2023 Mexico Day 5: 6/29/23

 Travel day today. We woke up around 7 and I finally got to run in Chapultepec Park. Nice to run in there after not getting in Monday. Brick roads were meh, but the scenery is nice enough and no worry of traffic. Theres two sides to the park that are split by a highway. I thought the transition between the two would be obvious enough, but it was not. Ended up on a circuitous route on the way there, but found the ideal connection on the way back. Elevation is still a killer though.

Ate the rest of our fruit up for breakfast along with some yogurt and granola before heading back out to the Autobus del Norte to catch a bus to Guanajuato. It took us forever to get out of the city heading north. Both because of the size of the city, but also the speed of the bus (obviously related). There was a never ending treadmill of concrete-made neighborhoods climbing up the hillside. Even 45 minutes after boarding the bus, the neighborhoods were more dense than all but a handful of those Minneapolis. Eventually though, the city faded away and we were left with scattered towns, a little agriculture, some pastures, and scraggly forests/arid grasslands in between. Hard to make an ecological comparison to the states. Maybe like the eastern foothills of the Rockies in New Mexico. There were definitely stretches of huge oak forests climbing up the hillside as well, but those seemed more the exception.

It took forever to get to Guanajuato. Partially because we left late, and partially because I do think we hit unexpected road work, but it was a solid 5.5 hours on the bus despite there being only one stop. 

The bus station for Guanajuato is a bit out of town on top of the hills. We caught an Uber again and made town in less than 10 minutes. We drove the first short bit on top of the hill and then went through a tunnel and all of a sudden, the valley and city opened up beneath us. Kate had talked about the steepness of the hills quite a bit, but it's still another thing to experience in person. Again- hard to make a comparison, because it was definitely built at a time when the hill was the master and the people worked around, rather than the other way around. I would assume there are plenty of these towns in Switzerland or Italy, but none really in the U.S.

Our Airbnb was rather tricky to find initially because they also don't do as great with addresses here compared to Mexico City. We found it fairly quickly though and headed down a steep flight of stairs to get there. There's and awesome patio though overlooking the city. The place itself isn't as nice as the one in Mexico City, but still is great and will serve us well.

We grabbed dinner at a vegetarian Falafel place that Kate had been to while studying here. It was definitely refreshing to get something lighter after a lot of heavier fried meals the last few days (or none at all when I was sick). We then meandered the city center with Kate leading the way to different cool spots, the University, etc.

The city center is on a river bed that they presumably drained or rerouted somehow and is at the bottom of the hill. During colonial days, it spent time as one of the richest cities in Mexico and one of the largest producers of Silver in the world. You can see how there's still a lot of money in the town, even 400 years later and even though assuredly a handful of individuals were presumably retaining all that money.

The colored buildings and narrow, steep, winding streets are so cool to explore. It's also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Out of curiosity, I did a little research on these and apparently there are 1157 of them in the world. My rough math scrolling through the list is that I've now been to 31 of them. Barely scratching the surface, but more lucky than most, I would imagine.

The city center was also amazingly lively for a random Thursday night. Think a town's "days" in the U.S. and then block after block of that in the downtown area. Lots of shopping and restaurants with patios and large windows spilling out into the streets. There's also these singers that go around trying to lead a group of people around the city. According to Kate, they'll sing songs, then talk about folk-lore of the city and generally act boisterous to give even more energy to the night life.

Pretty great introduction into the city. Looking forward to a full day of it tomorrow.

2023 Mexico Day 4: 6/28/23

Well it was an excellent bounce back day after feeling run down yesterday. We got up earlyish in attempt to beat the crowds at Teotihuacan and generally had success. To get there, we took an Uber up to the Autobus del Norte bus station. We've generally used Uber to get around quite a bit as it's cheap and pretty efficient. It took maybe 30 minutes or so in a decent amount of traffic. While they do have limited access roads, a lot are still at grade and aren't truly a "freeway". I suppose they are the smart ones in the end as all the U.S. cities are trying to get rid of their freeways through urban parts of town. From there, we took a bus that was generally non-stop to Teotihuacan although it did make a few stops on the way out of the city center and as we got into the town that the ruins were in. There's no sign on the road for any of these, so I assume there's maybe "zones" where they'll stop on demand and pick up/drop off as need be and then in the middle of the trip, they won't stop. Who knows. The Norte bus terminal was also huge. And tons of different vendors rather than a centralized ticked area. I didn't expect that, so Kate asked a security guard, who didn't seem too interested in talking to us, but pointed us in the right direction. In general though, people have been super helpful in pointing out where we need to go in similar situations.

