Bicycling Around Minnesota 2023

Bicycling Around Minnesota (BAM) is a four-day tour of Minnesota first started in 2006. This year's ride is in the Driftless region, southeast of Rochester. We start in Lanesboro and ride two days toward the Mississippi, and then two days back along a different route. Compared to other rides I've been on recently, this is a smaller ride with approximately 300 participants. The rider age range is from 26 to 82, and they say it's an even mix of men and women riding.

I chose this ride, in part, because this week is "back to school" week. This is the first time in more than 20 years that I've had this week off and I wanted to have something fun to do just in case I was missing getting ready for the school year. As it turns out, I'm not missing school at all. But I am glad I have something fun to do and I'm looking forward to seeing new vistas along the way.

Lanesboro Arrival

Day 0: 31 miles, 700 feet of elevation gain. I drove from Palatine to Lanesboro, about five hours. I arrived early so I could get a ride in along the Root River Trail before check-in. As it turned out, I didn’t have to wait to set up my tent, so I did that first and then went for a ride. We’re expecting a line of thunderstorms to move through this evening around 11, so I used extra care in staking down the tent. It should be fine.

I then went for a ride from Lanesboro to Peterson and back. The trail goes for 42 miles from Fountain to Houston. It's a rail trail and all of the parts I rode were paved and very well maintained. Several people mentioned being careful on the bridges when wet, but I didn't have any problems with the trail surface on my ride.

I was hoping to get a slice of pie in Peterson, but the shop was closed when I arrived. The same for the pie shop in Whalen on the way back. So I got an ice cream sandwich at the trail store instead. More importantly, on this ride I saw my first wild bobcat. It was on the trail just 15 yards or so in front of me. It didn’t hear me coming. When I saw it, I first thought it was a coyote, then I realized it was a cat and I looked really hard at the tail. No tail, not a mountain lion. A bobcat was okay, and it quickly ran into the brush toward the river and disappeared.

Right after that, I came upon the animal you see on the right. Just stretched out in the middle of the trail, fortunately with its head toward the side of the path. If you look closely, you can see eight rattles sticking up at the end of the tail. I was able to ride past without disturbing it, and then stopped to take a picture. It never moved and never rattled. It was just enjoying the afternoon sun, as was I.

I had both lunch and dinner at Pedal Pushers Cafe in Lanesboro. It was very good. Camp tonight is in Sylvan Park, near water. I get to hear frogs tonight before starting a ride rather than trains, no thanks to Columbus, NE, and Davenport, IA. Hopefully, that’s a good sign. Also, everyone seems to be turning in early, so here’s hoping for a good night’s sleep.

Lanesboro to Rushford

Day 1: 66 miles, 2,600 feet of elevation gain. I didn't really notice the storm last night. It rained, but I slept through most of it.

Today was absolutely beautiful. We started west along the Root River Trail to Fountain, then headed south along roads for a 60 mile loop back up to Peterson, and then east to Rushford on the trail again. This trail is one of the best maintained rail trails I’ve been on. Highly recommended.

The Minnesota countryside is amazing. The hills here are steeper than the hills in Nebraska and Iowa (at least the ones I've ridden), so you get better views of the landscape as you ride. Every few miles you're on a ridge where you can see five miles in all directions. It reminded me of the scene in Forest Gump where he's running through the prairie and amber waves of grain. The grain in Minnesota is mostly corn, but seeing miles and miles of rolling fields on both sides is quite breathtaking.

One of the other things that is striking about this region is the churches. Most of the buildings in the area are typical wood frame you could find anywhere. But the churches and the grain mills are impressive brick structures. Most of the grain mills appeared to be four-story buildings, and the churches often had steeples reaching 40 to 50 feet in the air. The church on the right was the most impressive I saw in terms of building relative to landscape, but the church steeple in downtown Lanesboro was equally impressive in terms of design structure above the tree line.

The BAM tour is an eclectic mix of stops. The tour planner describes it as a bus tour on two wheels. Our first stop today was a museum in Fountain. They had the standard small town collection, but also a barn area with 40 to 50 tractors, another area with a wood-burning pickup truck, a section with dolls, wedding clothing, etc. Very impressive. Another stop was a state fish hatchery where we got to see lake trout. The final stop was a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm.

Meals are included, and food today was excellent. Breakfast had a wide variety of fair. Lunch was a taco salad bowl. Dinner was chicken, beans, rice, and sweet potato. BAM is relatively expensive, but it’s also the best tour I’ve been on so far.

Rushford to La Crescent

Day 2: 65 miles, 2,500 feet of elevation gain. Today started very foggy. For the first hour we almost needed windshield wipers. Water was actually dripping off my helmet mirror. But the roads had wide shoulders and visibility was good enough for cars to see our blinking tail lights in time.

Once the fog evaporated, it was a beautiful day. I thought the views yesterday were better, but the ride today had less wind. The first 50 miles or so were good. Then we got to the Mississippi River. I was hoping for nice river views, but the route was along a high speed four-lane highway with only occasional river views and the railroad beside the river.

Then we turned and headed up to the bluffs 400 to 500 feet above. The climb was brutal. Several miles of 7% grade climb. I need a lower gear than what I have to be able to make climbs like this. Everyone passing me was spinning at about twice the RPMs I was able to generate. I slalomed back and forth for awhile, and it worked, but eventually I got off and walked for about a half-mile before the hill eased up to 6% and I was able to ride again.

Lunch was at a winery overlooking the river. The view at the winery itself was okay, but there were wonderful views before and after where you could see well into Wisconsin. Then we came back down to the river to stay in La Crescent. Camp is in a local park. The Lion’s Club had food and beer available, and dinner came later and was also good.

