Much anticipated road construction is complete

One of my favorite stretches of road to ride locally is the 7 miles of Route 210 through Jay Cooke State Park. It follows the most scenic part of the St Louis River and has several decent climbs and descents. Up until this July it also had one of the most bone jarring road surfaces around. Big cracks in the roadway, holes, bumps, and crumbling sides. You had to literally hang on tight or take the chance of having the handlebars jarred right out of your hands. I'm speaking from experience. Those days are over after a two month long widening and resurfacing project. This seven mile stretch has to be one of the most beautiful stretches of road to ride in Northeastern Minnesota. Second only to Hwy 61 along the North Shore of Lake Superior. Route 210 crosses the Munger Trail about a mile north of Carlton, MN. If in the area check it out.
Back at the beginning of the week I knew this Sunday was going to be wide open and available for some time on the bike. My thoughts turned to a possible century ride. By mid-week I was thinking I have a lot of other things to do, maybe a 75-80 mile day. By Saturday I was down to a 50 mile ride, that would get me up to a 400 mile month. Not quite saving the month, but 400 sounded better then 350. Sunday comes, I sleep in, have a long leisurely breakfast and I'm thinking about getting out the door with the bike soon. Then the clouds that had been hanging around all morning open up and it starts raining heavy. That's when I decide I really need to finish the work I started on the Pugsley more than a week ago. I finish putting the Pugsley back together and run it over to the LBS. It's getting new handlebars. The full length brake housings with the current set-up may be too short for the new handlebars. So rather then mess with all that myself, I figured it would be faster, and easier for me, if I paid the LBS to do the work for me. The current flat bar was set up pretty high. I did that purposely because I'm not very flexible and I wanted an upright position for the long hours in the saddle during the 2007 Arrowhead 135. After getting the new Pugsley home last year, I always felt the bars where a bit too high, but never got around to having anything done about it. Since the new bars have a bit of rise to them I asked Denis to cut the steerer tube down a bit. That's not something I'm ready to tackle. I know, I know, it's not difficult. It's just something I haven't done before and decided not to tackle myself at this time.
After I got the Pugsley dropped off I made another change to the Cross Check. I put on new fenders, a set of Planet Bike Freddy Fender Cascadia. After the botched job trying to add a mud flap to my old Freddy Fenders, I decided not to try and recoup the damage and spring for a new set of Cascadia Fenders, as you see above. I wasn't crazy about letting go of the all black fenders. I kinda of liked the all black look I had going with the Cross Check. However, the new silver colored fenders give it a sort of classic commuter bike look to it. I think it will grow on me. The Cascadia Fender's mud flaps extend down much lower then the regular Freddy Fender mud flaps. At least an extra 4" lower on the front fender. I really wouldn't think of commuting without fenders. The Freddy Fenders kept a lot of road crap off me, except they didn't extend low enough to keep all that stuff from flying up on my feet and onto the chainrings. I think the new lower mud flaps will eliminate a lot of that. Today they helped keep all the soggy leafy material off me and the bike.
Old railroad trestle over the St Louis River.
Views of the river from the trestle upstream and downstream.

This is a State Park trail open to mountain bikes that crosses the Munger Trail. I was wishing I had some off road tires on the Cross Check. Oh, well, soon I'll be putting in miles on the Pugsley and hitting these same trails.

I didn't get my first cycle computer until 2004. That's when I started tracking my miles ridden. This month is only one of three months since March of 2005 that I put in less then 500 miles. All three of those months were months I had bad colds. Hopefully I can stay healthy again for awhile.

Sunday: 35 miles
September: 384 miles
2007: 5,529 miles