Bluey's Corner

Getting to the start (Part 3)

Rory C — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Spent the day being a slightly more normal tourist; after taking a shower to rid myself of the pervasive locker-room smell of the room last night, I left my bike at the hostel for the day.</p>

I got a day pass for the train and wanted to walk through some of the neighborhoods I was riding through yesterday, so I took the Red line a little past Wrigley Field.</p>

Although not having the bike freed me up to go places, the bag I had with me is actually very uncomfortable to carry by hand or with the shoulder strap, so I ended up cutting short my first stop of Graceland Cemetery. Seems like a nice space, though.</p>

I had lunch at a lovely little Thai place called Tac Quick, zigzagged to a lovely little bubble tea place called Tulip’s Tea. I sat there for a bit, then walked down Halsted Street past all the bars, but I didn’t actually feel like going to a bar. If I were staying another night, I would catch the beginning of Market Days, a weekend-long festival in the neighborhood. Instead I cut across to Wrigley Field and took a train back to the Loop.</p>

I lay down on the grass in Maggie Daley park for a couple hours. It was fairly warm, but in the shade with breeze it was bearable.</p>

Dinner was at Pizano’s Pizza on Madison St, since it would be a shame to be in Chicago for three days and not have pizza. I was able to sit at the bar without a wait, and ordered a pint, a shot of Malört, and an individual deep-dish pizza. Malört was not nearly as intense as I’d been led to believe. The pizza was pretty good.</p>

I stopped into H Mart to get snacks for the train, then picked up my bike and headed to the station. I got there very early but I didn’t feel like doing much more in the city, so I sat around until they started boarding. The train car is completely full. I don’t anticipate being able to sleep; I’ve never been able to on planes.</p>

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(finally)</p>

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Getting to the start (Part 2)

Rory C — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

My train was scheduled to leave in the evening, so for the day I was riding around Chicago. I didn’t feel like getting up super early but I was still out by 10:30. I walked the bike along the riverfront and took a lot of time to just sit down and relax.</p>

Once I reached the lake I turned north and headed into Lincoln Park. At this point I got a text message informing me that my train was cancelled. I crossed over to the beach there while on hold with Amtrak, then sat there until I got rebooked for a train leaving tomorrow night. This also meant figuring out where to stay tonight. I didn’t really want to stay at the same hostel, so I tried to find an inexpensive place, but over the course of the afternoon those all didn’t pan out, so back to the same place.</p>

Back to the day’s ride, though, I went up as far north as Foster Beach, then across into Northalsted and down to Lincoln Ave. I had a delicious sandwich at Heritage Bikes & Coffee. When you’re in the city, the bike gives you a lot of mobility, but if you’re carrying everything with you it really limits where you can go, since you don’t want to leave anything unattended.</p>

From there I came back downtown, sat at Millenium Park for a few hours, then biked to the hostel.</p>

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Getting to the start (Part 1)

Rory C — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In order to bike from New York to San Francisco, one must first be in New York. For various reasons, I wanted this secret first leg of the trip to be made by train. Unfortunately, because this is the United States, getting there is a three-day process.</p>

The bike is treated similarly to a checked bag, but only certain services will take the bike without first needing to partially disassemble it to fit in a box. This is part of the reason why I’m starting in New York and not Boston.</p>

Amtrak is often very delayed, which is why I put in a day’s layover in Chicago. I was also hoping that I could get a little more sleep this morning, since the train actually starts all the way back in Portland. Unfortunately, it was running right on time.</p>

Woke up at 6 in the morning, gathered my things and took the light rail with my lovely boyfriend to get from his apartment to Union Depot in St. Paul. The bike got put in the baggage car, and then I said goodbye to the aforementioned boyfriend and my parents.</p>

The train was pretty busy. A lot of Mennonites, as usual. I was too tired to really focus on much, and with neither a laptop nor earbuds I was pretty bored (especially once you get deeper into Wisconsin and looking out the window gets less appealing).</p>

Train arrived on time in Chicago. I left my sunglasses behind, I think. I biked to the lakeshore for a little bit, then back through the city to a hostel for the night. Ate at a nearby Chinese place.</p>

Tomorrow will mostly be free to go around Chicago. The train leaves in the evening and will go overnight and into the next night. Not looking forward to that one. Should be pretty, at least.</p>

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Minnesota River Ramble 7/15

Rory C — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I slept okay, given the circumstances. The weather did cool down somewhat, to the upper 60s, which helped greatly. Unfortunately, I finished the last of the hotel water overnight. The campsite I was at was pretty remote, and I could hear quite a bit of animal activity. In particular, there was a raccoon that woke me up three times in its increasingly-bold attempts to investigate the bag with my food in it. The third time I could see the sky getting lighter so I stayed awake and started packing up.</p>

Listening to the radio, patchy smoke was in the forecast for the next morning (i.e. the 16th), so I decided I would cut the trip short. Instead of taking two days for the return trip, I would have to make it in one. Because I took a more direct route, this worked out to about 47 miles, roughly the same length as Day 1.</p>

Unlike Day 1, however, I left at sunrise and got to ride several hours in normal temperatures. The initial couple hours were mostly shaded, as well. After a stop in Morton to refuel and get some better water, I was feeling good and decided to just go for it. This was definitely the prettiest day of riding; it basically all followed the Sioux Trail, which is a scenic byway with great views of the river. At some point, the road switched to being paved, which sort of compensated for the rising heat.</p>

I had ridden 30 miles by 10:30, but the last stretch (predictably) proved the most tiring, as the heat kept climbing into the low 90s, and the roads got busier too. Right as you enter New Ulm there is a hill, which is not especially bad as far as hills go, but proved really brutal coming at the end. As I was passing a lemonade stand a woman there gave me some for free, which was much appreciated.</p>

