Day 27: Fergus Falls to Sauk Centre, Minn.

This morning, we were up early to try to get ahead of the winds, which were again forecast to be from the south. The flag was blowing hard even at 6:30am, however, so we expected a day of headwinds again. Our first few miles, we rolled through Fergus Falls, stopped to look at Otto the Otter, a giant otter statue in the town center. About 4.5 miles into our day, we joined the Central Lakes Trail where we saw a sign that read “Sauk Centre 68mi.” So, for the rest of the day, we simply continued on the excellent, well maintained, paved rail trail all the way to our destination this evening.

The trail follows the old Burlington Northern rail line, and passed through small towns about every 8-15 miles throughout the day. It was definitely a shift from our days across eastern Montana and North Dakota, where we were constantly looking ahead to the next services, thinking about whether we had the supplies we needed, or whether we needed to stock up on water. The towns seem to have embraced the trail, as many had added signs listing the services in each town, and a small park with restrooms. Some had also added bike stands with tools and pumps.

The scenery was as expected: lots of lakes (though, none filled with dairy as I’d expected), grassy fields. For much of the day, we were in tree lined forests which, aside from the occasional threat of falling widow makers in the heavy wind, we were very grateful for, as they seemed to substantially dilute the pain of the south winds. Stopped in Garfield for lunch, where I had a club sandwich on “raspberry fritter bread,” a food I cannot describe but by its name, despite eating 4 slices. The long day of calm, trail riding was definitely a nice relief from the last few weeks. Even though we’ve had a lot of great, quiet farm roads, there is still something completely calm and stress free about a wide, nearly empty, paved, non-motorized trail.

Sauk Centre is the birthplace of Sinclair Lewis, so we spent a little time wandering around the town to look at the sights and appreciate the “original Main Street,” as they call it here. Some speculate that Lewis was thinking of his hometown when he wrote his novel, “Main Street.” With the national news playing in the background at dinner, I could not help but think of his other novel, “It Can’t Happen Here,” which I recall saw a big resurgence in sales about 3 years ago.

Tomorrow we’ll ride to the end of our trail from today, then head into the Minneapolis suburbs before our first rest days of the trip this weekend.

By the numbers:
Miles traveled: 74
Total for the trip so far: 2002
Average pace: 12.5 mph
Total climbing: 1033 ft.
Average temperature: 74F
Dive-bombing butterflies: 2
Bike gloves blown awry by wind: 3

One of our many lakes today. That is water, not butter.

 The start of our trail this morning.

 Our technical editor insisted this photo make the cut. The hotel we ate dinner at tonight claims to be haunted, but my money is on this barn.

Mural on the side of the Palmer hotel. Apparently Lewis was a night clerk here.

 Sinclair Lewis’ childhood home.

 Our trail for the day.

More lakes. Note the wind inflating my shirt.

 Ed at the corner of Main Street and Sinclair Lewis ave.

 Ed on the dock at Sinclair Lewis park. Did we mention, SINCLAIR LEWIS IS FROM HERE??

 Giant Viking statue in Alexandria, apparently was constructed for the New York world’s fair.

 Another lake.

In Fergus Falls this morning. Look closely and you can see Otto to the left of Ed.