Day 3 (6/24)

 Well- the storms skirted off to our north last night, but it was still a tough sleep with some pretty high winds ripping through Sauk Center. A new pad helped at least, but we probably settled for less than 8 hours again, for the 2nd night in a row. Slept until somewhere in the 7s, then got up for a bit of a hodgepodge breakfast of yogurt, a little granola, a cliff bar, and some orange juice. Hit the road a bit later than yesterday (maybe 9:15ish), but made really good time on a flat trail and a tail wind. Briefly stopped in Osakis for a water refill, then trekked on to Alexandria for a late morning doughnut stop. Alex felt pretty big. Kate and I had been here a few years ago and it still feels like a hub to the region. Lots of traffic and the houses/neighborhoods stretch for a ways out of town. So many lakes too. It would be a nice place to live.

     They have an old-school bakery downtown with a good selection of doughnuts. I got the “skunk” which was a chocolate long john with chocolate icing and a white stripe down the top. I’ve had better doughnuts, but appreciated the novelty.

     Back on the bikes a little before noon thinking we’d stop for lunch in Brandon or ideally, Ashby 25 miles away if we could make it. The tailwind was treating us well still and we kept cruising. Probably 15 miles an hour while moving. Took a quick pit stop as I had pinned the crossing point of the Chippewa river (one of the branches at least) that surprisingly starts this far north before winding it’s way down to Montevideo. We would have easily missed it had I not double checked the pin ahead of time before leaving Alexandria. Heck, I probably would have questioned it if I didn’t have a pin right on top of it. Pretty dang small at that point and down a steep, wooded hill. Hardly able to take a decent picture of it.

     Ashby’s brewery was unfortunately closed. I had also vastly misjudged how big the town was. I had assumed at least 1000 something, but it was something like 479. Pretty dang small to support a brewery and I guess in the end they could not.

     We ate lunch at the town restaurant instead and it turned out alright. Still had a beer from a Battle Lake brewery too in the spirit of things.

     Hit the road again around 2:45 and kept cruising. Some of the prettiest stretch of the trip were west of Ashby. Rolling hills, glacial lakes, and patches of woods. Really picturesque. It was hot again, but not quite as oppressive as yesterday and we just ticked off the miles. The Central Lakes trail finishes in Fergus and we rolled right into downtown to get to our Airbnb. With a fairly large thunderstorm imminent, we opted for sleeping indoors downtown, a quick walk from the breweries and some good pizza.

     Hit up Outstate brewing (beer was so-so, views were great), and then Union Pizzeria/Brewpub (beers were also so-so, but pizza was good). 

     Clipped off another 72 mile day as well. Pretty good grinding. Another good one in the books.