I drove from home and met Brian at his home in South Minneapolis and we departed around 5:30 PM on Sunday evening. We headed up to the Greenway and headed East to the river road. From there we headed over to the Mendota bridge and crossed that and basically followed the river to St. Paul Park. We did get lost but found our way. We knew we were getting closer because the hills were killer. Finally around midnight we arrived at the park which was littered with descents and climbs of all sorts. We got to the trail head, the camp sight was the kind where you had to hike in, we read the map and rode off on our way. We went about half a mile when we came to a climb that was too loose and steep to bike. Little did we know we were about to go straight up for about a half mile. Pushing a couple of fully loaded steel bikes up a grade that was steep enough that while I was pushing my bike I was only about a foot off the ground was intense, but we finally made it and set up camp. The reward was a couple lukewarm Surly Furious. I think I drank like 6 water bottles after we set up. I was dry.
The next day we ate a Cliff Bar each and headed out. Our destination was Perkins. We took off on the bike trail and ended up doing some weird super gnarly single track with our bikes. I was surprised at how well the CrossCheck handled. This is until I rolled over some super mossy rock and nearly slid into a ravine. Oops. Then there was a hill on a hiking path that we had to push our bikes up, not a good way to start the morning. About half way up the hill the caffeine withdrawals started to kick in and so did the head ache. I became pretty irritable pretty quickly. There was one last hill leading out of the park that was so steep that when I came out of the seat to pedal my rear wheel spun like crazy. We made it out of Afton State park. There was still another 10 miles of really sucky hills ahead of us. We made it to Perkins. We sat down and ordered some coffee and water. The water was sat down and before she finished pouring the coffee the water was drunk. Then we downed the first cup of coffee. The wave of caffeine rushed over me and the world was right again. After slamming a bowl of fruit, a ham and cheese omelette, hash browns, and toast, we got back on our steeds and headed out. On the ride back we found the route we initially meant to take and it was a beauty. My everything was hurting at this point and it became pretty hot. I slowed us down considerably but I never quit or complained too much, even though at the time I felt like I did.
Finally we made it back and I was a sweaty mess. We said our goodbyes and parted ways. On the way home all I could think about was dinner. I went out to the Olive Garden with my girlfriend, went home got drunk and passed out. All in all it was a great experience, something I want to do again soon before it gets too cold out. I learned a lot and there are definitely things I will do differently next time, but it was a great learning experience. I am looking to go south the next time, less hills.
