The temperature last night in northern Minnesota dipped into the high 30's and the low 40's. With this event, Nordic Skiers started to dream of Winter. For some of us, Winter in the Northland means cross-country skiing and the American Birkebeiner … otherwise known as the Birkie.

Here in Duluth, four of us have a problem. Who should have Birkie Fever Trash Talking Rights AFTER this coming Winter's race? Let me describe the competitors, and maybe you can help us handicap the race in advance and solve our dilemma! This coming February, we four hardy Minnesotans shall bravely venture forth into CheeseHead Land and ski American's top cross-country ski marathon.

Pastor Greg: The salutation says it all.  Any Lutheran pastor in Minnesota obviously has God on his side, which is an unfair advantage. In fact, while out on the local trails, Greg is known as the "Flying Pastor". You will never find him in the church office till he has completed a "quick 20k". 

In fact, when we decided to join Pastor Greg's church, we were not surprised by his questions on whether we understood the Holy Trinity, but the requirement to submit our most recent top 15k splits while out on the Lester Amity Trails caught us off guard. Then we learned, FRLC does not stand for French River Lutheran Church, but instead French River Loppet Club. Pastor Greg will be skiing the 50k skate race.

Our next competitor is my son, Erik. Although he has experience a four year hiatus from serious cross-country skiing due to obtaining his college degree at a school w/o snow, this newly minted engineer has three advantages over us. First, he is over 30 years younger than any of the rest of us, was rated as one of his high school's top skiers upon graduation, and as an aerospace guidance engineer should understand both aerodynamics and how to achieve the perfect "technical" linkage with the Birkie's hilly trail. Erik will be skiing the 50k skate race.

Of course, then there is my wife Molly. What can you say about a woman who upon her retirement at the end of this past Winter decided to become a full time athlete at age 57? Even though she "already" had two Boston Marathons under her belt, in the intervening months she has hiked the Canandian Rockies. skied the Wabos Loppet, biked the 500 mile Trans-Superior Tour, and just finished a four day wilderness canoe trip in the BWCA. Her new bike this Spring already has over 3,000 miles! She will also ski the 50k skate race.

Unlike everyone else, I am at a disadvantage. My Birkie is the "classic" race, which means I ski a longer race by 4 kilometers, and classic skiing by definition is slower than skating. However, at 6 feet 2 inches (height is an asset), and an old Nordic Ski instructor from my college days, I tend to know what I'm doing. Even though I'm getting older, my times are still getting better. I will start in Wave 3 out of 10 this Winter. I will ski the 54k classic race.

Thus, the gauntlet has been thrown down on the snow. How do we decide who has the best Birkie Fever trash talking rights for this Winter's Birkie? Can you help us decide? Each person in our group has unique advantages! Finally, how do we compare times, or is the obvious answer each of us will be a winner for finishing! Think snow!

• Todays 70 mile ride took us from Bayfield, Wisconsin to Bessemer, Michigan. Just 12 miles into our ride it appeared … the purple cow! Although Molly had alread cycled past I insisted on stopping. While I've heard that many long distances cyclists just go, go, go … this is not my style. Eventually Molly circled back to see what had become of her husband!

While pausing for a picture with Flossie at 6:50 am, when I turned around the Woodcarver's son was outside in the dawn light "checking me out". I gave him a bright cheery "Good Morning" and noted how the purple cow had pulled me in off my bike to his front yard. This led to a pleasant conversation, and Molly and I were invited for a private tour of the artist's studio even though it was not yet 7am. Wow! The cow was cool, but the other carvings were dramatic and beautiful. There was a hand carved grandfathers clock which was a piece of art.

Do you stop when cycling? I do, and always will … no missed purple cows for me!

When in Washburn, Wisconsin … visit the Woodcarver: http://thesawdustfactory.weebly.com

The rest of the day's cycling included other neat stops including the Finnish American museum and park near Ironwood. While today's route via US 2 was not my favorite, the traffic was not bad, and the semi trucks were few.

We've now put Wisconsin behind us, and the U.P. awaits us.

One final comment … My thanks to the car drivers who politely honked and gave us waves or thumbs up. As the miles mount, the encouragement of strangers to keep cycling is welcome!

If you would like to read the rest of the Trans Superior Tour daily journal reports, please visit the long distance cycling portal, Crazy Guy On A Bike.  The links are provided just below the photographs.

Click upon any photo to view at full size.