It was roughly an hour on the bus to get to the ruins. It was super interesting to drive out of the city. It didn't take super long to get out of the old lake bed (although presumably Teotihuacan was also in the same lake, so maybe we just cut over a peninsula). There were definitely stretches of agriculture as we approached Teotihuacan, so I'd say it was out of the city by my definition.

The ruins were outstanding. Pretty cool to spend a couple of hours meandering around the giant pyramids and old city ruins. You can't climb them any more (probably for the best, but you could as recently as 2018), but gazing up at them is a sight to behold. Absolutely worth the trip out there.

Got back into town and had a late lunch at a cafe in our neighborhood. My appetite still isn't the best, but it was also the first full on meal I'd had, which was a good sign.

We chilled at the Airbnb for a while and took the Metro down to the Frida Kahlo museum for our 5:00 tickets. While we've definitely taken a lot of ubers, it's been nice to ride the subway a bit. First because it's basically free at 5 pesos a ride and also because it's good people watching and a good taste of city life. 

It was again fairly easy to get down there and walk the neighborhood for a bit to get to the museum. It's a few miles south of us and definitely seems more relaxed, a little less dense, but still well-to-do. Colorful houses, well kept plants, tree-lined streets.

I'm not a big art guy, but it was great taking in the Frida Museum as well. She was multi-talented in modes of art she produced and so iconic. Ultra famous in her lifetime. She was connected with artists all over the world, random Marxist exiles from Russian, event the Rockefellers. Her house was cool to meander through too. The museum did a good job leaving a lot of the rooms intact like they were when she lived there.

Post museum, we went back up to the subway and traveled toward the city center. The "Nivel Sky Bar" is in their oldest/one of their biggest skyscrapers in the city and the most "central" in the city (presumably before they put up height restrictions like other cities). 

The drinks were a little expensive for Mexico, but I believe cheaper than going to the observation floor only 4 floors higher and the views were amazing (drinks were good too). It was so cool to watch the sun set on the valley and see the lights of the city come on. Another great perspective of the sheer size of the metro area.

Dinner was a little over a mile away at Darosa. We walked the large prominade across the street from Alameda Central was bustling we people, street performers and vendors. Most of the streets are lively, but this one had great energy and was fun to talk through.

Darosa was opened by a friend of Kate's cousin Scott. We actually met the owner, which was pretty cool to make the connection. It was a higher end Italian place and great food. Definitely smaller portions, but the bill in the end was still less than $50.

Finished up the night at a local Gelato place back in our neighborhood. Despite the setback of getting here and the overnight illness, it's been a great stay in Mexico City. Looking forward to heading to Guanajuato tomorrow.

Random jottings:

- A lot of Mexicans love to sweep. Every morning, there are people sweeping out in front of their store. And in general, the streets are quite clean. Gotta be tidy, I suppose.

-Another sizable chunk of Mexicans drive around selling Tamales or other foods in their cars/trucks and blast what they are selling over a loud speaker. Possibly as enduring as the sweepers, but also more annoying. Of perhaps the oddest/biggest offense was some guy driving closer to our airbnb at ~10:30 at night selling them. First off, too late for such noise (for Midwesterners anyway), but also, who's sitting in their house just waiting for the impulse buy of Tamales at 10:30 at night? Then again, those guys probably know more of their market than me. What's funny is that it's definitely a recorded voice and it seems to be the same from different trucks and different parts of the city. There is a male and a female version, but if a truck has the male voice, to me, it seems like the same male voice as another truck in another part of the city. How the heck does that become a commercial entity?

