Fargo, ND to Fergus Falls, MN; 59 miles, sunny, S/SE wind at 10 mph, 70-80’s
A beautiful day for riding although a bit warm in the afternoon. We are now in Minnesota after crossing the Red River from Fargo, 200 yards into the ride. I always thought the Red River was larger given the history of Fargo flooding. Since there was no “Welcome to Minnesota” sign on the county road I was on, I substituted the photo of the grain elevator which is the first object I found that said “Minn”. The first half of the ride was flat but on mainly very nice county roads with low traffic in farm fields. One local crop is sugar beets just to keep you informed. Then construction appeared, what we call tar and feather, otherwise know as oil and loose stone. The flagman let me through and for most of it I could ride on the finished surface on the left side of the road. After while I wondered why no traffic was coming at me. Well it turns out they closed the road as they were applying a new layer to the entire road. So I had to slowly make my way across fresh oil for three miles. Talk about stone accumulation on the tires! But all’s well that ends well and we continued on to Fergus Falls.
The Adventure Cycling map for MN provides a north or south route option. The north option goes to Bemidji and then south. It is prime resort territory and we were concerned we might have trouble finding lodging or even camping spots this week. So we are taking the south route, which is called the “Trails Alternative”. It is shorter, but best of all, starting tomorrow I will be following paved bike trails for almost 100 miles on the ” Central Lakes Trail” and the “Lake Wobegon Trail”. So excited to be visiting Lake Webegon. The tunnel is the start of the trail in Fergus Falls. Not sure what kind of birds were nesting but they were large and not Bald Eagles.
