Day 32 Rochester MN to La Crosse WI

Day 32
Rochester MN to La Crosse WI
Miles Ridden  87.2
Climbing 3127 Ft.
Total Miles 2373.6
Miles To Go 1279.4



The weather was the biggest question of the day. The large front of thunderstorms forecast last night was moving to Rochester and about 60 miles away when we got started at 7:00 AM. At that time the sky to the west was black and threatening. We were motivated to ride as quickly as possible to get as many dry miles in before the rain hit. The weather forecast called for the storm to move at 30-40 MPH from the southwest. Inexplicably to me, we were riding straight into a 15-20 MPH headwind coming out of the east. Evin and I pushed very hard for the first 35 miles and were the first to reach the SAG stop which is unusual for us. There was still a little blue sky ahead.

Ride hard, stay ahead of the rain

We rode hard, first to check in at SAG

The dam at Bucksnort Park

Pam from Phoenix, one of the staff

Up to that point, I felt fine. After we restarted, I felt like I had just donated two pints of blood and had no energy to climb the hills. Shortly after, I started to cramp up and knew something was wrong with my lower GI tract. All I could think of was the Mongolian Barbeque dinner from last night. This has never happened to me before. I started to look for some tall corn for some privacy. We just happened to be in a soybean only area. Soybeans  come up to my knees. At that moment, one of the support vans came by and I flagged it down. I loaded my bike in the van and he headed for the nearest town and I made it by seconds.

I waited for Evin to come into town and I felt well enough to continue. We felt a few drops of rain but the thunderstorms never developed.  We started on 15 mile bike path on a converted rail line. The bike path went through a beautiful area along the Root River. In this part of Minnesota, there aren't many high hills but there are a number of deep river valleys that require a steep descent and a difficult climb out. The railroad line smoothed out many of these hills. By the time we were halfway through bike path, I had a race to the end to find the next rest room. Again, made it by seconds.

The Root River from an old railroad trestle

When we started back up, we were in Minnesota's Bluff Country which is a very scenic, hilly region much different from the areas we had been through. There were still many farms but they were in the valleys and rugged wooded hills surrounded us. It seemed like there was a Lutheran Church every couple of miles. Hard to see where the parishioners come from.  We had a very tough hill to climb to get to an eight mile long bluff that eventually descended to the Mississippi River.

We crossed into Wisconsin on an island in the river and then climbed the bridge over the main channel to get to La Crosse which seemed to be a slightly rundown old river town. After riding up the busiest street in town, we got to our hotel which was located on a scenic part of the river. Dinner was at the North Country Buffet. The foreign riders (and a few Americans) were shocked at the size of most of the clientele.

Crossing into Wisconsin on Highway 61

The rain finally hit about 7:00 PM and is in the forecast for tomorrow.  Hope our weather luck continues.