2023 Mexico Day 3: 6/27/23

 Well, it was tough sledding today. Ended up getting sick over night and basically emptied my digestive tract. We had planned to bus out to Teotihuacan early in the morning, but after a night of no sleep and losing all my food, we quickly scrapped it. Kate went for a run in Chapultepec while I slept and tried to force down some water and electrolyte drinks.

I summoned up the energy early afternoon to go to the Museum of Anthropology for a bit, but it wasn't exactly easy. The museum is really cool though. Glad I went, otherwise there really wasn't another opportunity to go without skipping out on something else. Various halls were basically dedicated to different groups of Mexicans from around the country. The level of detail on the work was outstanding. Some of the coolest in my opinion were the meticulously structured bead crafts with hundreds or thousands of beads laid out into a colorful tapestry. You wonder how long it took to put it together. There were also amazing designs made out of various ropes/twines starting with smaller diameter ones in the center and getting larger farther out. The largest was ~8 feet x 5 feet in size and incredibly intricate

 Therein lies the problem of getting sick/flight issues while traveling. There's only a finite amount of time you have and if you miss a day for some unplanned reason, something is going to have to give.

While I made it through the museum, I was definitely not in a state to head out for the evening, so I unfortunately had to skip the Lucha Libre event we had booked for the evening. Definitely a bummer, but if I was struggling to hold it together at a museum, I don't think a more "lively" event would have been a good idea. Kate still went though, so I'm glad she's been able to make the most of the day despite me being a bit out of commission. 

It's also odd, because Kate and I basically at the exact same things yesterday. I might have had bigger portions of something, but I don't think there was anything that I had, but Kate did not. The mystery of germs, I suppose. I did eat a little food this evening, so hopefully after some more rest and water, I'll be on the mend for tomorrow. 

2023 Mexico Day 2: 6/26/23

Our balcony

The Zocalo

 First full day in Mexico City did not disappoint. We slept in a bit after our lack of sleep yesterday and decided to run down to the largest park in the city that’s about a mile from our Airbnb. Getting there was choppy running; to be expected in this big a city, but it was great to take in the sites of the neighborhood. It was also a bit of a challenge to actually get into the park. I thought there was a gate right at the end of our street, but it wasn’t open, so we had to run along the fence line for a while. When we got to the next entrance, that one was also locked. Every Monday, the park is closed for cleaning. Good, I suppose, although a lot of hacking streets to come up empty-handed. We settled for running along a boulevard path for a while which was nice enough. Lots of huge trees lined the sidewalk. Still lots of stopping at any big road crossing, but it was my first day back running after Grandma’s so it was mainly just getting out for the heck of it.

We stopped at the local market to get some fruit at the end of the run and eventually chased down a bakery with outstanding pastries. Ate them as a breakfast/lunch on our patio. Excellent food.

Today, the main goal was just walking around. It was a little over 3 miles to the Zocalo, so we decided to walk it, checking out a couple of the bigger monuments in the city along the way. Avenue de Reforma is one of the main drags in the city. Lots of activity, although there kind of is everywhere we go. The Angel of Independence straddles the avenue, looking a lot like the big monument in downtown Indianapolis. 

Monument to the Revolution was a couple blocks off the avenue, but was just as grand or more. It’s a massive stone structure on a huge plaza. You could go up in it too, but it was $7, which seemed a bit pricy for a view that would be dwarfed by the office buildings in the area, so we settled for just relaxing on the plaza a little bit. 

Next up was the Alemada Central which is the historic park of the city center. We strolled through that and onto a pedestrian only street which had tons of people moving on it. Very similar to any of the old medieval centers of European cities. This brought us to the Zocalo and Cathedral. It has to be a weird relationship that many Mexicans have with the Cathedral and Catholic Church. Many Mexicans are catholic, I think, but the cathedral is such a reminder of the brutal colonial history that came to the city with the Spanish arriving.

We did walk through the Cathedral (in no small part because Kate was looking for a bathroom) and while it was grand, I’ve seen enough Cathedrals that I guess I’m just not as awe inspired as I once was.

