Jeff emailed me Friday evening about a ride on Saturday. We eventually agreed to meet at the Irvin for a ride out on
Minnesota Point . Jeff and I each live five or six miles from the Irvin's Canal Park location. However, I'm five miles west and he's five miles east. It's the perfect spot to meet up with a good plan for some urban exploration.
I should be riding the Pugsley on snow this time of year. But winter precipitation has yet to materialize in these parts this season. With the possibility of some beach riding I was still able to get the Pug out. Jeff was on his newish mtn bike.
The weather was a bit challenging to dress for. An air temp of 15F/-10C degrees with a cold 15-20 mph wind the whole time. I typically overdress, but I always dress lighter when rolling the fat tire bike. Today I was borderline underdressed. I spent a lot of energy keeping warm.
We started with a 4.5 mile road ride out to the end of Minnesota Point. The road actually stops at the airport a couple of miles from the end. (If you click on these pictures it will show a map. Curiously the map shows a road all the way to the end of the point when in reality it stops at the airport) Minnesota Point is a 6 mile long sand spit with Lake Superior on one side and the inner harbor on the other.
Beyond the airport there is only sandy trails through an 18 acre virgin forest. There are 200 hundred year old white and red pines in this forest.
It's a very unique urban area.
We took a side trail that brought us alongside the harbor. The ice was tempting. I wanted to ride across it to Wisconsin, but it would have been very cold in the open with the wind. We opted to stay on shore.
Interesting mix of sand dunes, fragile dune grasses and abandoned iron ore docks across the harbor.
We passed the remains of the
1855 Lighthouse . The city of Duluth didn't even exist when this was built. Native Americans inhabited this land at the time and were moved for the lighthouse.
Eventually we made it to the Superior entry of the Harbor. This is the natural entry formed by the St Louis River. We both decided to take a walk out onto the wall for the view of the current entry lighthouse.
The view of the Duluth hillside down the sand spit from the wall. Another breakwater wall is visible down the beach.
That's not snow or ice on the wall....that's bird poop left from the thousands of summer sea gulls and year round pigeons.
That's me taking a shot of the lighthouse.
I was getting very cold out on the wall in the wind. We jogged back on the wall to get to our bikes. The jog seemed to help me get warmed back up.
What little ice has formed on the big lake this winter seems to have all been piled up on this side of the lake. North winds will push it to this side of the lake.
After our break on the wall we headed down the beach to get back. We spotted a couple of bald eagles overhead along here. We didn't stop much. We were both getting tired and had to keep moving to stay warm in the wind. We had about 6 miles of uninterrupted beach riding. Certainly not something you would normally hear a Midwesterner say.
Jeff letting some air out of his tires. I let some out of mine as well. The sand was frozen and very firm. I had my tires at 15 psi for the road ride to meet Jeff. I could have easily kept them there for the beach riding, but I was really getting bounced around with that much air. I took them down to around 10 psi. It was a much less bouncy ride until I got back to the road.
This is where we exited the beach. From there it was a half mile to the Aerial Lift Bridge across the shipping canal. We then parted ways and headed home. I had a somewhat miserable 5 miles into a headwind on a fat tired bike.
It was a good 24 mile adventure on a day I would have had a hard time getting motivated to get out. Thanks Jeff for making the ride suggestion. It was a fun one.
Jeff emailed me Friday evening about a ride on Saturday. We eventually agreed to meet at the Irvin for a ride out on Minnesota Point . Jeff and I each live five or six miles from the Irvin's Canal Park location. However, I'm five miles west and he's five miles east. It's the perfect spot to meet up with a good plan for some urban exploration.
I should be riding the Pugsley on snow this time of year. But winter precipitation has yet to materialize in these parts this season. With the possibility of some beach riding I was still able to get the Pug out. Jeff was on his newish mtn bike.
The weather was a bit challenging to dress for. An air temp of 15F/-10C degrees with a cold 15-20 mph wind the whole time. I typically overdress, but I always dress lighter when rolling the fat tire bike. Today I was borderline underdressed. I spent a lot of energy keeping warm.
We started with a 4.5 mile road ride out to the end of Minnesota Point. The road actually stops at the airport a couple of miles from the end. (If you click on these pictures it will show a map. Curiously the map shows a road all the way to the end of the point when in reality it stops at the airport) Minnesota Point is a 6 mile long sand spit with Lake Superior on one side and the inner harbor on the other.
Beyond the airport there is only sandy trails through an 18 acre virgin forest. There are 200 hundred year old white and red pines in this forest.
It's a very unique urban area.
We took a side trail that brought us alongside the harbor. The ice was tempting. I wanted to ride across it to Wisconsin, but it would have been very cold in the open with the wind. We opted to stay on shore.
Interesting mix of sand dunes, fragile dune grasses and abandoned iron ore docks across the harbor.
We passed the remains of the 1855 Lighthouse . The city of Duluth didn't even exist when this was built. Native Americans inhabited this land at the time and were moved for the lighthouse.
Eventually we made it to the Superior entry of the Harbor. This is the natural entry formed by the St Louis River. We both decided to take a walk out onto the wall for the view of the current entry lighthouse.
The view of the Duluth hillside down the sand spit from the wall. Another breakwater wall is visible down the beach.
That's not snow or ice on the wall....that's bird poop left from the thousands of summer sea gulls and year round pigeons.
That's me taking a shot of the lighthouse.
I was getting very cold out on the wall in the wind. We jogged back on the wall to get to our bikes. The jog seemed to help me get warmed back up.
What little ice has formed on the big lake this winter seems to have all been piled up on this side of the lake. North winds will push it to this side of the lake.
After our break on the wall we headed down the beach to get back. We spotted a couple of bald eagles overhead along here. We didn't stop much. We were both getting tired and had to keep moving to stay warm in the wind. We had about 6 miles of uninterrupted beach riding. Certainly not something you would normally hear a Midwesterner say.
Jeff letting some air out of his tires. I let some out of mine as well. The sand was frozen and very firm. I had my tires at 15 psi for the road ride to meet Jeff. I could have easily kept them there for the beach riding, but I was really getting bounced around with that much air. I took them down to around 10 psi. It was a much less bouncy ride until I got back to the road.
This is where we exited the beach. From there it was a half mile to the Aerial Lift Bridge across the shipping canal. We then parted ways and headed home. I had a somewhat miserable 5 miles into a headwind on a fat tired bike.
It was a good 24 mile adventure on a day I would have had a hard time getting motivated to get out. Thanks Jeff for making the ride suggestion. It was a fun one.