it's blueberry festival time in lake george and the volunteer fire department is hosting the sunday morning blueberry pancake breakfast. carb loading, just the thing for a touring cyclist. karen and don meyer graciously let me sit with them. we talked for over half an hour, with don wanting to talk about everything from boy scout hikes, geological formations, and flying a plane in alaska to being in the military during vietnam. interesting story: he was once denied a position in officer training because they thought he was jewish. after he explained that he wasn't, the position opened back up. we're talking late 1960's here. every now and then, karen would get bored with his reminisces and ask me a question about my trip. then don would go off in his direction again. very nice people.
with a full stomach, i headed off to find the paul bunyan trail. this is a 110 mi. long rails to trails, paved, pretty flat. i rode 80 or so miles of it. anything that long and flat has the potential of being fairly monotonous and it had its moments, but there were lots of little things along the way. small towns were spaced around 8 -10 miles. some with small restaurants, ice cream stores, and statues of baul bunyan. i had to stop in hackensack for lunch, a small cafe with homemade deserts. i was born and raised next to hackensack, n.j. never thought i'd see another one.
the trail runs through the brainerd lake district. big, blue, and beautiful. and lots of little ponds and mires along the way. which led to a couple of sections where i was riding through a constant pelting of gnats. another where i was constantly stirring up the dragonflies, white bodies with dark wings. i guess they liked sitting on the warm pavement. also made me think of how many mosquitos there must be to keep the dragonflies fed.
saw two bald eagles. they were together and then flew off in separate directions. that makes four total for this trip. very disappointed i have not seen a loon, other than the one on a placemat. they look pretty neat. but i did see a beaver's home. can't call it a dam, since it was more in the middle of a pond.
at the end of the day, in brainerd, the trail ended after crossing the mississippi at what was supposed to be a state park. turned out a little more complicated than that, and by the time i figured it out and found the true entrance to the park, i was irritated. that combined with my inate frugality led me to go to the rest area on the highway instead. very nice rest area/visitor's center which even had wi-fi. so i stayed there, use the facilities, ate, and just before dusk i scampered off into a copse of pine and set up the tent. wonderful night's sleep on pine needles, safely hidden. in the morning, back up and over to the visitor center to clean up.
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