The old saying “Whatever goes up must come down” is played out in reverse on stage 625. After two descending stages in a row, 625 goes the other way, not that you’d really notice, as the route heads east, south east, then east some more into Minnesota. The road roughly follows the line of the Red Lake River, but in the opposite direction of flow, but while the river meanders all over the place to the right, the road maintains a straight trajectory at a safe distance.
The road swings right immediately after the rollout, heading south down to meet the river at two miles. There, Highway 2 hangs a left before running straight for ten miles to Fisher. The first half of that straight is relatively flat, albeit lumpy flat, whereas the second half, after passing by Davidson at nine miles, is lumpy and uphill. By the time the highway has got there, it’s collected a second water source on the left hand side of the road: Grand Marais Creek, so now the road is running south east between two rivers, each of which is meandering all over the place.
The road crosses Grand Marais Creek at twelve miles, just before a right/left combo swings past the town of Fisher that sits on the eastern bank of the Red Lake River. The left hander after Fisher means that the remaining six miles, all uphill, are straight. The small community of Ross is on the right at sixteen miles, and there are several small junctions left and right on the approach to the finish alongside Red River Valley Natural History Area on the outskirts of Crookston.
Distance: 21 miles / 34 kilometres
Ascent: 161 feet / 49 metres
RGT Magic Road: C6YG6domCjSd
Max elevation: 849 ft
Min elevation: 810 ft
Total climbing: 162 ft
Total descent: -121 ft
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