Day 3 - O’Brian State Park MN to Cumberland WI

Today’s Miles: 60

Total: 126

Good night for the first night in the tent last night.  I have always contended that you have to be completely exhausted to be able to sleep camping.  It seemed that all of us were up quite early and had a nutritious breakfast of hot chocolate, coffee and oatmeal. And we were off.

We crossed the St. Croix River and were in Wisconsin.  There is a definite difference in the riding today as compared to yesterday.  The hills are here.  It isn’t anything to big, but just up and down. We also ended up riding about ten miles on another rail trail.  This one was not paved but crushed rock  It was called the Gandy Dancer Trail. Rail trails are great because to allow the train to operate, they need to keep the grade at about 2% up and down.  Great for the cyclist.

Ther Gandy Dancer trail

These two pictures are of my riding buddies.  Nancy & Tim from Tacoma, Washington .

Had lunch of PB&J in Balsam Lake and then just crossed over farm ground in Wisconsin.

Got the smell of pigs along the way, but didn’t see the farm.  Lots of corn and soy beans.

As we were riding, we noticed all these trees that were blown over and crews out working cleaning up the tree debris on the side of the road.  Come to find out, about a month ago they had 6 tornadoes come through Polk County Wisconsin.  We even saw an old barn that was blown down.  I wish I had a picture, but didn’t know what took place at that time.

I don't know if you can see the trees in the background.  It is a little far, but they have broken limbs and are down.

We are in Cumberland Wisconsin tonight.  It is the beginning of their Rutabaga festival here and the campgrounds are full.  The owners found us a spot out of the way of the other campers and it is an excellent spot.  We are away, no noise and right over the lake.  You will enjoy the pictures.

I’m not sure what goes on at the festival and things really don’t get going until this weekend, but it looks like the setup is very similar to Cassia County Fair.

Our camp tonight

Cooking Dinner

Beaver Dam Lake