72 miles. Finally reached the rail to trail part of the trip.

This is reputed to be the largest pelican in the world nested by the river with Pelican Rapids in the background.

We had a great night in Pelican Rapids, even made dinner for our host Gretchen and learned how their little town has changed over the past few years.  Gretchen and her husband Andrew not only run the store and the hot dog and ice cream but also have a florist business, kayak and canoe rental, have planted hops and a few other enterprises.

Lake after lake after lake into the distance.

Got an early start complete with a hearty McDonald’s breakfast and rode the very hilly first part of the day’s trek to Fergus Falls where, with difficulty, we finally found the Central Lakes Trail, a paved former rail line that will take us most of the way to St. Cloud. It is definitely nice riding on the path and not worrying about traffic or rumble strips but the down side is that we don’t get to see a lot of the surrounding country side since the trail is mostly wooded on both sides.  But the good outweighs the bad in this case so we made haste to another warm showers hosts, Bonnie and Jeff,  in a beautiful house on Lake Lida. As we have discovered, this whole 6 degrees of separation is a myth, the truth is we are separated by only 2 or 3 degrees! Bonnie and Jeff’s son is starting graduate school soon at ASU in Tempe, Jeff grew up in a small town in central Missouri near where my family is from, his grandfather had a medical practice in Webster Groves and their daughter is graduating from Northwestern med school.

Too bad we don’t have time to enjoy our hosts’ pier and lake.

Tomorrow we get back on the Central Lakes Trail and will connect with (wait for it) The Lake Wobegon Trail. The last part of the ride today was on a washboard dirt road and Bonnie has volunteered to drive us back to the trail just to give us a break from the jolting ride back tomorrow.