So you bought a touring bike...

That pretty much means you have to try touring right?  A couple nights of reading of other's adventures on crazyguyonabike and other websites had me inspired.

And while you're at it, let's not do things by half measures.  No credit-card touring here.  We're doing the real deal.  I've already got plenty of backpacking gear, might as well use it!

After years on a too-big hand-me-down bike from my dad, I bought a new (to me) Kona Sutra this summer.  I used the carrying capacity a little bit, to go to the climbing gym, or the game store, but didn't truly put it to the test for the first two months I had it.  About two weeks ago I decided to change that.  I'd been on a couple 25-30 mile rides since I got the bike, but we were going to take things a little further...

The north shore of Lake Superior in northern Minnesota is an area I'm pretty familiar with, having been camping, climbing, canoeing, and backpacking up there a couple dozen times over the past few years, most recently in July.  In my memory, between Grand Marais and Duluth, there's one big hill leaving Grand Marais, and a couple smaller rolling ones in-between, so I figured that at ~115 miles with plenty of state parks providing campsites along the way, it would be the perfect route to give me a taste.  I proposed the idea to my dad, a longtime biker, who recently completed the CANDISC tour in North Dakota (a fully supported bike tour), and I met up with him, my, mom, and our three dogs on the evening of the 18th, at Jay Cooke State Park.

Jay Cooke State Park

Mom making some excellent dinner

More to come on our adventures soon!