We biked the Paul Bunyan trail again to Akely, where we stopped for morning tea (Edith got that routine started and I sure have enjoyed it) and found an okay little cafe. Barbara A. was meeting her husband, Gary, in Akely. While we were biking up the river, Gary was biking self-contained from their home near Tahoe with a friend. The friend left in Mankato to fly home, and Gary continued to Park Rapids where he waited for Barbara. On the last morning, Gary met Barbara in Akeley and they biked back to Park Rapids on the Heartland Trail, planning to ride to the park together in the morning.
Janet, Edith and I planned to ride the rest of the day with Linda R., who has been Barbara's biking partner the entire trip. Did I tell you before about Linda? She had not ridden more than 20 miles a day before this trip! I'm sure she didn't know what she was getting in for, but what an amazing trooper she has been. Several of us talked to her on day one and suggested she consider the first couple of weeks as her training weeks, and that's what she did, riding part days until she could build up her strength for full days. Linda spent the trip setting personal mileage highs day after day. I think her longest day was probably 87 miles. What an accomplishment!
We thought it would be fun to join Linda on the last afternoon so she wouldn't ride into the park alone after Barbara left, and so we could share her excitement. She didn't stop in Akely, but we thought, no problem, we'll catch up with her. By the lunch stop in Hackensack, we finally found her, riding with the sisters and several other fairly fast riders--but they were leaving as we biked in! Linda had been keeping up with all those ladies all afternoon!!! She really became a great rider in these few weeks!
We weren't willing to abandon lunch in order to join the group, so we stopped and ate and had a great time at the cafe. I know Edith and Janet could have caught up with the other group before the park, but they continued to ride with me, so we missed Linda's big entrance.
We rolled into Itasca at the East Entrance and headed straight to the lodge, thinking that perhaps we would ride to the Headwaters in the morning. We found Linda there with her husband, Rick, and the cool sign he had brought to welcome her in. His son had made the sign and it is really cute. He also made the Bo-Peep sign which our Subaru sag sported throughout most of the trip. I was particularly excited by Linda's Congratulations sign, because it sported that cute turtle!
More about the grand finale in the next post. For now,
Happy trails,
Dusty
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