From the Zocalo, we started making our way to the huge artisan crafts market. We hit upon a street that nearly every vendor was selling different kinds of light fixtures. Lots of stimulus for the eyes. Then it transitioned to other electrical items (plug-ins, wires, etc). From there, plumping, faucets, etc, flooring, you name it. It was like a massive Home Depot in the city center, split up by independent vendors. Pretty cool to take it.

We needed a break from walking so we found a cafe on the edge of a park and ordered a couple coffees and a dish of huevos rancheros. I got Cold Brew + Orange juice (combined) which was an awesome combination. Kate had an iced latte, which was also great.

The Artisan market was amazing. It was unclear if they actually made all of the crafts, or it some are simply shipped in from China, but the variety and level of detail on so many of the items was amazing. We want to get some new low-ball glasses, but aren’t checking luggage on the way home, so we’d either had to cram the suitcase or ship them. Still haven’t rule out buying them, but we’ll wait and see. Kate did but a couple cool mobiles for friends that have babies on the way. One with hummingbirds and another with turtles.

It was looking like rain as we left, but it hadn’t rained yet so we decided to try out the Metro on the way back (we were done walking for the day, so it was either Metro or Uber). The Metro is roughly a quarter to ride and easy to navigate. We got off at our stop though and were greeted with a downpour. We were roughly a mile from our place and there was a bus transfer we could make, but after waiting our the rain for a while under a shelter, it was unclear where the bus stop was (or if there was a bus stop). We saw a bus pass, but hesitated because we didn’t know if it was the right one. Later research indicated it probably was and there is no stop, you just have to flag them down. At the time of uncertainty though, we decided just to Uber the rest of the way home. Much more expensive than the Metro, but still not a big deal at $5 or so.

Grabbed some beer at a brewery in the neighborhood: Morenos, which was also good. Then dinner at a Oaxaca restuaurant: Pasillo de Humo, right down the block from our place. It was good, but not great. 

All in all a great first full day in Mexico City. Ready for a couple tours tomorrow.

2023 Mexico Day 1: 6/25/23

 It was a rather short turn around between the bike trip and embarking on our trip to Mexico, but the time is prime to travel. Both because we’re not really training right now after Grandma’s, but also because Kate still has friends in the Guanajuato program that we can visit during that leg of the journey.

We got back from the bike trip around 4 on Friday and I went to work getting the laundry going, unpacking camping items, and prepping a new pack list for Mexico. Kyle is headed up to the Quetico this week and as we exchanged texts about our upcoming travels, he mentioned how easy it is to make a pack list these days after doing it so many times. I’d generally say that’s true. I have a “stock” pack list that I slap into my current planning doc that only needs minimal efforts from trip to trip. On a side note- I also recently used my REI dividends to buy some new carry-on luggage that visually looks smaller than the suitcase I’ve been using for 15+ years, but definitely seems to fit a lot more in it. So much easier than checking luggage. Very slick.

Our first challenge of the trip occurred before we even left. Sitting around with Andy on Friday evening, we received a notification from Volaris saying our flight had been canceled. We tried customer service three times with three different reps and couldn’t get a great answer as to why or other options. The only option they offered was leaving in 2 weeks for the trip. Not an option if only due to sunk costs on airbnbs and museum tickets already purchased. The email was fairly vague, so we ultimately decided to sleep on it and try again in the morning to unpack the issue.

Saturday morning, we contacted Frontier, who was operating the flight, via their chat. This is the only way to contact them nowadays, email aside. There is no customer service line to call. They assured us that the flight was still running and thus there was nothing to act on. There was a flight leaving for Denver on Saturday evening, so we figured an option could be to take that and spend a night in Denver to ensure that we caught our Mexico flight in Denver, which would be much more challenging to rebook. With Frontier’s reassurance though, we decided to stay the course.

