Munger Trail and river bluffs

The trip south from Duluth started with 63 miles of beautiful paved
bike path, the Willard Munger Trail. After lingering over a big meal
at The Buffalo House (a dozen miles into the trail) I made it to
Finlayson, riding in the dark until 11 PM. I generally don't ride
after dark, but thought I'd give it a try since I was on separate
cycling infrastructure with smooth asphalt. Those 2 hours in the dark
were exhillerating but quite spooky. In the deepest wooded stretches,
I half-thought a troll would snag my leg while a crossed over one of
the many old bridges. The fireflies and quiet were worth the effort.

The next day, I began cutting my way over to the St. Croix River,
which is the state line between Minnesota and Wisconsin north of its
confluence with the Mississippi. I ended up in Taylors Falls, MN and
ate what was arguably the fanciest meal of the whole summer. Four chef-
selected courses, each paired with its own wine. I won't go into all
the details, but the desert was a peach blueberry cobbler with a scoop
of homemade seasalt vanilla ice cream, which was amazing.

Today was a fun ride. I'm thinking of starting a petition to rename
these river bluffs the Saint Croix Mountains. I had a nice lunch in
Stillwater, MN with Dave, an interesting man who is involved with some
really unique cycling events in this area which I'll describe more in
a post next week. Art in the bike shop across the river in Hudson, WI
set me up with a beautiful set of maps for the next leg of my trip.

For tonight, I'm tenting near the north edge of Lake Pepin. I can hear
raindrops tapping my walls which should cool down this warm and sticky
night. Tomorrow, I hope to have a huge day and make it all the way to
Decorah, IA where my whole family is waiting. This may take two days,
though, as biking a century-plus on the humid roller-coaster roads
here seems like it should be hard. Something I've learned on this
trip, though, is that the hard parts are hard, and that's just fine.