I have to say - the Minnehaha Creek trail portion of the Grand Rounds Trail is my favorite in all of Minneapolis. There’s a peacefulness that you don’t get anywhere else in the city here. When the sound of the creek is louder than approaching bicycles, it’s especially nice.
Yesterday I took the Hiawatha Light Rail down to the 46th Street Station, and then found my way to the trail. My suggestion for enjoying this trail is to first ride it east to west until Lynhurst Park. Take a break there, and then ride it back to the east. It’s almost like riding two different trails. Amazingly too, the distance is the same, but coming back, there is a slight decline that makes all of the difference! You can ride fast coming back, and get to the light rail station in about 1/3 of the time.
It’s wonderful to see ducks lounging in the creek, along with all of the other wildlife in the parks, lakes, and wooded areas.
Fall hasn’t quite hit yet here, so I may find another time to ride this and see the leaves change!
I’ll admit - with fall creeping in, I’ve been biking less and have been taking transit more. Over the weekend I did get a chance to bike up to almost Fridley to meet Michael on his bike home from Brooklyn Park (where he visited his parents).
I am planning on posting some things to this blog soon however! I should have a bibliography of books and readings, my own resource guide that I put together while biking around Minneapolis, Madison and Portland, and exerpts from a 15-page paper I submitted at the end of my class recently. There are some observations about biking and bicyclists as “the other” in society that I talked about, and some of you may find it fascinating.
So, the blog here will be slowing down a bit. I do hope to try some winter biking as we get closer to the snowy period of Minnesota. As well, I want to ride down the Minnehaha Creek trail one more time before winter, as I found it to be one of the most beautiful trails in Minneapolis.
Munger Trail at Sunset
Originally uploaded by holisticgeek
Over Labor Day weekend, Michael and I got a chance to bike along a southern stretch of the Willard Munger Trail. We biked from Finlayson, MN to Hinkley, MN, then back to Sandstone, MN where we were staying. All in all, we biked about 26-30 miles along this great trail.
I have photos in Flickr.
The Willard Munger Trail is named after the late and former Minnesota congressman, Willard Munger. Munger was a huge environmentalist. Much of the environmental preservation of areas of Minnesota is because of his staunch leadership. The trail is the longest paved trail in the world, at over 70 miles.
At the beginning of the trail, in Hinckley, MN, we visited the Hinckley Fire Museum. Many residents of Hinckley and Sandstone were able to escape the Great Hinckley Fire of 1894 by climbing onto the train that once occupied the very land now paved for this trail. Now paved, it stretches from Hinckley to Duluth, MN.
I think that for me, the greatest stretch was this wide open prairie between Hinckley and Sandstone. While the trail may not have many curves or hills, the landscape around the trail is dramatic and ever-changing.
I’m hoping to travel more sections of the trail in the coming months before fall and winter make temperatures too cold to ride. So if you are looking for a great bike ride, stop in Hinckley, MN and hop on the Munger Trail.
