Day 30: 06/07/18, Wednesday, Walker to Itasca State Park

Map of today's ride:



Distance of Today's Ride: 33.1 miles

Trip Total Distance: 1990.7 miles

Elevation Gain:  705 feet

Riding Time: 2:30 hrs:mins

Today was a big day for us, as it was the last day of our ride that began in New Orleans one month earlier, on May 7th. Since then, we had ridden our bicycles on all but three days and covered 1990.7 miles. We climbed hills totaling 55,633 feet of elevation to reach the river elevation increase between New Orleans (3 feet) and the headwater elevation (1174 feet) of the Mississippi River at Itasca State Park in Minnesota. That is 10.86 miles of vertical climbing to achieve a net elevation change of 1171 feet (.29 miles). No wonder we were tired on many of our riding days! For a bicycle rider, the weather between New Orleans and Minneapolis was almost perfect with warm temperatures (estimated average highs were close to 85 degrees). The 1734 miles from New Orleans to Minneapolis were without significant headwinds, and in fact, on most days, we had a wind direction that helped push us down the road. During the first 25 day phase of the ride, we were rained on only twice. Overall, we had pretty spectacular weather!  In contrast, the weather for the final four days, 256 miles, from Minneapolis to Itasca State Park, was not as nice.  We had 1.5 days of head winds up to 25 mph, and much cooler temperatures (about 58 degrees at the start of each day with highs in the 70's on three days and a high of 83 on one of the days.)

Our final day in pictures:

We left Walker, MN in the morning and immediately were back on the Paul Bunyan Trail for about 12 miles. With yesterday's 60 miles ridden on the Paul Bunyan Trail, we rode a total of 72 miles of the 123 mile long trail. There were some cracks on the trail in places, but overall, the trail was in very good riding shape. Also, since the trail is on an old railroad bed, the grades were only 1-2%, much flatter than the highways we would have ridden on.

We left the Paul Bunyan trail at Laporte, MN and rode the remaining 21 miles on Highway 200. This highway had an excellent shoulder for riding. However, being out of the trees that were in close proximity to the Paul Bunyan Trail, we did have to finish our final day's ride into another strong headwind.

The Mississippi River about 15 miles from the headwaters at Lake Itasca.

The blog authors at the east entrance to Itasca State Park.

The Mississippi River about a half mile from its headwaters.

Standing on a log "bridge" at the headwaters.

Looking across Lake Itasca with the start of the Mississippi River flowing over the rocks at its mouth.

Your blog authors standing on the mouth of the Mississippi River.