Uphill Into A Headwind

Hi there! Thank you so much for making such a wonderful welcoming safe place for cyclists to stop! A true oasis indeed! 🥰🚵🏼‍♂️❤️❤️❤️

Photograph of a sign saying “Dinosaurs on the Prairie, Threshing Machine Collection” next to a picnic table with a line of derelict threshing machines, presumably, stretching out behind it.

Photograph of a line of derelict threshing machines stretching along a ridge line between a dark green cultivated field on the left and lighter green prairie plants on the right.

Photograph of derelict threshing machines stretching to the vanishing point up a hill among prairie grasses under a pale blue sky

Turns out it’s an intentional display called “Dinosaurs on the Prairie”, and yes they do seem rather dinosaur-like, these hulking machines “marching” along the ridge line.

#BikeSky #BicycleTravel #BicycleTouring

Photograph showing a line of derelict farm machinery along a ridge silhouetted against a pale blue sky with green grassland in the foreground

So I was slowly making my way along ND 34 battling the constant headwind when I saw this along an upcoming ridge.

#BikeSky #BicycleTravel #BicycleTouring

Photograph over bicycle handlebars showing a grey paved road stretching off into the relatively flat rolling hills of the North Dakota countryside. White clouds against a pale blue sky stretch to the hazy horizon

Don’t let the apparent flatness fool you. I had 321m total ascent today and it was nothing but quartering headwind from the Northwest all day long. Tomorrow is looking the same. Really living up to the account name! 😜

#BikeSky #BicycleTravel #BicycleTouring

Photograph of a door on a white house with a sign next to it that says “Cyclist Housing” and an arrow pointing to the door and a sign above it that says “The Honey Hub”

As a #bicycle tourist, this little place in Gackle, ND is one of the most wonderful things I’ve come across!🥰 What is the Honey Hub? It’s a place where cyclists can stop & rest, have a shower, do laundry…all free of charge.

It is a place of respite, a beautiful oasis.
#BikeSky #BicycleTouring

Passed without a trace. 😎👍🏼

Remember friends, always do your best to leave no sign that you were there. Try to leave natural spaces (or any spaces, really) as good as if not better than you found them. 🥰🚵🏼‍♂️👍🏼
#BikeSky #BicycleTravel #Cycling #Camping

Let it sit over night. In the morning, give it some gentle swirls to remove grinds from the cap. Open it up, put the press in, & press. Now you have delicious cold brew, & your morning #coffee is ready without needing to boil water. 2/2
☕️😊👍🏼
#BikeSky #BicycleTravel #Bicycle

Photograph of a green Stanley brand travel coffee French press

Helpful tip for the #coffee loving bicycle traveler, especially those who camp a lot: get a travel French Press. I have this one made by Stanley. In the evening, put in ground coffee & fill with cold water. Do NOT put the press in. Seal it and shake it up. 1/2
#BikeSky #Bicycle #BicycleTravel

2,14,36

2,14,36,52

@labeler.bikesky.social label

I don’t really have a prearranged route and rarely plan out a route more than a few days in advance, mostly based on either the availability of Warmshowers hosts or likely locations to camp. For now, my route is “westward”.

This trip is open ended without a specific goal. 🤷🏻‍♂️🚵🏼‍♂️💪🏼

Unfortunately I’ve never really got the hang of dealing with video, so apart from perhaps the occasional clip here and there, video is unlikely. Just text & pictures, at least for the time being. 😅

Photograph of a grey tent and a bicycle under several white-barked birch trees.

My home for the night under a copse of birch trees. Fear not, friends. Not only is “Pass Without a Trace” my favorite DnD spell, it is my way of life. Everything will come out with me, & all that will remain is a flattened bit of grass. 😎👍🏼
#BikeSky #Bicycle #BicycleTravel #BicycleTouring

Photograph of grey and white clouds over green wild grassland with a few trees visible along the horizon.

Photograph of wild plants of a grassland with a few trees in the background under grey clouds with a few hints of blue sky poking through

Photograph of green trees and yellow green grassland under grey and white clouds with a large gap showing blue sky.

Hello Sheyenne National Grassland.

Gotta check out and take advantage of our remaining public natural spaces before they get sold off to further enrich the oligarchs.

It sure is pretty out here! 😍🚵🏼‍♂️👍🏼
#BikeSky #Bicycle #BicycleTravel #BicycleTouring

Goodbye Minnesota, Hello North Dakota.

