So I get this idea for
a ride, 4th of July being on a Monday, and me having three days off in a row.
Where to go?
July, you got to go North where it's cooler and the days are longer. It's
a toss up between Michigan or Minnesota, but then while browsing the MN website
exploreminnesota.com I'm intrigued by a road called Waters of
the Dancing Sky Scenic Byway and within minutes I'm planning a trip
up there.
My 3 days route though IL, WI and MN 1802 total miles
Day
1 Saturday, July 2, 2005
West Chicago, IL to Big Falls,
MN 705 miles
It was still dark outside when my alarm went of at 4:30AM. I still needed to finish packing; I wanted to be out the door by 5AM. I was meeting (Salt on ST.N) Jim in Taylor Falls, MN for lunch at 12:30PM and hopefully running in to (Tony T on ST.N) Tony on the road somewhere between Illinois and Minnesota. Packing and loading the bike took a bit longer than anticipated (it always does).
By 5:50AM I was on the road ready to make up the 50 minutes I lost by speeding. The sun had been up now for about half an hour but it was a chilly 57 degrees outside. Even this early in the morning, I-90 heading West was packed already. Passing was difficult with slow cars traveling in both lanes. Even after entering Wisconsin, the majority of the license plates on the cars were from Illinois. My first gas and bathroom stop was Stoughton, WI, my second gas stop was in River Falls, WI. After 360 miles of slab I finally took an exit at 63 North just south of Baldwin and stopped for gas again. My stops were very short, just under 10 minutes each, I had no time to waste. The town of Baldwin has a real cool windmill, but I didn’t want to waste precious time on pictures this early in the day.
At the junction of 63 and 46 there was a stop sign and cars were back up for about a half a mile. Even on these back roads there was a lot of traffic today. I continued on 46 North and turned West on 8 arriving in Taylors Falls, MN at exactly 12:30PM. Jim was already there but I never did run in to Tony. I checked my voice mail and he left a message saying that he left late and might not make it to lunch on time. Jim and I went to grab some lunch at the Chisago House on the corner of 8 and 95. It’s one of those places that serves breakfast all day long. I had a chicken salad on a croissant and I have to say it was the best I’ve ever had, I don’t usually like fries, but these were good, or maybe I was just very hungry since I only had a cup of coffee at 4:30AM this morning. I left Tony a voice mail updating him on the current events and he called me back saying that he was an hour away from Taylors Falls. He would just meet up with us on the road. After lunch we took off on 95 heading Northwest.
It was in the upper 70’s now, no wind, a perfect riding day. There wasn’t a lot of traffic on this road, and other than me looking away for a few seconds and almost running over and killing 3 birds that were crossing the road, all was going well. We turned North on 169, which was a two lane highway. After getting gas we continued until we ran in to extremely slow stop and go traffic. At first I though there might have been an accident, but I think it was just all the holiday traffic. The Mille Lacs Lake was on our right. It was huge. After taking about 20 minutes to travel just about 2-3 miles we were in Garrison. MN. While getting ready to turn on 18 West, I noticed a big fish to my right. We turned around and stopped at the at the 15-ft. long fiberglass Walleye Pike Statue. The Walleye is a favorite catch for sportsmen angling in America's north-central lake regions. Walleye worship became official in Minnesota after it was designated as the state fish in 1965 by the MN legislature. The Garrison Walleye statue sits right next to the Mille Lacs lake, I decided to take some pictures here.
From 18 we turned on 6 North and after a while turned on 11 West, finally some curves started to appear in the road. 11 had really nice sweepers and I caught a glimpse of a deer running in to the woods. A reminder that they were everywhere up here, this was one continues forest. The next road which was 3 North, had even more curves. 3 was supposed to turn in to 6 then 66, but in reality 3 turned right, so I stayed straight but I soon realized something was fishy. The roads were not the way they appeared on the map. We stopped for gas and after checking the map and still being confused, I asked the gas station attendant. We took 16 West to Jenkins and turned North on 371. Since my GPS broke over Memorial Day Weekend, I had to go back to the old style of touring, reading and following road signs. I miss my Garmin.
In Pine River I found 84, a supposedly twisty road. The road had very little traffic and nice scenery, with most turns posted at 30-35MPH, a few even tighter. The only thing was, there were long straights between the turns, only a few sections had two or three turns right after one another or a nice “S” turn. It was still a great road with good pavement, I just like to have the curves closer together. Once you pass 200, 84 turns to 8 and became kind of straight. The Federal Dam is a very small dam, wasn’t worth pulling over at. There were a few more curves in the road before reaching Bena, where we turned and headed East to Deer River. I was a bit tired now, I have ridden already 636 miles today. We pulled over at a gas station in town and I grabbed a Twix ice cream bar, it was really good and exactly what I needed, cool and refreshing. I started getting a headache so I took some Excedrin. The temperatures were still pleasant. But still no Tony. I called and left him a message on his cell phone to meet us in Big Falls outside the liquor store and bar on 6. Lee (102sf on ST.N) was letting us stay in his bunkhouse but we had to find him in town when we got there.
We left the gas station in Deer River at 8:30PM and rode the last 64 miles to Big Falls. 6 was a pretty straight road with a sweeper here and there, no towns on the way, just miles and miles of forests. I was hoping that I would make it to Big Falls before it got completely dark, which according to the internet was 9:30PM in these parts. I was actually refreshed now, the long break we took and the ice cream gave me plenty energy to go at least another 100 miles if I needed to. With dwindling sunlight, I increased my traveling speed. There was no one on the road but us. But then the road narrowed and the trees closed in on us, so I decided to slow it down a bit. There was deer in these forests, I didn't want to meet any of them personally. The sun slowly slid behind the tree line and by the time we pulled in to Big Falls, it was pretty dark, especially since I still had my dark tinted helmet shield on. I spotted Lee’s blue FJR parked in the road. After some looking around and asking about him, he was located. Still no Tony. We rode over to the bunkhouse, which was located next to Lee’s family’s weekend house. After unpacking the bike, the first thing I had to do was coat myself in a thick layer of off insect replant. I have never seen so many mosquitoes. Tony called me as my phone battery died. I never had the opportunity to ask where he was at. He said his phone was not working up here, he called using a phone card. I left another voicemail for him. I guess we would have to meet up with him tomorrow. Since we didn’t eat dinner and there were no restaurants in town, Lee took out all the fixings to make some sandwiches along with some baked beans. Lee and his family were super nice people, obviously taking in some strangers for the night and feeding them. You met the nicest people on motorcycles. The food his the spot. After some motorcycle stories, it was time for bed.
I'd eat there again - Chisago House 361 Bench Street (95 North), Taylors Falls, MN phone: 651-465-5245