Cycling Milwaukee to Fargo: Day 6 - Stockholm to Minneapolis

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Route

Stockholm, WI to Minneapolis, MN - 74 miles

For details of the route, please click here.

Weather

Sky condition: Overcast early, partly cloudy later
Temperature: 59 to 78
Visibility: Unlimited
Precipitation: None in the same location as us!
Wind: Pretty constant headwind variable to left quartering headwind; at times estimated at 20 - 25 knots
Comments: Thunderstorms passed ahead of us and behind us.

Significant Events

Passed the halfway point for the trip!
Crossed into Minnesota
Crossed the Mississippi 3 times
The longest day - 74 miles!

Today’s Song(s)

"Hay Que Empezar Otra Vez" by Celia Cruz

"Country Road" by James Taylor

Wildlife Observed

Bald Eagle
Raccoon (dead)
Snake

Today’s Ride

Although posted on Sunday, the ride was Saturday.

We woke up early and got our stuff around but mother nature would have nothing of it! A massive storm system, extending from south of Stockholm to north of Minneapolis, was about to hit us. We decided to wait it out since it contained numerous embedded thunderstorms.

The storms cleared around 9am and we hit the road headed north. Well, the first 8 miles or so of today's ride were some of the most beautiful and scenic we have seen. Numerous views of Lake Pepin on our left, with bluffs on the right, and a few small towns. Lake Pepin is a naturally occurring lake on the Mississippi. We passed the mid-point of the trip fairly early on while still next to the lake.

Lake Pepin panoramic

After about the 10 mile point or so, the scenery became less spectacular. However, the lack of scenery was more than made up for by steep climbs and wind. Two of the more "moderate" climbs were approximately 3 to 4 miles in length, with an elevation gain of about 300 to 350 feet. The doozy was 2-1/2 miles long with a 450 foot rise. That's about an average 3.5% grade. A couple of the sub-sections of that hill were even steeper. All with a headwind. Thank goodness for 21 inch gearing! Of course, on the other side of the ascent is usually a pretty nice descent! With the headwind, however, the descents were even slowed!

Speaking of hills, I was tempted to start a discussion on Hillary. I decided not to...

We lunched in Prescott, WI and crossed the St. Croix river to enter Minnesota. With the largest climbs behind us, we rode the "rolling hills" and crossed the Mississippi three times on the way into St. Paul. We decided to ride through the twin cities and check them out. There is a pretty nice and comprehensive system of on-road bike lanes and dedicated bike paths in Minneapolis-St. Paul, and we took full advantage of them.