2024 MONDAY BIKE RIDES
Led by Peggy Kvam for the Hopkins Activity Center
We caught a lucky break in this week's heat wave this morning, and had a lovely morning biking around the Minneapolis Chain of Lakes. The magnificent homes are as interesting to view as the lakes! Photos were taken at Lake Bde Maka Ska, Lake Harriet, Lake of the Isles and Cedar Lake. There was also a special photo stop just 3 blocks into our ride at the new community street art project, the Hopkins Ladybug. It's really big! I hope Hopkins has fun with this idea and adds more art to their charming town streets.
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We had wonderful weather biking to Stillwater on Sunday, cool and dry with the rain arriving just as we pulled up to the hotel. Dinner was quickly agreed upon to be indoors at a nearby restaurant. During the afterglow in MA's suite, we enjoyed the views of the river. On Monday morning, the overnight rain still lingered so thanks to our wonderful sag support from Brenda, and Chris's wife Peg, we all got a lift back home. Enjoy the pictures taken at all of our interesting stops along the way: Starting point at Maetzold Field, The Monument at Summit, Irvine Park, The World's Largest Snowman in North St. Paul, Brown's Creek Park and Acapulco Restaurant. Today's ride in the Minnesota River Valley was scenic, but pretty muddy in spots due to the weekend's rains. Bikes were finally cleaned up when a spray shower was discovered at the Chaska dog park on our route back. Once again we had lovely weather, little wind, and all the big hills were down. Biking at its best! The car-free Bloomington Ferry Bridge trail has reopened this year, so I would like to take you along this pretty trail on our Minnesota River Valley ride next week. In order to cut some miles out of this long river loop from Bloomington to Chaska, we will start at 9:00 AM at Bryant Lake Park, for this week only. (It will be nice to avoid the Hopkins road construction, too.) This mainly flat and scenic ride will be about 36 miles.
We'll take our long break at Memorial Park in Shakopee, and shorter ones at Dred Scott Field in Bloomington and Lions Park in Chaska. Photo ops are planned on the Bloomington Ferry Bridge, and along the Minnesota River Valley Trail beyond Shakopee. SPECIAL STARTING LOCATION: Bryant Lake Regional Park, Overflow Lot, 6800 Rowland Rd, Eden Prairie, MN 55344. Directions: From the main entrance, take a left immediately after the gate house, to the large Overflow Parking lot on the left. Do not go down the hill! (There are many parking lots. If you find yourself down the hill by the beach, you went too far!) https://goo.gl/maps/xK2s3Y2TNkZAYygw9 Map of Ride: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/43895517 We had a lovely summer day for this year's Country Roads ride. I changed it a bit to take in more shady lanes and historic neighborhoods, forgoing hot sunny views of cornfields. Long Lake was our first relaxing break. Then we biked past Wayzata to the other side of Wayzata Bay to view two historic arches, with an ice-cream break at the 1895 General Store in Cottagewood. The theme for today's bike ride was the LRT Train, particularly the Green Line Extension Project which is bringing stations to Hopkins. We followed the new route pretty closely, biking along every newly paved section of the South Cedar Trail that we could. Then we diverged from the project with a beeline along the Midtown Greenway to the Mississipppi River. The river trail was really nice! We made it to Union Depot Station at the appointed time, meeting our two transit escorts to learn about the project and using the LRT system. We boarded onto all three train cars because each car only has two bike racks. Ask our bikers for their stories on board. Every car had a different experience. The safety committee has much work to do yet, unfortunately. Anyway, we all safely arrived at Target Field Station and had an uneventful bike ride back along the North Cedar Trail, seeing a bit more of the LRT construction along the way. It will sure be nice when our trails are reopened! I was getting kinda bored with the Minnesota River Bluffs trail, so I chose a hilly route for our journey to Lake Ann. The hills and the headwinds made it feel like a long ride to our woodsy lakeside destination where we took a welcome break (see photos below). Our second destination of Lake Susan was also a nice opportunity to rest for the hilly ride back to Hopkins. We enjoyed our route past many lakes along the way: Duck Lake, Lake Ann, Lake Susan, Rice Marsh Lake, Round Lake and Shady Oak Lake, in addition to the Bluff Creek Trail. Today we followed trails and roads around Lake Minnnetonka to our break at Noerenberg Gardens. The shady gazebo on the shore was so comfortable, I didn't want to leave! But we continued our journey and made it back to Hopkins before the intense heat of the day. Enjoy the pictures! Peggy We overcame rain (light), a downed tree on our trail, and confusion about the route (Komoot vs. RWGPS - use the RWGPS version), for a great bike ride today. We took a new route to bike out of Hopkins, eventually joining the Luce Line Trail to Wirth Park. Then the rain ended, the sun emerged, and we made a loop taking in Sochacki Park, Crystal Lake and Victory Memorial, returning to Wirth Park for lunch at the Trailhead. Their food and facility are perfect! Thanks for joining the ride today. Next week there will not be a ride due to the Fourth of July holiday. Peggy Twelve Hopkins Bikers enjoyed a pleasant ride on a pleasant day to Swan Lake, otherwise known as Lake Como. We also stopped for some cookies at the State Fair, but must have arrived too early as they were closed. We enjoyed the Tour of Homes at the Milwaukee Ave. Historic District in Minneapolis on the way back, making a cameo appearance in a video commemorating the 50th anniversary of MS Magazine. If anyone comes across the video, let me know! Enjoy our photos! |
Monday BikingWelcome! I hope you enjoy my website! Watch for upcoming ride information, and maps and pictures of our adventures. I'm looking forward to another fun season of biking! Archives
April 2024
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