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.
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