Shake Down Overnight

The Munger Trail trip was a shake down for warmer and better rides ahead this year.  There is two things I learned.  Take the damn picture and the time because there is no going back. So the picture I didn’t take was the wet rock face and slushy mess I pushed my bike through on my way up the hill out of Smithville. Or the snow that buried me up to my knee while looking for a campsite. I did get a picture that accompanied the previous post Roughing It and was compelled to write a post. Poem? Secondly, I had time to reexamine me in the next 12 hours on the Trail.

Shake down at end of season iphone photo by author

I could not have felt any more guilty after leaving Ryan to be on my way. Could I have offered him my trail mix? Or given him a few bucks for a bite to eat? I’ve offered food and money in Chicago and Minneapolis. So why not then? Things are bigger than ourselves. Stars above make for infinite questions without answers. The roar of a night train and it’s powerful diesels make a restless companion. The hard ground only increases the aches in my arms deserving of the late season decision to camp. Still, it is more about the trip than the ride and along the way it’s the people we meet on the trip that make life happen. If only I shared the road with Ryan? A buck or eats on me would have meant a lot. Can I say never again? Does that get me off the hook? We’ll see next time opportunity presents itself.

Roughing It

Cut against the grain, iphone photo by author

Way down in Texas some time ago

I don’t remember when

It happened one day I hit the road

If I ever get back home this time I’m staying

Tonight I’ll be sleeping  out in the rough

If I’d only listened to cut against the grain

Life wouldn’t be so tough

Sometimes it gets lonely if it was only the hunger that pain

I’m little Ryan a boy now a man

A can picker in Duluth

No one sees me for who I am

Like the faded photo’s taken years ago at a Texas photo booth

No one knows where I am

Cut against the grain to get the tenderest meat

Some magazine guy stopped today and said he was here to meet the night train

He took my picture and headed away, will the folks know it’s me

Will they ever see me roughing it and say he never learned to cut against the grain

 

 

 

 

 

Expecting Spring this Friday

Munger Trail @ Riverside, Duluth MN 04/22/13 iphone photo by author

One more day until I pack up the Surly Troll again for an overnight. This time heading towards Moose Lake and doing a wild camp out if I don’t happen upon a park stop. This will be a very loose trip since snow and flooding is possible on the trail. The climb out of Duluth through Jay Cooke is unknown and where I’ll be after 4 hours I should be settling into a camp site by then. Leaving after work mid afternoon on Friday gives me a fair amount of time to make a quick getaway. I’ll be passing this spot above within an hour of home. Still flat but as you see on the horizon are the hills between Duluth and Moose Lake. Wish you a very good weekend and look forward to sharing future pictures.

Stormy Weather

Stormy Weather

Big horizon for this little tug near Duluth Harbor as well as for the denizens of the region. A resurgence of immigration seems to be occurring as big city dwellers I’ve talked to are plenty happy they chose Duluth for a simpler life . This is not San Francisco of the North by any stretch. No, Duluth is a place where the outdoors is calling you.  Where you wanted to be but just didn’t know it. I’m hooked this month on stormy weather photo’s that are as easy to take with an iphone as professional equipment. Loads of photo experiences. Here’s two more.

Night Out

Night Out March 29th 2013

There is nothing better than to get away and spend a night in a tent when winter is lingering. The forecast  called for mid 30′s F and rain after 1am. The remainder of the Easter weekend was going to be colder and wetter. So I took a chance on the next 24 hours and rode 40 miles to my campsite. Blue skys off and on until dusk encouraged me. A  fire in the pit made life good. Some previous campers left me plenty of wood to burn for 3 hours while I read a novel. Total mindlessness. No humans. No appliances. Comfort was a good warm mummy bag, some down and fleece clothing and a decent water resist tent. Like clock work the rain started as predicted. By 6am I had barely slept but felt rested. The rain let up and I was on the road home by 9am. Fog shrouded the ride south all the way to Duluth along Highway 61 and the old scenic route. Between the tent, warm cloths and fog I cocooned most of the time while removed from “humankind”. Just needed the time to recharge. I had no idea we would at the time of this post have reverted back to winter. April 16th and we have had two feet of snow dumped since my little window of 24 hours. Spring is nowhere in sight. Just planning in my mind for my next outing.

On a Winters Day

Two felons who cheated investors out of millions of dollars are on the loose in Northern Minnesota. In the wee hours of the night on April 1st Reggie Makepeace and Clyde Ironworks walked away from the Duluth holding tank were they were serving time as masterminds of a Ponzi scheme involving penny stocks that cost investors nationwide close to 600 million dollars. The manhunt now is enlisting locals who have taken leave of fishing to go after a handsome reward for the capture of Makepeace and Ironworks.

Unidentified fisherman in Knife River MN reported sighting escaped moneymen

Last seen in Knife River the pair came upon this fisherman who described the bedraggled moneymen with “bloodshot eyes and sore asses.” Left behind was a worn out bicycle stolen from Duluth 17 miles south.

Worn out bicycle ridden 17 miles by escaped convicts abandoned in Northland

 

This fisherman spotted Makepeace and Ironworks at dawn as they rode two up on the old bike. After abandoning the bicycle the pair where last seen going into Russ Kendal’s smoked fish shop where they ate a hearty lunch and left with an elderly couple driving a Malibu with Ontario license plates. The entire Northland is excited with the prospect of catching these two and claiming the reward. “It’s like the fishing opener or first day of hunting” says the unidentified fisherman, “there’s hundreds of pickups out looking for that Malibu right now, whooha you can run but you can’t hide.”

Cargill Executive Privilege

The wheels of commerce keep turning at Cargill Company after years of global consolidation in food commodity and processing acquisitions. This seemingly ruthless quest to dominate the world food supply does have detractors. In a twist of fate, no less from “Mother Nature” herself, drought is finally catching up with the Leviathan causing plant closers in the American heartland. Low feed yields for two years in a row have proven a higher risk to profits. Beef processing does not pay as well as it used to even for Cargill so one plant after another is closing. Cargill executives reached outside of Minnetonka Minnesota refused comment.

Cargill Beef Executive Thomas Hardly-Attfault Automobile

This roving reporter positioned himself overnight near the home of Executive Thomas Hardly-Attfault to get a statement. Hardly-Attfault heads up the International Beef Program and is seen as the point person that is eviscerating the livelihood of small communities. Just as luck would have it, this reporter spilled coffee in their lap as Hardly-Attfault was leaving his St. Paul residence. Speeding away from home this reporter caught a quick iphone photo of his automobile, a perk of executive privilege. In a tip of the hat to Mary Kay Cosmetics, Cargill is now giving automobiles to executives who contribute significantly to the bottom line. In this circumstance, this car says it all. Cargill “makes no bones” about their intention to world food domination.