To gain a better piece of mind, we drove out to the airport Saturday morning simply to confirm that the flight was still running. It turns out though that Frontier doesn’t staff their kiosk unless a flight is departing; which there wasn’t. So empty-handed, we headed back home. One benefit (we thought at the time) we did glean from the Frontier chat was a confirmation # for tomorrow’s flight. I figured if we had that, we were in a good position to flight out as scheduled (we were not).

We went to bed a little after 10 for a 2:30 AM wake-up to make our 5:30 flight. When I picked up my phone, the first thing I saw was an email from Frontier stating that the flight was canceled. We figured the best place to resolve the issue was still at the airport, so we grabbed an Uber as scheduled and arrived a little more than two hours out from our flight. No Frontier employees were present; only a growing line of frustrated customers. As we waited for someone to show up (no guarantee based on the last 24 hours), I thought back to Kyle and I stranded in Arizona and we decided to act decisively. There was a 6:40 flight with Delta to Denver at an unfortunate sum of $350 per person, but would still get us there with plenty of time to make our connecting flight to Mexico City that left at 12:30. 

It’s funny how random interests of our childhood can come back around to benefit our future. I spent so many hours playing poker with the Chisago guys and honestly think this helped me make a quick judgement based on the situation. The flight was expensive, but the outloook was dim and we already had a lot of sunk cost in the trip. The price certainly wasn’t cheap, but not backbreaking in order to continue our scheduled trip. Not booking the flight could result in either a more expensive flight or a delay in our trip (or both). I’m still glad in hindsight (13 hours later) to have booked the flight, albeit pissed that they have not (yet) agree to refund it.

We took the light rail over to terminal one and promptly ran into a Hopkins Cross Country runner on the same flight #teacherlife. If we were more on the ball, they asked for two volunteers to bump to the next flight. $400 each. Basically a sign from God as it still would have put us on track to make the Mexico flight, but even hesitating for 30 seconds left us out of luck. With that said, the rest of the flight went smoothly and we arrived in Denver and found our departure gate easily. We had 4 hours to kill, so we walked a long way into another concourse to find a Starbucks. Not because it’s superior coffee, but because we literally have 10+ gift cards to there from students over the years. #teacherlife. Then I chased down the Frontier customer service kiosk and waited in line there for 20 minutes, only to move one position up in an ~11 person line. Went back to the Frontier chat and had a lengthy conversation attempting to recoup our costs (to no avail), before we boarded the plane to Mexico City.

I slept a bit on the first leg to Denver, but my legs were achy and while I was exhausted, I couldn’t sleep on this flight. We were kept on our toes though with plenty of turbulence, especially on take off and landing. Made it safely though and easily grabbed an Uber to our Airbnb in the Condesa neighborhood. 

It’s a great studio apartment with a balcony on a quiet street but right next to tree-lined streets and a vibrant street life. After relaxing on the patio for a bit, we strolled the streets and wandered through the parks. It feels a bit European, certainly closer to that than the US, but definitely has its own flavor. We ended up at Naco Tacos for a great dinner of…tacos. Kate had a Guanabana drink and I had a Dos Equis Amber to wash it down. We wandered a bit more and ate some Churros and Chocolate at “El Moro”, supposedly a neighborhood staple. Swung by a bookstore a bit on our block to browse as well. Funny to see all of US and European literature crammed into a small corner of the store. 

Despite the flight mishap, we’re glad to have made it and had a good first evening in the city. Looking forward to expanding our reach into the city tomorrow.

Southern MN Bike Tour Day 4: 6/23/23

 Up for the standard breakfast of coffee and oatmeal and we hit the road with our earliest start yet: 8:20 or so. Not exactly the crack of dawn, but it was nice getting some morning miles in without the sun. No Greg this morning: Katie picked him up last night as they had a wedding in Duluth the next day they had to head to. So it was down to Andy, Dad, and me. 

The grind out of Welch is a beast: 330 some feet of elevation gain in 2.5 miles. It's graded about as even as it can be though and we were fresh, so it could have been worse. With this said, the Cannon River Valley is pretty cool. Those bluffs are massive and it's amazing how much natural habitat they've been able to preserve down there. Lots of birds singing in Welch and during the climb up. 