I arrived back at the car not too long after noon, and sat in the AC for a while before heading home.</p>

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Minnesota River Ramble 7/14

Rory C — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

After pushing myself too hard yesterday, I decided on making this day a shorter trip and then turning back downriver and deciding where to go from there. Initially, I was actually planning on just returning to Redwood Falls and staying overnight in the campsite, which in retrospect would have made my experience much nicer.</p>

I filled up my water bottles (with ice!) at the hotel and headed out. Redwood Falls itself seems like a nice town; I didn't stop into any of the local businesses at the time, since I thought I'd be coming back, but I'd visit again. The real attraction, though, is the parkland on the northwest edge of town. There are actually two waterfalls: one on the Redwood River, and one on Ramsey Creek, a small tributary. You can get great views of both of them on the parkways and trails.</p>

Heading out of town, there were two spots upriver I wanted to check out. One of them was an old bridge, that I later realized I had actually read about in the Star Tribune here</a> — as pointed out in the article, it is not considered structurally sound, so I decided against making the detour since I couldn't cross the river there. I wish I had gone to see it. Continuing on, I crossed the river and made it to the other spot, which turned out to be in Vicksburg County Park. It didn't turn out to be anything particularly notable, but the park was nice so I decided to stop for lunch. It ran right alongside the river, at the bottom of the valley.</p>

I didn't have much of an appetite, but I got some oatmeal and dried fruit down and plotted out my next moves. At the time I was feeling alright, but didn't want to push myself. Looking at my maps I realized if I just stayed at the campsites there, I could have two 30-mile days back to New Ulm, which felt reasonable. This park did not have much in the way of facilities, and there were no nearby towns, but it had a water pump and a bathroom, which is about all I need. With the heat rising I decided to settle in.</p>

As the afternoon went on, I started to regret this. The water from the pump had what looked like clay suspended in it, and it tasted awful. Cell service was very bad. With the mounting heat I didn't feel like moving much, and I ended up lying down listening to the radio and trying to catch any semblance of a breeze. I only had so much water from the hotel, so I tried to conserve it for drinking while using the park's water to cool myself down on the outside, which sort of worked. I was feeling pretty miserable, though. Somehow, the bugs weren't terrible, at least.</p>

I didn't end up making myself anything to eat until the sun was pretty low in the sky and the edge was just starting to come off the heat. I had some sautéed vegetables with canned tomato (when packing food, one thing to keep in mind is that canned food in a sense "packs its own water" — here, this worked to my favor), and eaten with quite a bit of bread. I ended up saving most of my higher-protein food for the days to come.</p>

As it got dark, I crawled into the tent and lay down for the night.</p>

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Minnesota River Ramble 7/13

Rory C — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Word to the wise: do not do this when there is a heat advisory. Especially when you get a late start, and especially when you haven't been riding much for a few weeks.</p>

Started the day driving down to New Ulm, which is not super long but I was a bit late out the door so I only got there about noon. And then I had to find somewhere I could leave the car -- it turns out, there is nowhere in New Ulm where you are officially allowed to park overnight. On the advice of a local I went to Walmart and spoke with a manager there, so I finally got going around 1 PM.</p>

Weather fans in the audience will note that this puts my cycling in the hottest part of a very hot day. I wasn't so much overheating, but this sort of heat really does a number on your stamina.</p>

The route for this day is the most boring stretch of the itinerary, which is a shame since I don't think I'll complete the whole thing. It alternates between zig-zagging through mostly unpaved roads through farmland and going down into the valley where it takes a more direct route (still unpaved). Normally I prefer gravel to pavement when I need to worry about cars, since they tend to be less busy, but the gravel was fairly loose and took concentration.</p>

The route guide describes the climbs as "short but punchy" and I think I would agree. There are two climbs up out of the valley, both of which I ended up walking. The extra weight of the supplies really makes you feel slopes. I'm shocked how far I pedaled up the first one, a 9% grade on gravel, but I just couldn't do it. When it's this hot it takes forever to catch your breath and I spent a while just lying on my back on the side of the road. The second climb I spent a while lying on my back before it even started, and decided I would just push everything uphill.</p>

About halfway through I was able to refill my water from the garden hose of a woman whose house I was passing by. I managed to keep up my hydration throughout the whole day, but I couldn't keep it cold. At one point I mixed in a packet of Pedialyte (pressed on me on my way out the door by my mother) and slammed a bottle back and I think the hot sugar-brine nearly made me throw up.</p>

Shortly after that, when I stopped for a drink of normal water I was brutally harassed by a couple bumblebees -- I thought they were supposed to be chill, and I tried not to antagonize them, but how am I supposed to react when they keep buzzing in my hair and pushing into the underside of my chin? Anyways, I got a sting on my forearm and now my right pinkie finger is numb. I took the stinger out with my health insurance card, so let no one say they've never done anything for me.</p>

By the evening I was pretty much spent, needing long breaks in between each segment of riding. I was weighing my options in case I couldn't make it to Redwood Falls, my destination for the day. Given the fact that it's not cooling off that much overnight, and I pushed myself too hard today, I decided to get a hotel room. I thus write to you from the Travelodge on the near edge of Redwood Falls, in a room with the AC on max. It remains to be seen what I will do for the rest of the trip. I will leave those decisions to my morning self.</p>

Bluey's Corner

Getting to the start (Part 3)

Route Map</h2> None for today</p>

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Getting to the start (Part 2)

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Getting to the start (Part 1)

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Minnesota River Ramble 7/15

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Minnesota River Ramble 7/14

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Minnesota River Ramble 7/13

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