Tour de Pines Bike Ride

Itasca State Park Wilderness Trail: 57.41 miles
Comments: Ride Time was 4 hours 23 minutes, average speed: 13.0

After very little sleep in our extravagant sleeping room, we got up at 5:30 a.m. and biked to the staging area for the Tour de Pines Bike Ride. Registration started at 7:30 and breakfast at the Lodge did not begin until 8:00 so we set off before eating hoping the ride crew would be providing some nutrition before we began the 50-mile route. We were in luck, plenty of bananas, breads and snacks were being offered. We collected our ride packet and without any fanfare set off along the route.

The route was truly beautiful with pines soaring high into the sky all around us as we pedaled quietly along the Wilderness Trail. We stopped to view the beauty of the Mississippi River Headwaters and take pictures of this trickle of water that will widen as it moves north and then finally south to empty into the Gulf.

We then continued north as far as Becida, MN before heading west to cross a northern section of the Mississippi. The southern section of this tour kept the Mississippi River on our right reminding us of its pioneer navigational power to point wayward travelers towards home following their journey to possibly seek food. Our journey ended at the Itasca State Park Hostel where we also sought food—a BBQ lunch was being served by the staff of our bike tour. We filled our bellies and then biked back to the Douglas Lodge to wash up and head for home as neither of us wanted to sleep another night in the park lodge. The ride was beautiful and the weather also cooperated—a little foggy in the morning but it soon lifted to show off the beauty of the park.