Hit a few backroads that went in and out of fairly big valleys before connecting with 316 that takes you into Hastings. 316 had a wide shoulder, but that was the only redeeming quality. Lots of trucks, lots of traffic. There was a bike trail when we hit the outskirts of Hastings, but then it quickly disappeared and it was again a ton of traffic to navigate the city streets headed towards the city center. We hit the sidewalk some and clogged up traffic some, but eventually rolled up on Wuollet's (formerly Emily's) just outside of downtown. Had some good doughnuts and coffee and talked a bit with the locals. Always a lot of gray hair patronizing the coffee shops and bakeries at mid-morning when we come in for our mid-morning break.

Wound the neighborhoods through Hastings and out the northwest side of town. Took some backroads for a time, then eventually connected to the Spring Lake Park Reserve trail that takes you all the way up to St. Paul. This was some of the best biking of the trip. A great trail, rolling hills, nice views, big woods. Very enjoyable. 

The trail abruptly comes to a stop on the edge of the park and you have to hit some gravel, then a paved industrial road out of the valley and back up to civilization. From there, the trail has long stretches of industrial yards it goes through, with still some decent woods sections in between. Interesting for sure, if not always beautiful. We took a water stop for a bit, then trekked on into Inver Grove Heights. Hacked some back roads for a while to avoid the trail which parallels a super busy highway and then reconnected with the travel as it dives back down to the river and has some really nice waterfront stretches as it heads into South St. Paul. These stretches were also awesome. Maybe not the most beautiful of the trip, but great, expansive views and some nice trail to ride.

We had a little trouble finding the exit to Cesar Chavez Blvd (google misled us), but sorted it out and grabbed some lunch at El Burrito Mercado. I got a huge plate of nachos and enjoyed the ambiance. It was good to see the "downtown" area of West St. Paul. I've spent such limited time there; probably one of my least visited part of the core cities. It's cool to see a part of the city that seems almost foreign. Add it in the hills and you could have said I was in Pittsburgh and I would have believed it. 

George Street leaving the restaurant was a steady grind up hill to the Smith Bridge (High Bridge), but it was great to cruise down that with awesome views of the city. We finished up the ride by hitting the Ayd Mill trail, then down Selby/Dayton, and back into our neck of the woods. 

Total mileage for the day: 52ish.

All in all- another outstanding bike trip. Fun to bike with the family and very impressive that my Dad chugged right along. Looking forward to planning one again in the near future.

Bike trails traveled on
(have a name, are ~3 miles or longer)

Midtown Greenway

South Cedar Lake BT

MN River Bluffs LRT

Sakatah Singing Hills State Trail

Mill Towns Trail

Cannon River Valley BT

Mississippi River Regional Trail (Dakota county)

Robert Piram Bikeway

Ayd Mill Road Trail

Still work to be done on connecting our MN bikeways, but also pretty solid!

Bird species: 62 official into E-Bird, although I'm sure that's a low count and I missed some along the way.

Southern MN bike trip day 3: 6/22/23

 Well, another day on the trail. Up a bit earlier today and we got going by 8:50ish. The bike in site was non-reservable, but you also couldn’t pay at the office, so we ended up taking off without paying (yet). I’ll probably circle back later when we get back. The first ride into Faribault was great. Straight bike trail, generally slightly downhill and generally shaded with rolling farm fields. 

Got into Faribault mid-morning and scoped out the nearest bakery downtown. First, Fariabault seemed impressively big. There were quite a few blocks of neighborhoods we biked through from the interstate before getting downtown. Next, their downtown is awesome. Super robust, sizably bigger than even Northfield. The coffee shop was reminiscent of River Rock in St. Peter. Good coffee and pastries in a bright setting with bustling activity. 

