Planning

We planned our trip following the 2008 guide written by Bob Robinson: “Bicycling Guide to the Mississippi River Trail:  A Complete Route Guide Along the Mississippi River.”  In addition we used various state tourist information web sites including the Mississippi River Trail site http://www.mississippirivertrail.org/.  We put our route and lodging information into GPS format, developed elevation charts, and created mileage and route options.  We also researched things "to see and do" along the route and entered them in our GPS.  

Getting to the start of our bicycling adventures always seems to be the most challenging part of our trips.  To get to the Mississippi headwaters in Minnesota we plan to meet in Chicago (Joe from New York and Jeff from Virginia) via Amtrak.  From there we will take another Amtrak train to St. Paul and then drive a rental car northwest to Bemidji.  From there we plan to cycle to the headwaters at Lake Itasca State Park.

Technical details:
    A Google Map of our planned bike trip Map 
    The elevation profiles by state Profiles