The sun sets about 11 pm up here as we are pretty far north. But we manage to get to sleep early enough to be ready to roll by 6:30. We didn’t plan to leave that early, but the mornings come early too up here.
The bikes parked outside our rooms revealed that there is a smattering of drops of water that came down. The skies are cloudy, but the forecast called for sunny sky’s today, or at least last night they did. It is a nippy 56 degrees so we start off with jackets, gloves and gators and I start with my summer convertible pants but with the legs on. We roll out of our motel at 6:30 am and continue west towards Kakabeka Falls, 300 miles away. We also plan to do checkpoint #11, Split Rock Lighthouse and we have a room in Two Harbors MN reserved, so we have almost a 500 mile day.
The roads are empty this time in the morning and even though the speed limit is 90 kmh (56 mph), we are traveling at 83ish mph with the road to ourselves. I keep a sharp eye out for critters this early in the morning. About an hour into the ride the clouds are still up there and darker. We start to feel sharp raindrops hitting our face. No raining per say, but enough drops to sting.
But several minutes later there are more drops and the street is getting damp, and later a bit wet – but no hard rain, just hard sprinkle. We slow down to about 65 mph and my pants are starting to get wet from the overspray from my tires. The sky too is getting darker – we thought we would have sunshine and clear skys by now.
I think this leg is were we get all our construction jobs as it seems we are constantly getting the “one lane road ahead” or “Flagman ahead” signs constantly, and sure enough, we are stopping a lot today. At one stop, it was long enough for Rick and I to wash our hands and for both of us to put on our hoodies. I also swapped out my pants for my rain gear pants. This one construction stop was thankful as we were able to change our gear.
We get rolling after this one long construction stop and the fog has rolled in a layer around the hilltops. It looks like it might rain, but it never did, and as soon as we passed through this hilly section, the fog lifted and the sky was blue! We enjoy this until we hit the next construction flagman, then the next one, then the next one…. I think we lost a total of 1 hour of riding time due to the bunch of construction that was going on in this section.
Even though we had to deal with the construction we had some great views of this upper region of Lake Superior. And when we did ride along the shoreline, it was cold! We continue west and the day again turns to a high clouds, so the sun is not really out in full force. By 12:30 p.m. and 200 construction zones we reach Kakabeka Falls.
This is a beautiful park in this small town just 10 telephone poles up the road and to your left. We pull in to take our pictures and also walk around the park. Pretty big falls and not too many people around.
By 1:30 we leave and we are heading towards checkpoint #11, Split Rock Lighthouse by Two Harbors Minnesota. But in 25 miles, we will be crossing the border and will be back in the states. We have been in Canada for 8 days and for me it was a fun experience. The people we friendly, curious and helpful, wanting to show off their Canada and be helpful. With just 22 miles till we got to the border and we were at another construction stop ,the man in the stopped car ahead of me got out, noticed I was looking at my GPS and he was telling me the border is just 22 miles away and this should be the last construction stop. It will feel good to be coming back but at the same time, it is a closure on this part of the adventure that was an experience.
We cross the small border crossing and are now about an hour from checkpoint 11, Split Rock Lighthouse. The sky seems to get smokier as we proceed along the lakes edge. There is definitely smoke from some fire. We continue to Split Rock park, and drive down to an vantage point. What we find after a short hike is a classic image of what a lighthouse should look like.
We then leave the park and head to our hotel in Two Harbors and call it a day after we eat at a local craft brewery place where I get to try some Cheese Curds. Oh boy…
Tomorrow we have our sights set for the final checkpoint, Mackinaw Bridge and the completion of the Great Lakes/Cabot Trail Tour ride.
Beautiful pictures of Kakabeka Falls! Thank you for sharing, I’ve always wanted to go to the Falls, but probably will never make it. I’ve been to a Thunder Bay in the winter skiing, where someone from our group went over a jump and landed on their back, so the whole bus had to wait until x-rays were done at the hospital, ha!
I contemplating driving up to Duluth 2 1/2 hours to try and do a drive-by sign, but you guys are too quick. Now you’re in my neck of the woods, the split rock lighthouse. And that’s what we have here, …poor air quality from Canada wildfires and total road construction EVERYWHERE! Welcome to Minnesota!
Love the tiered falls! So cool! Thanks for the videos.