By late morning, we were off again, up the (super) steep hill out of the Cannon River on the Cannon City road bound for Northfield and Hogan brothers for lunch. The last couple days have been steamy (90 deg+) and this day promised to be no exception. It was cooking pretty good as we rolled up and down the largeish hills of rural Rice County. Rolled right into Dundas and on a whim, stopped by Prieve’s house to say hi (we were literally biking half a block from their place). Talked to Ali for a minute before continuing on the “Milltown” trail into Downtown. Northfield still has an outstanding downtown. Hogan brothers was moving as always and didn’t disappoint (never does). We had a pitcher of root beer and 1/2 a sub each and good conversation, always. Out of Northfield, we wound past the Carleton Arb. Their prairie is so impressive. It almost seems like a state park. 

Hit some gravel for a while, ranging from nice to bike on, to pretty terrible. Good scenery though, and very little traffic. We generally paralleled the Cannon this whole time, all the way into Randolph. Chugged on to Cannon Falls and hooked into a bike trail the last few miles into town, which was also cutting through an impressive rehabbed prairie. One of the highlights was see the actual Cannon Falls. I didn’t know they had something this big. Quite impressive and nice to soak in for a bit. The Tillium brewing company is right downtown in a nicely refurbished building. The A/C was great and their beer was a welcome addition to the afternoon. 

The last 10 into Welch on a the Cannon River bike trail was a breeze. Gentle downhill, shaded, and high spirits. We cruised into down around 5, showered up and hit the town (all one bar). 2 of their 5 beers were out, as was the soft-serve ice cream (small town life) and there aren’t any other options, but it was good pizza and a nice ambiance on the river.

All in all, another successful day on the trail. It’s been a good trip.

Southern MN bike trip day 2: 6/21/23

 Southern MN bike trip day 2: 6/21/23

Happy solstice! Celebrating it in the best way possible: being outside. Another good day of biking. We actually didn’t get to bed all that early last night after cleaning up dinner, and then we had a raccoon try to get into dad’s gorp, on top of in general me not sleeping as much, so we didn’t get rolling for breakfast until into the 8’s. Broke camp and headed back down to the river flats around 9:40 or so, not so early. 

The hill up was quite large, but it was quite a treat to head back down. A mile or more of cruising 20-30 miles an hour. Pretty quick, we found ourselves in Henderson. It’s still got a cool, old downtown and supposedly would have been a good 2nd option as a campground if we hadn’t stayed at the county park.

Henderson to Le Sueur was also fairly quick. It was a pretty rickety road on the river flats (probably too much flooding), followed by a crappy 3/4 mile stretch on 169, then over the bridge and up a steep hill into downtown Le Sueur. Not much there in terms of services for hungry/thirsty bikers. There was supposedly a coffee shop that was going to be open in 2022, but it looked still very much in the construction stages when we peeked in. We settled for some fig newtons and water before setting off down the Ottawa road. This one is also a gem. Gentle hills with great views of the river flats and intermittent prairie on the edges.

Rolled into St. Peter a little after noon and headed to our old stomping grounds of pattis for some lunch. It’s funny, even after 14 years, St. Peter still feels a bit like a homecoming. Probably always will.

Bike through town with a good dose of nostalgia and set off toward Mankato via the Kasota road. Even the local roads bring back good memories. Lots of time spent traversing just about all of them at some point during training runs.

Maybe an hour after we left St. Peter, we hooked into the Sakatah “Singing Hills” bike trail on the outskirts of Mankato. It was a bit of a grind up hill the first few miles to get back out of the river valley, but it was nicely shaded in a ravine and the surface was in great shape. It’s amazing how much Mankato has grown/sprawled over the last 15 years. It took quite a while before we truly have left all the sub-developments behind and were back into corn fields.

Did a pit-stop for some ice cream in Madison Lake at the “Lucky Lure” pizza place. Surprisingly good ice cream shakes and AC is always nice on a hot day. Continued on the trail into Waterville for some groceries at the small grocery store in town. Of all the towns we passed through, Waterville seemed to be in the roughest shape. Definitely has seen better days. 

From there, it was only a few more miles down the trail to get to the bike-in campsites at the state park. The office was closed, and you can’t pay for our sites online, so we were “stuck” not paying for now. Kind of a silly system when the park office closes at 4 PM. Probably not a lot of bike packers can beat that time. It was nice to get a shower in though and we ended up shifting over to the group campsite right across the trail and on the water.

