UpperMiss

Day 4

Tuesday, 1 June 2010
Hinckley, MN to St. Croix Falls, WI
59.4 miles, 4h50m, 12.3 mph
Elapsed Time: 6h00m, Max speed: 29.5mph
Total Climbing: 1266ft, Max elevation: 1220ft
Total mileage: 298.9

It was supposed to rain, so we broke camp early--after a hearty meal in the Days Inn breakfast room. We managed to get out the door at 7:10am. As we continued south, the scenery was the same as yesterday--except it was much more interesting seeing everything from the road.

And everything was in black and white.

Our plans were nearly thwarted early when the bridge we needed to use to cross I-35 was broken. The detour was to get on the interstate, which didn't seem like a good idea. Fortunately we found an alternate road--and what an alternate. It was the smoothest pavement ever--like polished asphalt. And it was in color.

Like polished asphalt.
You'd be amazed at the things that make you happy after a few days on the road.

We were so happy, we took in-action photos.

My bags almost match the road.

Eventually we got back on to Old Rte 61--which is pretty much the same road we've been on the whole trip so far. Not sure why it's "Old 61" since there is no newer 61 anywhere around. We ran through a few towns without stopping. We really wanted to beat the rain, and there was an annoying headwind grinding us down. At some point we decided that we would push through to St. Croix Falls without lunch to make sure we beat the rain.

We stopped long enough in Pine City to photograph this wooden Indian.
I'm guessing it's made of pine.

There was more grinding and grinding and eventually we reached the town of Harris, where we turned off of Ol' 61 for good.

And we rested near a wagon wheel and an old scale.

Our new road, County Route 9 was beat up and had susprisingly heavy truck traffic. On the up side, we weren't always going straight in to the wind anymore. At some point we passed through the town of Sunrise, birthplace of actor Richard Widmark--so the sign said.

After Route 9 came State Route 95, which was much larger and had a shoulder. But the shoulder had a nearly invisible two-foot-wide rumble strip right in the middle. So we had to ride either right on the edge of traffic or way over on the edge with the debris. We never did figure out which was better.

We were pretty beat when we reached the store at Almelund. So beat that we each ate a small pizza (this didn't count as lunch). The woman in the store told us it was only about 10 miles to Taylor's Falls, and one more to St. Croix Falls. And she said it was mostly downhill. So we were encouraged.

And she was right. The final descent into Taylor's Falls was swell, and included a stop at a scenic overlook.

Been a long time since I've seen one of these. The ol' truck-on-a-wedge.

The St. Croix River. By the way, there are no falls in St. Croix Falls.
Used to be, but they're underwater now.

Then we had to make the ridiculous climb out of the valley to the motel. Turns out the Wisconsin side it a lot higher than the Minnesota side.

Balint on the final climb. Note the stupid rumble strips.

We went to lunch at about 2pm. We had omelets and pie. The pie was better than the best pie on the planet we had yesterday, so this must be another planet. Then Mr. Balint went out for some drinks, and he ended up with a haircut. It rained at about 4pm.

Mr. Balint returns. Wet, but shorn.

The plan for tomorrow is to ride in to St. Paul. It's a fairly short ride, but we'd like to spend some time in town and visit the Science Museum of Minnesota and see the Dead Sea Scrolls. Also, we'd just like a short day.

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