Would have taken a selfie when I crossed the border by Abercrombie, but it’s been a rainy miserable morning. 😓🚵🏼‍♂️

… and shifting to the smaller rear cogs, but it is much better than it would be with the original cage length and I haven’t dropped the chain (or even had it rattle against the frame) yet. 😎👍🏼

It was pretty easy. I saw a video on YouTube showing that the modification would work, so I ordered the SGS size inner and outer plates and then followed the instructions in the maintenance manual. Still probably don’t have enough chain capacity as it’s still kind of loose when on small front …

Minnesota has been alright. Being heavily loaded I do prefer paved over unpaved, but there is plenty of both. There are a lot of long bike trails and routes on the map, and drivers have seemed pretty tolerant when off those routes just doing my own thing. Worst things have been heat and mosquitoes.

Here’s a thread on my main account about most of the rebuild. It is however missing the final correction where I bought the correct rear derailleur and modified it to have a longer cage to increase the capacity. 😅

bsky.app/profile/bioa...

It is indeed a Surly Long Haul trucker, and the handle bars are the widest Surly Truckstop bars. Rebuilt the drive train before this trip, converting from a 3x9 (w/ a useless-to-me 3rd sprocket & a not big enough mountain gear) to a 2x11 with a 42t mountain gear. 😎👍🏼

Starting to feel like Minnesota mosquitoes have evolved resistance to DEET. 😭🦟

This is a free campsite that you can bike into or paddle into, managed by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. It’s very primitive, but otherwise an excellent quiet place to stop for a rest. I stayed an extra night and took a rest day there. 3/3

#BicycleTravel #BikeSky

Screenshot from the Mapy navigation app showing the exact location of the Pine River Bike Campground (the image incorrectly says Paul Bunyan Trail Bike CG), about 650m from the entrance and along the bank of the Pine River. The exact coordinates are 46.7002705N, 94.3861612W

What that sign does not indicate is that you have to follow the indicated trail for ~650m to reach the campsite by the river. There are no signs along the trail indicating progress, but you’ll see it when you get there. Here’s the exact location (which OSM data has wrong, but is on Google Maps). 2/3

Photograph of 2 brown signs on a signpost in front of green trees. One shows a tent and an arrow indicating the direction to a camp site. The other says “No motorized vehicles permitted”

Screenshot from the Mapy navigation app with a red pin marking the entrance to the Paul Bunyan Trail Bike CG (which is a mistake and should say “Pine River Bike Campground” and the exact coordinates of that location at 46.7002001N, 94.3784205W

PSA about the Pine River Bike Campground on the Paul Bunyan Trail near Pine River, MN: the location shown on maps using OSM data is wrong. Here’s the actual location of the entrance to the trail that leads to the camp. There is a sign to look out for.
1/3
#BikeSky #BicycleTravel

“Cockpit view” of a paved bicycle trail stretching out in front of me into the distance through green wilderness

Few thing are as beautiful to a long haul #BicycleTraveler as a looooonnng paved bike path through the wilderness. 😍😍😍

Here’s a cockpit view of the Paul Bunyan Trail north of Brainerd, Minnesota.

#BikeSky #BicycleTouring #BicycleTravel

Purple wildflowers against green vegetation

For real, the first 3 days were so miserable that all I could focus on was not overheating and having related issues. These purple flowers in Rum River state forest were the first time I felt motivated to take a picture, b/c I was finally enjoying the ride.

#BikeSky #BicycleTouring #BicycleTravel

Photograph of me on my fully geared up touring bicycle n front of a statue of a big fish several times my size.

Photograph of the big fish statue in Garrison Minnesota on a sunny day under a blue sky.

That’s a BEEG FEESH!

Day 4. Big Fish statue in Garrison, MN.
Day 4 really was the first day of nice riding after the hot, humid miserable exhaustion of the first 3 days.

#BikeSky #BicycleTouring #BicycleTravel

Photograph of a heavily loaded green Surly Long Haul Trucker bicycle leaning against a picnic table in green grass of a park by the Mississippi River. The bicycle has greens front and rear panniers, as well as sleeping gear and a camera bag on the front rack & a solar panel strapped across the rear rack.

Selfie of me with buzzed hair wearing an aqua blue tank top sitting at a picnic table against which leans my heavily loaded Surly Long Haul Trucker touring bicycle.

Taking a much needed rest at Mississippi Point Park on day 1 after getting my bike put together, getting out of Minneapolis, and finally finding a convenience store to grab some food and hydration.

#BikeSky #BicycleTouring #BicycleTravel

Day 5 got me to Brainerd where I picked up the Paul Bunyan Trail to Pine River, where the MN Dept. of Natural Resources has a free campsite for cyclists.

I stopped there and took a rest day today. Tomorrow I’ll push on westward.

And that’s the summary so far. More details coming. 😎🚵🏼‍♂️💪🏼