Anyway, Team Shakti (yup! we've named our small group!) with guest D rode the 50 miles on Saturday from Giant's Ridge to Hibbing as part of the Great River Energy - Mesabi Trail Ride 2010. An organized ride along the Mesabi Trail on the Iron Range of Minnesota encompassing a 50 mile, 26 mile and 12 mile family route which all end in Hibbing at Bennett's Park to food and live music.
This ride needed a bit more coordination than the Velo Duluth's Split Rock Tour. For one, it is a one way ride. You need to either have two cars and shuttle yourself and bikes, or take advantage of overnight storage and the morning shuttle. We opted for option three - S, D and J biked from Duluth to Giant's Ridge on Friday afternoon (about 65 miles) and I drove up with my bike. We left our bikes at the start point in secure indoor storage.
Saturday morning we then drove to Hibbing (the finish line) and took the shuttle bus to the start. After borrowing a tire pump from some friends of D's, we were on the trail by 9:00am. What a lovely morning! Almost no wind, cool temps (about 60*) and sunny. The trail departs Giant's Ridge and meanders through all the Range Towns: Biwabik, Gilbert, Virgina, Mtn Iron, Buhl, Chisholm and the organized ride ends in Hibbing even though the trail continues on another 40 miles to Grand Rapids.
What I liked about this was it's a trip through Minnesota's history - the towns, now diminished in size and population but reflecting once the heyday of mining. The man-shaped landscape in the huge hills of mine tailings and the open faced mines now filled with aqua water. The path passes by roads long abandoned, by crushing structures now rusting and silent, and other remnants of a history dating back to the early 1900's.
This was also very well supported - they had five rest stops with fruit, baked goods, water and Gatorade (and bathrooms, very important those bathrooms!). They had mobile assistance on the trail so if someone broke down or had a medical emergency, assistance could be there in a short period of time. At most major intersections or questionable trail crossings, they had trail marshals who monitored traffic and pointed the cyclists in the right direction. That is a huge staff of volunteers who are all very much appreciated.
I had only a couple complaints about this very well organized and attended ride (there were over 600 people signed up!). One, lack of basic bike courtesy. While the vast majority of cyclists are polite, there were some gits, and one of these gits almost caused a crash with D by not looking before turning to stop and meet a friend. There were a lot people on the trail and vigilance was of utmost importance. Two, the food at the end - no green salad! The porketta was fabulous, brats and dogs okay, but the wild rice salad dreadfully bad and I did get a laugh out of the colored marshmallow and fruit cocktail salad with whippy cream that I haven't had in years. Only in MN. But really, a fresh green salad and some veggies would have been much appreciated. Especially for anyone vegan/vegetarian or with other food allergies.
It took the four of us 3 hours and 24 minutes to complete the ride with only three rest stops. We averaged only 14.7 miles per hour, which does seem slow, but we did note that there were significant places where we had to slow down for 90* turns in the trail and street/highway crossings.
I don't know that Team Shakti would participate in this organized ride again. The logistics getting the bikes to the starting point and bodies to the finish point and shuttling back to start point were a bit...time consuming. However, I do believe we are going to try and ride this with a support car later this fall again.
A very enjoyable ride.
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