Enjoyed another good dinner of “hobo dinners” over the fire to wrap up another solid day. Bugs are worse here. Not the worst I’ve ever had, but plenty bad and enough to chase one into the tent for an early bed. Ready for another good day of biking tomorrow!

Southern MN Bike Trip Day 1: 6/20/23

 Southern MN Bike trip day 1: 6/20/23

Well, we’re off and running on another adventure. Took off around 9:30 this morning from Minneapolis bound for “High Island” County park in Sibley county with Dad, Greg, and Andy. This was at least in part to celebrate my Dad's retirement and health, but also simply because we haven't done it together before and we all loving doing it. 

It is always awesome to exit the city via bike and this time was no exception, albeit a little bit more detours than normal. Biked the Greenway out to Hopkins with zigzagging a little here and there and then had to hack random streets down to YoYo Doughnuts, our first stop of the day. Lots of light rail construction going on. Kind of a bummer that in a couple years, you’d be able to roll right down to Chaka with minimal turns. What can ya do. 

YoYo didn’t disappoint. Great pit stop before hitching back up with the trail, at this point called the “Great River Bluffs” trail. I’d taken this trail a couple of times on long runs, but it’s much less familiar than the trails we took before it. Great scenery once you get past the highways though. A nice canopy of trees and some great views once you get closer to the Minnesota River.

Grabbed some lunch in downtown Chaska at a great Mexican restaurant. Chaska was really nice. Cool old homes and a nice downtown. The trail between Chaska and Carver was sweet as well. It butts up against the wildlife refuge but still had a sizable buffer to the road next to it. Got our first closeup of their river as we entered Carver and then left trails behind for a while in exchange for roads. 

Nice rolling country roads with the bluff on one side and intermittent farm fields and marshes. We also accidentally ran into “East Union” which was where Gustavus was located for a short period of time. One of the buildings was still standing and had a plaque, which was pretty cool.

More or less a headwind for this stretch and plenty of large hills. Belle Plaine came up fast enough though and we crossed back over to the east side of the river to grab some groceries for dinner.

After another pit stop at Dairy Queen before leaving town (frozen hot chocolate FTW), we set off for our last leg of the journey. 14 miles until the campsite.

The road out of Belle Plaine was also awesome. Gentle hills and little travel with great views. We passed a lot of time identifying birds or trying to think about the calls we didn’t. Crossed back to the west side of the river at Blakely and had a few more miles along the river flats before cresting out of the river valley up a massive hill and then onto the campsite.

The county park is great. It’s small, maybe only 600 acres, but there’s only 4 other parties here beside us, but it’s a nice, open grove of trees and has a great overlook of a farm field and bluff country.

There is water, although it is hard as heck to pump up. Definitely a 2-person job or more. We had a fantastic dinner of brats, baked beans, and fried peppers along with a Shokopee brewing Hefeweizen and some chocolate for dessert.

Dunked in the creek after dinner, which was quite refreshing as well. Sandy, for the most part and deep enough to comfortably dunk under.

All in all, a great first day.

62ish miles biked in total.

Blog 0

Previously I've set up a new blog for each trip that I do, but Andy convinced me to just have one blog and update my various trips onto it, so here we go. 

T-minus ~18 hours until we depart for our bike trip south tomorrow. My legs are still a bit weary from Grandma's, but I'm pretty excited to start out on another adventure. This time it will be Greg, Andy, and my Dad. The plan is to head south up the MN River Valley until Mankato, then down the Cannon River Corridor to Welch, before bending back North again through Hastings and back to our turf on the Mississippi River. Thank goodness for rivers I guess. One of the few natural features we've tried to at least kind of, sort of kept strung together as a singular natural feature. Even if we are dumping a bunch of chemicals in there from lawns, farm fields, etc. 

It's supposed to be hot as heck, but no rain. Fairly standard summer around here the last few years. Not too bad for biking with a breeze, but perhaps a little hot for camping. We'll see.