What a great day … nary a cloud all day and the temperature was perfect. At 6:50 when we started our ride at the Richard Bong Museum in Superior, it was calm, sunny and 43F. By the afternoon we warmed up to 70F and had a great tail wind pushing us on our 80 mile ride to Bayfield. If you've never seen Lake Superior, you need to come up to the North Country. We even had the unexpected pleasure of meeting Bruce Lindgren, the co-chair of the Lake Superior Binational Forum, when we pulled over to check out a neat building in Herbster, Wisconsin. Bruce is to be commended on his efforts to protect the lake we love.

The only item which was not perfect about the ride was having the large hills for the last 25 miles of our ride. However, upon arriving in Bayfield we solved this problem with a large wild berry smoothee!

Day 2 is only 70 miles of biking. Should be easy after today's 80.

Here are two photos … one just before we started and the other at an oldest Finnish windmill built by immigrants back in 1900. Click to maximize.

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I don't want your money … just your body! Two days from now Molly (my wife) and I leave on the Trans-Superior Tour. Over the course of 9 days we will bicycle 500 miles along and across Lake Superior. I'll admit the Isle Royale National Park backpacker ferries will help us "bicycle" across Gitche Gumee.  (Lake Superior Facts)

Okay … why do I want your body?

While Molly (her blog) and I are biking in support of Lake Superior, please consider taking a bike ride during the next 2 weeks which at some point takes you along your favorite stream, river or lake. After your ride please do two things:

1. Do some reseach, and find a web site which is dedicated to a favorite local water resource.
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2. Visit the Lake Superior Binational Forum Facebook Page and add a comment in support of our ride (Rich and Molly's Trans Superior Tour). Let us know via the Facebook site about your local ride and web resource.

That's it! I don't want your money, just your body. Take a bike ride and help raise awareness about the need to protect both Lake Superior and your local streams / rivers / lakes. Thank you!

In closing I want to let you know about Earth Hour and Andy Ridley (Executive Director). Earlier this year while attending Yammer's Customer Advisory Board Meeting, I met Andy and learned about his global non-profit organization. Earth Hour is using Yammer as a means of extending his team's reach to all it's thousands of volunteers across the world in support of saving our planet. He challenged the board members to make a difference. I hope in my small way I am achieving that goal.

• Read our daily journal via Crazy Guy on a Bike! (detailed route maps)
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• Happy Cycling! (click to maximize either image)

What a perfect way to start the July 4th holiday than with a bike ride up the Northshore of Lake Superior timed perfectly for me to arrive at Stoney Point just as the full moon would make it’s appearance on July 3rd. The fact that Duluth had experienced a 90F plus day with high humidity gave me all the additional incentive to hold off with my bike ride till dusk. (Wikipedia: North Shore of Lake Superior)

The real goal for my ride was to photograph the full moon as it rose over Lake Superior. Take my word for it; it’s darned difficult! One’s major problem is dealing with a brilliant white globe surrounded by darkness while still getting some context and color into the photograpic composition. I’m still learning!

Thus, at 8:15 pm I started my 30 mile bike ride up the shore via Scenic Highway 61. I planned to rendezvous with the moon at Stoney Point. Thankful that I had waited till the day’s heat and humudity had “cooled” down to 80F, I biked off into the gathering dusk .. appreciative that this particular highway had a huge shoulder. I was able to bike far away from the traffic, and my red flasher was easily viewable by drivers. There was only one scarey cycling incident all night when I almost biked right into a bridge abutment. The headlights of an oncoming car had blinded me, and I missed seeing the narrowing of the shoulder.

Arriving at Stoney Point, I unstrapped my tripod from bike and got to the process of taking photos. Although I tried many options ranging from full programming of my camera including the manual setting of the aperture, exposure and ISO speed, in the end my best photos resulted from using HDR photography. In short, I picked my desired aperture setting and then took three bracketed photos … Normal, under, and over exposed photos. Learn more about HDR photography via an earlier post on my blog.

Overall I spent about a half hour at Stoney Point, both taking photographs and just enjoying the blood red full moon as it came up over Lake Superior. By this point it was time to head home. Early the next morning I decided it would be fun to follow my full moon ride up with a sunrise bike ride. Thus, even though I had only returned home from the prior night’s ride at 10:30 pm, at 5:30 am. I was once again off on my bicycle. This time I biked into town and to the Duluth harbor. The view of the freighter reflecting the sunrise while anchored off the Duluth Ship Canal intrigued me.

Here is a photo from each ride plus a sunrise photo taken the weekend before on Northstar Lake near the Minnesota – Canadian border! Click upon any photograph to view at full resolution.

Moonrise at Stoney Point, Lake Superior

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Sunrise Ships off the Duluth Ship Canal, Lake Superior

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Northstar Lake Sunrise, Chippewa National Forest

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