Itasca State Park, MN to Bemidji, MN

Wednesday, September 3, 2003
Distance Cycled: 48 miles
Total elevation gain: 530 feet

When we woke up the morning we were met by a very gray day. It had been raining but by the time we got our bicycles out of our room, down the stairs and loading all the paintiers, all the rain was gone. After a good breakfast at the Lodge, we were left with a very gray day whose temperature was in the mid 50's. We started out heading for the east entrance to Itasca State Park. Mary Kay and I started up the road and passed a sigh the said no bicycles. We stopped and the rest turned up the bicycle path. We turned around and followed them. The stopped at the first road that the bicycle path crossed and a debate began as to which way to go to get to the east entrance. A left turn was decided upon and we traveled about 200 yards to another intersection and another debate began that ended with us riding on the road that was forbidden to bicycles. After a very short distance we came to the east entrance road and left the park.

We turned and headed up Hwy 71 toward Bemidji. It was a very nice road with very wide shoulders. After a short distance we came to County Road 3. It was also a nice road without any shoulders, but it did have one very nice feature, very little traffic. The only problem was that we had been traveling east and now we were traveling north and the wind was from the north-northwest. For the next 20 miles, most of the time we were going into the wind and the wind was blowing at 15 to 20 miles per hour. After 17 miles we came to Becida, MN. At this point we began to travel using the Adventure Cycling Association Bicycle Touring Maps. Becida consisted of one bar/restaurant where we stopped, used the rest rooms, had two cups of hot chocolate each, had a good rest and then headed for Bemidji.

We continued traveling north into the wind. The good news was that we began spend more time going east that we were going north. We again crossed the Mississippi River. It was still a very small slow stream.

We reached Bemidji and turned left instead of right in order to find a motel room. We traveled about a mile until we reached a Holiday Inn Express. After checking into the motel (everyone got a room on the ground floor) I took the tandem bicycle by myself and headed to a UPS store where I made arrangements to ship back to Washington State stuff that we did not need. I then when looking for a bicycle store to replace the bicycle mirror that was broken when the bicycle tipped over. I traveled to downtown Bemidji looking for the bicycle store and could not find it. I returned to the UPS store and they told me where to find the bicycle store. I just had not gone far enough. I started for the bicycle store again and got lost again but got directions at a fast food restaurant. I had still not gone far enough. I found the bicycle shop, bought the mirror and headed back to the motel.

When I reached the motel, I installed the mirror, straightened out the handlebars for Mary Kay and cleaned and lubed the chains. Mary Kay and I then moved the tandem bicycle into the room. We put all our dirty clothes together and Mary Kay did the washing in the Motel's guest laundry machines. We finally went to supper at 6:45 PM.