Day 55: Top of the Mississippi

I crossed the Mississippi eight times en route to the headwaters today. It was a pretty small stream at many of those crossings - nothing like the huge river further south.

Mary cooked up oatmeal for the both of us this morning. It was a treat to have a hot breakfast to start my ride today.

I got into town and came upon the biggest statues of Paul Bunyon and Babe yet. Maybe twenty feet tall! I got an iced latte at a local coffee shop and poked around the visitor center, which is full of Paul’s oversized items and has a fireplace made with stones from all fifty states.

Along the ride to the headwaters, I ran into a father and daughter on a recumbent, tandem tricycle headed the other way. The dad is doing the full cross country ride and the other riders are doing two to three week stints due to limited vacation time.

I got to the headwaters and had a picnic lunch plus a chocolate milk I grabbed at the general store by the park entrance. The headwaters is quite a tourist atttaction. Lots of families and people from all over. The headwaters itself is a stony brook. Lots of people were walking across (I suppose to say they’d walked across the river?).

It was a pretty ride via a bike path through the park. There were many more rivers than just Itasca, including my lake, Mary Lake!

I got to the campground and picked a good site and got my tent pitched. Noel then arrived! She happens to be road-tripping in this area, so I’m going to bike to Fargo tomorrow, then we’ll road trip together across North Dakota. That section of the route is often skipped based on polling the riders coming the other way. It has sparse services, tough weather, and much of the riding is on an interstate.