The Bdote Breakfast Roll — Ride Midtown to Mendota Confluence

Overview

30 supported miles to Mendota, where the Minnesota meets the Mississippi. Dakota history, Fort Snelling, and lunch at Midtown Global Market

Bdote means where two waters come together.

It’s the Dakota name for the confluence of the Minnesota and the Mississippi — a place of origin, and one of the most significant sites in Dakota history and spiritual life. Long before there was a Minneapolis to ride out of, there was this.

We ride there.

Thirty miles, out to Mendota and back, at a steady fifteen — fully supported, no-drop, with real stops for real stories. Because when the U.S. Army put a fort on that confluence in the 1820s, it made the place a crossroads in ways the history plaques mostly skip.

Fort Snelling is where Dakota people and African Americans encountered each other under the same roof and the same authority — and where both were told, in different ways, that the law did not fully apply to them. It’s where Dred Scott and Harriet Robinson were enslaved in territory where slavery was supposedly illegal, married there, and later took a case to the Supreme Court that helped push the country to war. Harriet’s enslaver was the Indian agent to the Dakota. That’s not a coincidence to be noted in passing; that’s the whole point of the ride.

Two peoples, one site, and a set of stories usually told separately. Saturday we tell them together, on the ground where they happened.

We’ll roll back into Midtown for lunch at Midtown Global Market — a room that says something about who this city is now.

▸ RIDE DETAILS

• Distance: 30 miles round trip · Pace: 15 mph steady, no-drop
• Roll out: 9:00 AM · Arrive 8:30 AM for bike check and coffee
• Start: Venture Bikes Midtown, 2834 10th Ave S
• Route: Midtown to the Minnesota–Mississippi confluence via Mendota, and back
• Finish: Lunch at Midtown Global Market, 920 E Lake St (approx. 12:00–12:30 PM)
• Price: $15 — includes support and lunch at Midtown Global Market. Free if you need support
• Support: Sag vehicle, mechanic, water stops, marshal and sweep
• Bring: Helmet, two bottles, snack, sunscreen, spare tube
• Good for: Anyone comfortable with 30 miles at a conversational pace
• Need to use a bike: $ 7.00, or call 612 875 7803