SP2M Day 13 – Fountain Lake, WI to Lake City, MN

Day 13 started with a flat-ish tire. My patched tube apparently had a slow leak. Fortunately it went down overnight so I got to fix it sitting indoors in my hotel room instead of by the side of the road. I trashed the patched tube and installed my spare rather than continue to mess around with it. It delayed my departure about 20 minutes but I had a short day planned, just 45 miles with no serious climbs, so starting a bit late did not bother me at all.

First up was the quirkiest stop of my entire trip: Rock in the House. I had had more than one friend tell me something like, “Oh yeah. I’ve been there. House on the Rock is really cool.” Well I have been to House on the Rock. It is cool. But it is definitely not Rock in the House. Back in 1995, a 55 ton boulder rolled down the hillside and crashed into the house. There it sits to this very day. According to Christine at Fountain City Motel, this was the second time that a boulder and hit this house.

After pedaling north out of Fountain City, I was treated to more nice scenery with rolling green hills on the right.

Very occasionally, I would run across something picturesque and industrial, like this long swoopy conveyor.

I rolled into the parking lot of lock and dam #4 in Alma, WI just as a barge was docking. There is a pedestrian bridge over the railroad tracks which made a great vantage point to watch from. I had never seen a barge tying up in a dock and thought it was pretty cool.

Famished from ogling the barge, I ate lunch next door at the Pier 4 Cafe & Smoke House, “best food by a dam site.” How could I not stop at a restaurant with a tagline like that? I can attest that their half-pound cod sandwich was “dam” good.

I noodled my way along, stopping often for photos and to enjoy the greenery. I rode southwest through the Nelson-Trevino Bottoms State Natural Area toward Wabasha, MN.

It was another bittersweet moment when I crossed the Mississippi River because this would be my last crossing.

One of the really cool things about riding a bike across a bridge is that you can stop to take pictures and no one minds at all. And I did have to stop when I saw “my” barge cruising upriver, right under the bridge that I was crossing.

I hung out on the bridge and watched as the barge slowly made its way upstream.

The Minnesota side of the river is hillier than the Wisconsin side but nothing too extreme. The road had a nice wide shoulder the whole way into Lake City. Although there was a bunch of traffic, I never felt unsafe.

I spent the night in Lake City, MN on Lake Pepin. This is not technically a lake. It is a very wide spot in the Mississippi River. Before the dams were built, apparently it was shallow enough that you could walk across this part of the river.

To be continued….