Season 4 Episode 14. Pedal with a Purpose.

Season 4 Episode 14. Pedal with a Purpose.

8/23 Fargo, ND to White Earth Lake, MN 68 miles. 855’ climb. 

After our low point of battling daily headwinds, our rest day in Fargo on 8/22 was exactly what we needed - it was restorative! We were surprised at how quickly we rebounded right back to highly spirited moods. Excellent food coupled with rest does that. 

The Fargo food scene is delicious with highlight dinner at Mezzaluna, and brunch at BernBaum’s where I’d never have guessed I’d find a bagel to rival that of my native Montreal.

This city, where the west literally begins, has a cool downtown scene and vibe, and felt like an amazing college town as well, home of NDSU - go Bison! I’d definitely recommend a visit as part of a western road trip. 

The only negative was carrying bikes up steep stairs as our AirBnB had no elevator. It was the 3rd property where we had to carry our bikes and another reminder of accessibility.

I used our rest day to get a haircut and met Sergevin from Kurdistan, who is father of 5, oldest age 22, been in the USA about 8 years and is now a student barber after he was a journalist in his own country. With my “hair”, student barber is no risk.

Fargo’s Broadway was once home to many theaters and still has signs that reflect that.

Fargo sits on the west bank of the Red River, and Moorehead, Minnesota is on the east bank, the river a natural border between the two states. The 2 cities effectively function as a single community, with students from each state being allowed to attend the other state’s college or university and pay in-state tuition. 

I crossed the river as a pedestrian and made a personal pilgrimage across state lines to the Moorhead Dairy Queen where the Dilly Bar was invented in 1955.

In the early 1970’s, my older sister, and I would go after dinner to DQ with our dad, eat sundaes, and bring home 6 dilly bars for our mom, younger sisters and ourselves too. Well sweet nostalgia aside, this Dilly Bar was really disappointing and a reminder why I’ve been eating soft serve and blizzards at DQ and not Dilly Bars. I guess it is better not to recreate childhood memories as this is one of those times where the experience falls far short of the memory. 

As we rode into Minnesota, I was thrilled to be done riding in North Dakota. The one good thing about ND riding was that it was the end of certain UFOs from Montana. UFOs in this case being the grasshoppers that would hit us as we rode. In some cases they’d land on our legs or body and, as they lingered on my thigh or shin, I’d freak out (unlike Heather who was fine with them) and occasionally curse. There were thousands of them over a few days, and I thought they were locusts. I guess I wanted them to be locusts that were all over us as it just sounded so much more plague-like. (Our hostess Delores back in Montana educated me that locusts were indeed one type of grasshopper, but these were not locusts. She explained normally this grasshopper would stay for about 3 years, but it had been 5 now and they were eating way too much grass in some places affecting livestock.)

I could hear the grasshoppers hit my spokes (ding), or bounce off my helmet (thwack). One got into my jacket up near the neck which was not fully zipped, causing me to squirm and I stopped suddenly to peel my jacket off. 

When riding, flying insects regularly hit us. We’ve both swallowed flies, I’ve had flies land in my ear, Heather has had 2 separate incidents of flies stuck in her eye. I’m protected against that with eyeglasses. Imagine when you return from a long car road trip and you see all the dead bugs on the grill, hood and windshield. Well, our face is the windshield at times. 

Our foggy start to Minnesota.

We were enjoying our county ride with clear skies, and looking forward to being lakeside when we encountered a delay with 3 miles to go. The two-lane country road was closed with a helicopter landed in the middle of the road. 

We learned that a guest at the resort, where we were heading, had a heart attack and they were speeding him down the road to the chopper and didn’t want anybody on the road.

Arriving eventually, before we even got off our bikes and stepped into the office to register, 2 women started asking about our ride. One of them, Robbie, had worked with spinal cord injury patients. While telling us of a former Minnesota high school hockey player who was paralyzed when checked from behind, she took her phone case off her phone to peel out her emergency cash of $20 and handed it to us as a donation for the Reeve Foundation. The other woman sought us out later to also give us a cash donation. This was our welcome to Minnesota and kind Minnesotans. 

While I love kayaking and have spent many hours on the water, I don’t typically enjoy entering water and swimming. But here in the state that boasts being the land of 10,000 lakes, darn I was going to experience it all!

*     *     *

8/24 White Earth Lake, MN to Park Rapids, MN. 78 miles. 2,763’ climb. 

A few miles into our ride, I was in front of Heather and could hear the barking and see two large dogs running down their incredibly long driveway of about 70 yards towards the road. I sped up and passed before they were at the road. I was in the clear. But they were now in better position to assail Heather, and I could hear her yelling NO! NO! (Now I know why she laughs when she is in front and hears me yelling - it does sound funny to hear.) Heather passed safely and reported they didn’t come past the edge of the driveway - either there was an electric fence or we decided even the Minnesota dogs are nice. 

One of the many lakes we passed on our morning ride east on State Road 112 towards Itasca State Park.

The road with its twists and turns and rolling hills with trees on the sides was one of our favorite roads so far. Cycling, maybe life too, is in fact more interesting and enjoyable with some ups and downs, and not knowing what’s around each bend. 

Today was one of those days I rode obsessed with our destination and Heather, normally the faster rider, could not keep up with me. For 41 miles to Itasca State Park, all I could think about was Lake Itasca being the headwaters for the Mississippi River. The reason for the obsession was a cycling couple (Barb and Gene Geiger) we had hosted last year through WarmShowers, had set out from this exact spot in their own hand made kayak to paddle down the full Mississippi River. Barb wrote a wonderful account of their adventure in “Paddle with a Purpose” that I read and loved. We plan to see them next week in Wisconsin. In trying to bear witness to where they set out (and where we would be riding the coming week), I was pedaling with a purpose. 

On left is Lake Itasca. Rocks in middle that you can walk across the first few feet of the Mississippi River. On right is the first few feet of the river. 

The river starts out only about 6’ wide and people wade down it for a stretch.

It amazes me that this river starts out 6 feet wide and becomes the life force that it does. I remember cycling from Baton Rouge to New Orleans along its banks in 2021, on our first cross country ride, and standing today in its humble origin is mind blowing.

I may have cycled a little too fast, or stronger than I should have, as that night in Park Rapids I had trouble walking to and from dinner, (about a mile each way from our hotel) and there was no taxi or Uber. Part of my knee strain is also coming from riding standing up to relieve pressure on my sit bones. I iced both knees and started anti-inflammatory meds. It didn’t matter. Dinner was definitely worth the walk and today was incredible. 

Copyright Mark Segal 2024.