9/17/26; 29 miles. We had a pleasant, bright, windless day of cycling--retracing most of our Day 1. We spent our late afternoon eating Pizza in downtown Chisholm and much of our evening watching Colorado State lose a good volleyball match to U of Colorado. We waited for the fog to clear before riding this morning. All that adds up to an excuse for a cursory report. Funny story: we biked right through the center of Chisholm on Day 1, so we were quite surprised to figure out that we had biked a couple of miles beyond it today before turning back. We enjoyed watching the tail end of an annual ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) fundraising ride. After viewing the Day-9 pictures below click on "MORE POSTS" to read about Day 10. To read about Day 10, click on "MORE POSTS" .
9/16/26; Zero miles. Surprise? Bad weather? Exhaustion? Boredom? None of the above. After arriving in Tower from Aurora on the 12th, we looked at our planned ride back from Tower to Virginia and the forty-plus miles to retrace most of our ride there on the Mesabi Trail. The auto route back on highway 169 is only about 23 miles. While highway 169 has high speed traffic, it also has broad shoulders. We have ridden such roads for short distances comfortably many times before in our tours. The options did not make a lot of sense to us. Bob decided to join the local version of an “ everything-about-our-community ” site. After prompt approval, He posted our interest in hiring somebody to drive us here to Virginia after our return to Tower from Ely. Cheryl responded a couple of hours later; we quickly reserved her time and Silverado pickup for this afternoon. No guilt, no apologies. It has been a beautiful day. We enjoy planning details of a trip months in advance, but we usually...
9/18/26, 16 miles. Highlights of our final day: The Minnesota Discovery Center, a beautifully designed 660 acre complex (museum, research center, mine overlook, trails, outdoor exhibits, theater) that celebrates the history of the Iron Range: the Native Americans living here, the immigrants from 43 countries who settled the region and mined the mines, the geology of the range, and the importance of the iron from these mines to the industrialization, growth, and armament of the USA--a treasure of history! Our stop back in Chisholm for coffee caught the end of the annual 2-day Tomassoni Bike Ride on the Mesabi Trail to raise funds for ALS research. By 2:30 PM we arrived back in Hibbing, reloaded the bikes and gear into the car. Downtown Hibbing was bustling with folks here for a weekend October Fest and antique car show. Over dinner we toasted to biking 208 miles on a just-completed (after 30 year effort) Mesabi Trail, through 8 small towns, learning so much history and encounteri...
Comments