Jo wrote up all of the daily observations during the trip, staying up late many nights, for which I am very grateful. However I can't resist the opportunity to make a few additional comments, so here goes!
The trip gave us a really nice broad look at the State of Minnesota as we circled around the state, traveling through 28 of Minnesota's 87 counties and traveling through prairie and northern conifers and a bit of the big woods and transition zones. We do live in a beautiful state, filled with lots of nature's beauty and prosperous agriculture. We saw lots of evidence of drought in the Twin City area and most of the rest of the areas we traveled were marginally droughty but no serious damage to the crops. However, without significant rain very soon, they will have suffered some serious drought damage.
We saw lots of invasive weeds as well as the ubiquitous buckthorn. We saw spotted knapweed in most counties we traveled. Wild parsnips are very common from Cannon Falls south to our cabin in Wasioja and west beyond Owatonna and just spotty thereafter. We did see Wild Parsnip on the Munger Trail coming down from Duluth and on the Sakatah Trail over to Mankato and earlier while training I saw a lot of wild parsnip on the Cannon Trail and in western Wisconsin. Hopefully this invasive weed will be recognized as a noxious weed and control measures will be taken, but right now there's not much being done thanks to Governor Pawlenty's "no new tax" pledge.
Canada thistle is a huge invasive weed problem and in most areas it is being allowed to proliferate with very few control measures being taken, for example, in Washington County, Dodge County and in the area around Montevideo. However there were some counties in southern Minnesota that are mowing as it appears in the ditches and are really making an effort to control it and it does appear to pay off. Buckthorn of course occurs in most Minnesota counties to varying degrees, but I have learned from my own experience on my farm in Dodge County that it can be controlled. Over the years, as people learn more about it, we'll see better control measures.
One of the things that concerns me in these travels is the lack of amphibians and reptiles that we see dead or alive. I saw one live frog, one dead frog, two or three dead snakes and no salamanders. I can remember in the old days the road being slippery from running over frogs and salamanders. What a change we've seen! I can't help but think that the liberal use of chemical sprays in the farm areas has had some impact on these populations. You don't see many corn or soybean or small grain fields with any weeds in them anymore and this is not due to a lack of weed seed but due to a proliferation of herbicide use, in particular Roundup on the Roundup ready corn and bean crops. I hope someone does some research on the impact of farm chemicals on these important elements of our ecosystem.
We saw lots of sick and dead trees in our travels. Anywhere we saw elms we saw dead or dying elms from Dutch elm disease and I'm concerned that we saw a number of ash, particularly in the southwest, that had apparently been vigorous and healthy and all of a sudden with hardly any leaves left on the plants. We do know that the emerald ash borer is marching toward Minnesota. Hopefully, it's not here yet.
It was interesting to see the consistency in gas prices. Unleaded self-serve gas in Hastings was $2.959, but almost everywhere else we traveled it was $2.999. The E85 or ethanol gas was generally at $2.599.
The trip further confirmed my faith in fellow man. We were joined by great people that biked along at various times during the trip and had a great time together. We found drivers very courteous all the way along our route, had the wonderful hospitality from the lady in southwestern Minnesota who provided Gatorade for us as well as a $20.00 donation to the MNLA Foundation. We had a very interesting conversation with an elderly brother and sister living on a farm in northwestern Minnesota and of course people in restaurants and gas stations were always very friendly and accommodating.
I am grateful that we had no mishaps on the trip other than a couple of flat tires. We got all that wonderful exercise and returned home feeling great. I want to thank everyone who has supported this trip including the MNLA staff, especially Bob Fitch and Meaghan Phelan, Michelle and Peggy Anne in our office, my son John who accompanied us on the entire trip and of course my dear wife Jo without whose help I would not be making these trips. Most of all I want to thank all of those people who have contributed to the MNLA Foundation as a part of this effort. The last I heard we were well on our way to the $50,000 goal, at $46,000+ and I am optimistic that we will reach that goal. Again, thank you all for supporting this effort.
Gordon J. Bailey