Waterton National park August 21

There are several campgrounds closed in the park because of the fire damage in 2016.  But they do allow you to bike those roads so today I biked Red Rock Canyon Road and Akamina Campground  Road.  Both were beautiful and I only learned later that the weird surface of the roads was because the pavement had melted and boiled during the fire causing the crater look.  On Red Rock, I was convinced something was wrong with my bike because I couldn’t get any speed even though it wasn’t that steep. Ultimately when I turned around I discovered it was the wind.  Not blowing hard enough to hear but hard enough to impact my speed.  Easy trip back in though.  I stopped to look around the campground while out there and was bitten by the biggest horse fly I’ve ever seen.  Left a pump knot on my forehead for several days.

In the evening I took a boat trip on the lake.  Wished I had taken it earlier in the time in Waterton  because of the information about hikes I would have received.  Oh well next time I’ll go for longer.  And I can’t find my photo of Cameron Falls.  Oh well..another waterfall.

Waterton Park Canada August 19 And 20

I arrived with enough time to ride the trail that runs along the lake and to check out the little village. It’s really a lovely place.  The village is just enough, some tourist junk but mostly a couple of restaurants and breweries, a bookstore and bike rental places.  The campground is very family friendly which is nice for me to hear all of the kids playing together and riding their bicycles in large groups while they explore.  I talked to some people about biking the Mountain View Road tomorrow and they were encouraging.

I got up early on Tuesday and headed out to the Mountain View Road.  It was a slow ride...maybe 4-5 miles an hour.  I got to the first overlook but decided not to go further so I wouldn’t have to deal with the customs at the border again.  Beautiful scenery.  It was about 2 hours up the mountain, maybe 8-10 minutes down.  With the ride out and back to the park I did around 40 miles.  So that allowed me time in the afternoon to hike to a water falls and go to a brewery for a beer plus getting chatted up by two single gentlemen.  Interesting day overall.  

Actually both of these guys were Canadian and one was very open about checking me out.  When he found out that I lived in Tennessee, he said ah, no luck.  Obviously he wasn’t interested in a long distance relationship.  He did tell me about his hikes and his winters in Arizona now that he’s older.  We continued to be friendly throughout my stay, just checking in on the days activities in case Either of us saw something the other needed to see.  The second guy came and asked me about traveling alone.  He said he would like to try doing some of it.  Currently he travels with his daughter and her sons but then is limited by school.  He also always has to do the cooking he says which he would like to give up.  He was admiring my small grill. And thought that would work for him too.  He very openly pointed out that he wasn’t trying to meet me for a relationship since he wasn’t moving away from his daughter and grandkids and didn’t imagine I would either.  Much more up front conversations than in the US.  

Anyway, my neighbors in the campground who happened to be a couple invited me over to sit by their fire in the evening.  The wife thought she could help decrease the attention I was getting for being alone and I spent all three evenings by their fire just chatting.

Driving through North Dakota and Montana to Waterton Parkin Canada August 18

Long drive so I was glad I had a rest day in there before I started.  It is flat and boring on this ride.  I stayed the night in a free campground at Fort Peck Reservoir at a beautiful spot by the lake.  I had no complaints until dusk when I was attacked by mosquitoes. Oh my gosh!  I locked into the van...thankfully I had my screen door because it was hot.  I don’t remember killing so many bugs on one day in my life.  I had finished dinner and cleanup so stayed in for the rest of the night.

On Monday morning as I drove through Montana, I saw a fire along the roadside.  I realized that it had jumped the road just in front of me but I stupidly followed the guy before me right through it.  Luckily nothing bad happened but I soon was meeting lots of fire trucks and fire personnel hitting the road.  That one was new for me.  What should I have done? Stopping wouldn’t work and it was difficult to turn around.  Maybe stopped and back but there were cars coming up behind me.  

I made it through customs fairly uneventfully.  She did ask me if I had been to Canada this year and of course I had...on a bicycle.  Once I gave the right answer she was good to let me go.  Interesting.  

Note that I saw some dinosaurs along the road in Montana.  How about that?  Arrived at Waterton Park.  Wished I had planned a week there.  More about that later.

Graham Island State Park, North Dakota August16-17

So I’m learning that when the weekend is coming up it’s a good idea to find somewhere to be and lay low.  That worked out for me because I had two days of driving so I needed some rest.  North Dakota turned out to be more enjoyable to drive across than I expected.  There were thousands of acres of sunflowers in the eastern part of the state and the colors of the grain and grasses are beautiful.  I think that the driving takes so little effort though that it’s easy to get bored.  The Graham Island State Park was located Mid state along Devils Lake. Nice campground for $25 and a good area to do some biking.  I toddled around when I first arrived and then rode out and around the lake for about 50 miles the next morning.  It rained that afternoon so I just hung out in the van.  I met a very nice couple across from my campsite who were from International Falls.  They were there for a week and had been frustrated by a fishing tournament that was making the waters less friendly.  We chatted about various things and it turned out that the husband was a forester who had lived in Montana and Idaho for most of his life.  He said he had to leave because it was so difficult to make a living there.  I wondered how it could be better in International Falls but decided against asking.  He did say he now works for private industry.

He really helped solidify my decision to go  to Waterton Park in Canada and then talked to me about several places in Glacier and also Idaho he thought I should make a point to visit.  Very cool information.  As I was leaving Sunday Morning he and his wife brought me some homemade raspberry jam from their garden and a jar of homemade pickles also for their garden.  They had thought they would use it  on the trip and said they had more at home with stuff in the garden waiting to be prepared. Both were delicious.  Just really sweet people who made absolutely no comment about me being alone.  Most people want to give me advice on how to protect myself....

