Saturday, August 13, 2011

Ride on the Gitchi

 Janice and I made a trip up along the north shore of Lake Superior recently so that I could ride the Gitchi-Gami State Trail.  Although only about 25 miles of the 88 are completed, this trail will eventually lead from Two Harbors to Grand Maris MN along the shores of Lake Superior.
 This is a view from the top of the Blatnik Bridge.  It is one of three  bridges connecting Minnesota and Wisconsin in this area. 

 Our plan was for me to ride a completed portion of the trail from Minnesota's Goose Berry Falls State park to Beaver Bay and back...and while I was riding the trail, Janice picked a nice spot near the falls to read a book.


This was the bike I chose for this days ride. 
Goose Berry was a popular place on this day, as it is on any of days.
This is not a rail trail.  It has some nice hills and it is very scenic, because as I said before, it travels close to the big lake. 
The construction was the downfall to this ride.  The trail had little pieces of rocks here and there along the construction area.  One of this little rocks I hit, a person could quite literally shave with it.  Although small, about the size of a thumb nail, it was razor sharp.
It cut completely through the casing of the tire and of course punctured the new tube I had installed 9 miles previous.  That is the way the ball bounces sometimes.
A person can't let little things like a ruined tire and a punctured tube spoil the day...and we didn't.  We played tourist on the way back stopping at some of the access points to the beach, explored a new area to kayak I recently learned of and ordered some pizza for a lunch on the beach.  Goooood time!!



6 comments:

  1. That looks like a good trail with some great scenery.......

    -Trevor

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  2. I like riding in that area, if only once in awhile. I tend to take this fabulous Arrowhead region for granted, so thanks for the reminder!

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  3. nothing better than the northern parts of both our states!!!!!!!

    Peace, Joe

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  4. Another great heads up. I have to follow your blog with google maps up!

    Looked for Amnicon Falls on a drive from Bayfield to Duluth on 2. Thought we would stop by and check it out. I was watching for a Sign indicating the park and finally got to the intersection with 53 and realised there wasn't a sign. Checked google maps later and it looks like you turn onto County U to access?

    I don't mind flats so much but ruining a tire is costly. But it sounds like that was all due to the construction and once it is done you would have given a hearty thumbs up.

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  5. None...You are right about Amnicon. It is on U. We will be in sites 32 and 33 starting Aug 25th till about noon on the 28th. Stop in and say HI if you get that way...Anybody for that matter. You would probably need to park in the visitor lot, which is close to our site.

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  6. Would love too but we are going down to Madison for the Heartland Velo Show. I would like to build my own bike someday and framebuilder Doug Fattic will be giving brazing demos. Will also be showing my 1973 Colnago in the Vintage show.

    Enjoy the weekend!

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