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| Heading out the Gateway |
I sent an email out to a core group of bicycling friends and only heard a tiny response. Some plans were made and by the time we were ready to roll out Saturday, 7 people were in for a short adventure. I made sure to let people know their bicycles should be prepared for any type of road surface as I had a few gravel roads in mind for either heading out, or home, or both. It turns out we ended up with a bit of both. Just how I like it.
As always, we started out a little later than normal, but everyone was a bit excited to be on the bikes so our pace was spirited. We wound our way out of the cities via the Gateway trail and shortly before the end at Pine Point Park, we edged north and picked up May Ave which is a lovely gravel road. With only a short stretch of oil, we wandered off to Old Guslander Trail to ride a bit more gravel before entering into Marine on St Croix. There is a bit of a dip down to the river and the group was flying! My new hat had not been secured to my head via the chin strap and whoosh!, it was lying in the road several meters behind me. I turned around to retrieve it and rode solo into town. It turns out there was an art fair happening that weekend and the entire town was filled with tents, closed up for the evening, but I was afraid there would be no room at the bar.
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| Brookside Bounty |
Fortunately, there was plenty of room for us and we were cramming food into our faces in no time. Brookside seems to have expanded since the last time I was there but the beer is cold and the food a perfect balance of grease and fat. Just what a healthy cyclist needs to fuel them the 2 miles or so to camp.
We rolled into William O'Brien State Park sometime after 10:30PM (I think) and found our way to our site. Everyone set up there sleeping arrangements and we were gathered around the fire pit struggling to start the fire when the park ranger walked up. He talked to us a bit about our overpopulation of the site, too many shelters that were erected, and firewood. After all that, he mentioned the actual reason he came over which was to tell us to keep it down during quiet hours. Rowdy cyclists.
Sleep was a bit difficult for me as I had a raging headache. I later determined I had not had any caffeine that day and that, matched with my lack of hydration made a long night of trying to hydrate and sleep as much as I could. I figure I snagged a couple hours. It turned out I was too warm for the overnight and actually crawled completely out of my sleeping bag at one point early in the morning. That is usually unheard of for me after 2AM. Too soon the sound of the squirrels rummaging through the food we left on the picnic table was beckoning us to rise and shine. John had made a quick trip to pick up firewood to have a proper fire. Coffee was made and shared and we made ready for the slog to breakfast.
We grabbed a nice little breakfast in the nearby town of Scandia before turning our steeds towards home. I was hoping to discover some new gravel so we started winding our way a bit west before riding too far south. With only 1 small navigation error, we did find some amazing gravel and wonderful countrysides. I hadn't ridden much through that section of roads as we are usually farther east to try to avoid certain highways. It turns out if split just right, there are at least a couple extremely decent routes around the northern suburbs.
By the time we were back into the city proper, my food level was pert-near empty. It seemed to take a very long time to return to the shop and just when the thought of finding a patio for some food and grainier consumption was taking shape, I was reminded of other commitments I had made for the afternoon. In fact, I just made it in time. It seemed like everything worked out just right for the camping weekend. So much so that I have the idea of doing another one in the not so distant future. Practice makes perfect.
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| Amazing gravel and views |
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