The down side of being by the river is we’re close to the highway and close enough to the train tracks that there’s going to be a bit of noise overnight. But so far, it seems like it’s only two whistles to get through town rather than the six in Columbus, NE or the eight in Davenport, IA.

La Crescent to Houston

Day 3: 55 miles, 2,100 feet of elevation gain. I slept well last night and I don't remember hearing any train whistles. Today included two climbs, one which peaked at 15% grade. There was an option to bypass that climb, and I took the bypass option. I just wasn’t in the mood for walking up a long hill just to ride back down again. Besides, I arrived late in La Crescent and most of the good campsites were already taken. I wanted to get to Houston sooner and have more camping options.

I'm glad I took the bypass route. It gave me more mileage along the Mississippi River and the flood plain / bottomland beside it. It was very pretty. After about 20 miles we turned west and headed up to the bluffs again. And I got to walk about a half mile of climb again. It's just not worth killing my legs in order to say I did it. But I am going to invest in more gears for next year's rides.

Once we were up on top, we again had beautiful five-mile views of the countryside. The picture on the left is typical with rolling hills and a variety of agricultural uses. Shortly after this picture was taken, I came upon a field of goats resting in the shade just beside the road.

In keeping with the eclectic nature of BAM rest stops, our next stop was at the county fair in Caledonia. It was a big 4-H event with kids showing off their prized animals. There was a rabbits and chickens building with a variety of exotic breeds and a couple of jackrabbits at least two feet long. At another building they were lining up to show their cows when I walked by. And one of my favorite memories was a corn pit they had set up for the youngest community members. It was about 20 feet across and had sides about 30 inches high. They put a foot of shelled corn in the pit and the kids were playing in it like they would with a sandbox, toys and everything. Very cute.

This turned out to be another good animal day. Not so much on the route this time as with the route. Houston is home to the International Owl Center. We got to see a presentation by an owl expert who (whoo whoo!) was able to imitate at least a dozen different owl calls. I asked her what she thought might have made the noise I heard back on the Hennepin Canal in July and her best guess was a young Great Horned Owl telling mom it was hungry.

Camp this evening is interesting. It's the first campground / park I've been in on a ride where there were different distinct sections with tree-line separations. Human nature to me is fascinating. I'd say there were at least 50 tents set up in the first quite-small section, some of which were pitched on an angle I'm sure I wouldn't get any sleep on. The second section had tents more spread out along the shade lines. There was a third section even further back, and that section only had four or five tents very well distanced. I prefer having space and quiet and I'm willing to walk or even ride further to get it.

Houston to Lanesboro

Day 4: 56 miles, 2,400 feet of elevation gain. It was very warm and foggy overnight. I didn't use the rain fly and it was interesting waking up in a fog bank. But it wasn't as foggy as it was Thursday morning and it had started to clear by the time we hit the road. I particularly liked this view of the fog in the valley as we were heading up out of Houston.

Because we were heading back over familiar territory, the views today were pretty much the same as Thursday's ride. But it was all still very pretty. And I found a good spot where I was able to take a picture from the same place left, ahead, and right to give a good sense of the views we were enjoying.

Today felt stronger. I was able to ride the whole way up the bluff climb today, almost a mile of 7% grade. Today was also a much quieter day on the road. At least a third of the ride participants opted to take the Root River Trail back to Lanesboro rather than the road route, so there were long stretches today where I didn't see any other riders. And, being a Sunday morning, there were fewer cars on the road as well which made it even better.

We had an interesting stop today in Spring Grove, home of the Spring Grove Soda Pop company. This allowed us to have root beer floats for our rest stop. While I was at the stop I noticed a woman wearing a Free Hugs t-shirt with a rainbow flag on it. If you aren't familiar with this, please read The Free Mom Hugs Story. I got a free hug. And, surprisingly at least to me, the woman said I was the only person she had seen all day who asked for one.

After returning to Lanesboro, I ended my ride by walking down to the Root River and sitting in the river for awhile. There were showers available back at the park, but being able to sit in the river seemed more appropriate on a hot day, particularly since I had been back and forth along the river for five days now. 

After I cooled off, I headed for Sparta, WI. There is a nice bike trail there and I was considering spending the night. However, for some reason the two streets leading to the area where I wanted to camp were both blocked off. So I drove home instead.

Epilogue

Five days and 273 miles, with just over 9,000 feet of elevation gain. Maximum grades for me were +11.6% and -14.5%. Those who didn't skip the first climb on Saturday "enjoyed" a +14.9% maximum climb.

The elevation gain every day was similar to Nebraska and Iowa, but the hills are definitely steeper and the bluff climbs and descents are longer. The ride down into Lanesboro was almost three miles of descent. We were frequently hitting 30 MPH and some people were approaching 40 MPH on the steeper descents. I think 35 MPH was about as fast as I was willing to go.

I didn't mention it before, but I met a variety of great people on this ride. There was a woman who was between seven and eight months pregnant, and only looked to be about five months pregnant, riding with her mom. There was a couple on their honeymoon. There was a group of three retired engineers from Cargill. There was a young professional couple on their first tour and really enjoying the experience. At the other end of the spectrum there was a couple who had been married for nine years. She was the best friend of the husband's first wife. He had been married for 40 years before the first wife passed away from cancer, and it was the first wife's wish for her friend to marry her husband if she didn't survive. And there was a couple who camped near me twice that had the largest tent I've ever seen on a bike trip. It looked like it had three rooms inside. But they were very nice and we had a long visit Saturday evening talking about different tours and bikes.

Bicycling Around Minnesota is certainly the best organized tour I've been on so far. And we were well-fed. It's the first tour I've done where I didn't lose weight during the trip. I really enjoyed the eclectic nature of the different stops along the tour. It was a fascinating visit to southeast Minnesota and I look forward to seeing where BAM goes next year.