Grand Marais, Grand Portage, International Falls, back to Bemidji August 13-15

I left GooseberryFalls heading to Grand Marias thinking I would find a Minute Clinic along the way and get treatment for the UTI I was sure I had.  But there are no such thing in the Upper Lake Superior Area so I had to go to the hospital clinic in Grand Marais.  They gave me an appointment that afternoon and since it looked on the map about a mile away,I decided to bike there.  It seemed like a biking community with the Gitchi Gami Trail running along the lake.  Little did I know that the last half mile would be straight up so the receptionist saw me get off the bike and immediately doubted that I was sick enough to be there. It became a big joke among them since apparently they don’t have many patients who arrive on bicycle.  Turned out I did have a UTI and was given an antibiotic which was filled by the one pharmacy in town.  I quickly got better so was glad to have that done.
I enjoyed the town of Grand Marais and had a nice dinner at a local brewery one evening.  My campsite was uncomfortable because it wasn’t level so I felt like I was rolling out of bed all night but there was nothing to be done about it.  Not a particularly friendly group of campers either which took some of the pleasure out of it.  It was good to spend some time resting and recovering.  It was cool enough to have a fire which was fun.
I particularly enjoyed going to Grand Portage and learning about the community that developed in the upper Lake Superior area because of the West Indies fur graders.  They’ve recreated the community and it’s quite informative and interesting.  It hard to imagine the group of Indians that carried the boats and supplies over a 12 miles area to avoid water falls.  The community relocated to Thunder Bay in Canada following the revolutionary war because the owners were British and the USA claimed the Lake Superior area.  Apparently there’s another recreated community in Thunder Bay but I didn’t go there.  Instead I drove through the canoe areas to International Falls to see VoyageursNational Park.  Once there I realized that without a boat I couldn’t see much and they have lost the funding for the boat groups they have done in the past.  So somewhat discouraged I drove to Bemidji and got a hotel room to spend some time using the WiFi so I could get a better handle on what comes next.  I didn’t find the Lake Superior area particularly fun.  It was pretty and interesting in its history but fairly touristy.  You’ll see some pictures below of one scene that caught my eye on the roadway.
The sun reflected all this colorful glass and there is a hodgepodge of mannequins, trinkets etc.  I don’t think the pictures do it justice.  A man was working on it when I stopped to photo it.  He was taking dirt out of the rear of a Prius and placing it strategically or so it seemed.  When I asked about it, he said that he had time constraints and couldn’t take the time to explain to me.  I checked the internet for some sort of art installation or contest along the highway but came up with nothing.  Very interesting.

Gooseberry Falls. August 12

I left Lake Bemidji and traveled to Gooseberry Falls on LakeSuperior.  I hiked to the Falls and tried to get some biking in.  I probably rode 5 miles on the Gitchi Gami Trail but it began to rain so I spent much of the evening reading in my van.

August 8-11, Paul Bunyan Trail

i arrived at Crowe Wing State Park in Baxter Minnesota around 1 pm so was able to make inquiries about the trail and parking for my van.  Of course I hadn’t realized that very few people plan to ride the whole trail so the services weren’t in very good shape for my initial plan.  Crow Wing was willing for me to park at their place for several days but other campgrounds along the way weren’t willing to reserve for less than two nights.  I had not realized thatAugust is the most booming time in Minnesota.  This is their  brief opportunity to make some tourist dollars so they were less cooperative to a tent camper who brings in very little revenue.  Apparently this year has been rough for them too because of the amount of rain and chilly weather making the season even shorter.
Since I didn’t want to spend two nights in any of the towns along the way, I changed my plan.  I began at Crow Wing and rode to Nisswa one day which round trip was about 60 miles, very flat miles.  There was a festival happening in Nisswa.  I stopped and had lunch and looked around at the festival. No real arts and crafts but lots of purse vendors and sock vendors.
Crow Wing was a pretty Park along the Mississippi River, but had the worst water I’ve ever tasted.  The ranger told me to fill my bottles from the filtered water that they had at the ranger station.  Even filtered it tasted like rust right out of the Mississippi.  Consequently I didn’t drink enough water in the beginning of my ride and was finally able to find better water in Brainerd and filled up again.  I ended up with a UTI from that day, I think that was the cause.  Dehydration and really bad water.
I drove the next day to Hackensack and rode out from there for another 25 miles making the round trip 50.  I then drove to the Leech Lake Forest Preserve for a night of camping. It was lovely.  It is operated by the corps of engineers so I was at a pretty site by a lake with showers and a laundry for $14.  No charge for the laundry.  Great for biking clothes.  I’m keeping an eye out for those facilities.
The next dayI had reservations for two nights at Lake Bemedji State Park which is the northern end of the Paul Bunyan trail.  It’s also a lovely park at the headwaters of the Mississippi.  I rode from the park to Walker, Minnesota for about 55 miles total.  The upper end of the trail is pretty but around Walker, not so much.  I ended up missing some of the trail from Walker to Hackensack and some of the trail that follows the Heartland Trail that goes to the statue of Paul seated.  I had to be satisfied with the several photos I got of Babe and Paul and of Lucette, Paul’s girlfriend.  I believe the state parks were $20 a night but had showers, the push button kind with timers but showers nonetheless.  Tyler calls them prison showers  for some reason.  I don’t think he’s been in prison to have this knowledge but I’ll give it to him.
Realizing that Minnesota is quite busy in August I made some more reservations on my Hackensack Day so that I would be better prepared for the Lake Superior area in a few days.

Along the Paul Bunyan Trail