


"Man, this is too perfect", I thought on a Friday afternoon, watching the first winter storm of the 2011 season roll across the radar.

The weather called for up to 15 inches overnight, more in the mountains.

The plan was to drive 4 hours north, take a right up Graves Creek, then hopefully make it to the Clarence Creek Trailhead before the storm hit. From there we'd skin up to Stahl Peak Lookout in the dark, and the next day head to Mount Wam Lookout. Then, back to the 4WD Durango which would be able to make it downhill, 15 inches or not.

After the drive (and probably too many Double Hauls), we started skinning at 11:00pm, and reached Stahl at 3:00am. There was no wood to melt water, and the just-in-case fuel was running out by mid morning the next day. So, we skied a few laps and headed back down to the car.


Stahl Peak Lookout sits righteously atop a 2,000' cliff. It shouldn't be there. In fact, none of the unstaffed towers in Kootenai National Forest should be.

By the 1970's, most lookout towers around the country had been phased out of service and sat decaying. The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) was dealing with lawsuits from citizens who would venture up, then hurt themselves. The Forest Service responded by issuing a order: If a tower is not in use, get rid of it. Burn it.

Kootenai National Forest responded with a standard government tactic. They dragged their feet. For 10 years. When the winds changed, Kootenai was left with the most unused lookout towers in the Northern Rockies, which they promptly started restoring for use as recreational rental cabins.

Stahl is the most recent. Wam was one of the first.


I first came across Wam on our 10 day lookout trip a few years ago. At 7,200' and some change, it was the highest tower we were set to ride to. Living up to the Whitefish Range's unpredictable weather, it starting snowing on the way up. Then, started accumulating. This was in July.

Thing is, I had never gotten over the idea of linking these two lookouts. If it were not for the area 20 miles to the east, this modest loop would be a Montana classic. But its not. No one comes to the upper Whitefish Range. A friend lived just outside Eureka for 5 years. He rode these trails daily in the summer, but never saw another mountain biker on them, and rarely saw someone on foot.

So, a few weeks ago when Aaron asked if I wanted to go on a 5 day ride that included Stahl & Wam, I casually declined. Told him we were set to run a 10 day hot springs trip, and if plans changed I'd let him know.

He was a bit shocked when my message arrived from McCall, telling tales of fires in central Idaho, and that I'd be in Eureka in a few days to meet him.

The ride didn't disappoint. Sunny almost-autumn days, chilly nights. Even with the elevation gain, the milage was so low we were never in a hurry, which meant exploring alpine lakes and huckleberry patches. And, we encountered enough fresh bear scat and wolf howls to remind us where we were.

In the end, I'll be back. Hard to say when, but it's also hard to stay away from this country for too long.

Photo 1: Stahl Peak Lookout, November 2011
Photo 2: Stahl Peak Lookout ski trip, November 2011
Photo 3: View of Stahl Peak Lookout from Mount Wam Lookout, July 2010
Photo 4: Mount Wam Lookout, July 2010

Online resource: Stahl Peak Snotel
Resource: Fortine Ranger District

On the playlist: Edward Sharpe & TMZ - I Don't Wanna Pray
Inspiration: Logan Traverse
Inspiration: Searching for West

Photos and map by Casey Greene. A version of this post first appeared on Casey's blog.

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BIKEPACKER is written by Casey Greene and Paul Hansbarger -- Adventure Cycling staff, part-time adventure seekers and gear nerds alike. It appears intermittently on Wednesdays.

Source: http://blog.adventurecycling.org/2012/10/stahl-wam.html

dhb cycling

TdF Stage 15 ? Sprinters Rule

Covering 193 kilometers, or 120 miles of pedaling in today?s 15th stage, the Tour revisited 2 cities in the southwest of France that it?s come through many times in the past, Limoux at the start and Montpellier at the finish. Montpellier near the Mediterranean shore holds fond memories for the 2 Robbies on Team RadioShack [...]

Source: http://www.teamradioshack.us/tdf-stage-15-sprinters-rule/

winter cycling jackets

Addison Lee Offices Die-in ?pictures?

It would like to start this as it was a warm spring evening, but in fact it was a cold and wet spring evening as a couple of hundred cyclists turned out on the door step of Addison Lees office in central London. It was a pleasant affair with cyclist lying on the cold wet tarmac to demonstrate a point of cyclist been knocked down not necessary by Addison Lee drivers, shortly after that the word went around that John Griffin was at the office and will come out to have a few words with us. Needless to say he did not have much to say I what he said could not be heard by every one. He was saying he cares for cyclist safety, that?s why he would like to see compulsory training scheme for cyclist blah blah, he went on to offer the cyclist present leaflets about the caring Addison Lee drivers cyclist awareness ?Please? I wont go on but I hope you enjoy the pictures Don?t forget to sign the petition below.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Cyclingchatcouk/~3/gjaQ9RZ-ktE/

winter cycling jackets