"Why notta maka a bicycle out of cardboard?"

Sunrise Prairie Trail/ Wyoming to North Branch

Part of this trail is also called Hardwood Trail. It is lined with Lovely Oak Trees. This one shaded us while we had lunch.

Milkweed, Golden Rod ? 

 

Abandon barn.

Lovely purple grass...anyone know what it is called?

  

The trail is very straight and flat with a lot of cracks.It runs along the highway, you can hear it and occasionally see it. The people we passed on the trail were very nice , always said "hi".

Chaska to Shakopee

We got on the  trail in Chaska biking along a old  railroad line , after a few miles moved into the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge has a very interesting history you can read a short version here. 

Even though the temperature was in the 90's again, the forest was shaded and cool. The trail was covered with fallen leaves from a recent  storm reminding us that autumn would be upon us soon. The little up's and down's created by the ancestral river and glaciers makes for a fun bike ride.

The trail winds through the woods then starts a gentle incline up a wooded hill providing some nice look outs over the Refuge. Hidden in the woods is an old stone Shakopee Brewery built in 1890 .  It is a bit other worldly to see it in a woods.....you feel like you must be in another country.

 

 

 

 

On our biking trips we often see abandon houses in the middle of no where. This one was in Shakopee across from some burial mounds...I'm sure it has some significance unlike most abandon homes we see but I was too tired to find out :-)
 

 Lovely oak tree...I spend about an hour looking at this as my boys rode into town to replace a bike tire that burst, it happens.

Hinckley to Sandstone/Munger Trail

Hinckley, I love saying the name of this town...try it "Hinckley" it's fun., right?

Hinckley is a small uninteresting town (to me that means visually uninteresting) However they do have some treasure shops.....before we hit the bike trail  we hit some antique shops, this one doesn't look like much from the outside but it is big inside.

 
This one has a great sign"Crazy Kazan's "
 

The Willard Munger State Trail, begans beautifully in Hinckley and ends in Duluth (110 miles). Right around the first corner is this Dam and bridge (the old railroad bridge pictured below runs right alongside it).

 

 

Milkweed pods not quite open yet...still some summer left.

 

This is Skunk Lake, we stopped for about 20 minutes watching this fawn eat the grass growing in the lake. 

It was a hot hot sticking day, so hot the pine oil in these trees were cooking, giving off the most wonderful pine scent. 

This was a shop in Sandstone( our turn around point). I would have liked to check it out for treasures, if it had been open.

I know you can't tell from this picture but this tree had the biggest acorns I've ever seen. I could not resist picking a bunch to take home. They have since turned brown and are sitting in a bowl in my living room. A reminder of the pleasant day.
 

Along the trail, as we were heading back to Hinckley, the sun shone on  the long grass as the wind blew it making it look like a simmering ocean.

Although at some points along this trail you can hear the freeway, it is not visible and easy to forget, making it quite peaceful and very pleasing to your eyes.

Gateway Trail

If you bike in Minneapolis you will be familiar with the Gateway. It starts in St Paul and heads north to just past Stillwater in Grant County. Judging by the amount of traffic on the trail it is a popular trail.  A little too much traffic for my liking, every few minutes someone was passing me. The sense of calm and peace I normally get from biking isn't easy when you have to pay so much attention to who is coming or going. However the trail is green and beautiful, I image on a weekday it is fairly quiet. If you are a social rider this is the trail for you, the biking crowd is very friendly. 

Most of the north end of the trail runs alongside with a horse trail which is fun, on a weekend you will always see some beautiful horses.

I didn't stop along the trail to take pictures because of the bike traffic but at or turn around point, Pine Point Park ( the end of the trail at present) I found this wonderful mushroom, fungi, which ever?

 

 

The cattails were showing, summer is at it's peak. Boy it was a hot one.

Luce Line

From Bucolic Dreaming July 24, 2012

This weekends bike ride was from Maple Plain to Watertown on the Luce Line trail. It was a small section (20 miles there and back) of this 63 mile trail. The limestone covered trail runs along lakes covered with Water Lillie Pads and Marsh lands full of Cattails. The air was humid inviting you to breathe deep and the only sounds were produced by nature Awwwwwwwww!

 

 

 

Coffee shop in Watertown...I loved the sign, not so much the coffee. Great chocolate ice cream though!

I love the design on these leaves.

Land of Oz

From Bucolic Dreaming July 15 2012

 Minnesota and Wisconsin have the most beautiful country bike trails, but this summer we are staying close to home. Discovering the many bike trails around the Twin Cities. Last weekend it was  the West Parkway starting by the Broadway bridge to just short of Minnehaha Falls which runs along the Mississppi river through the edge of downtown Minneapolis. From our starting point it looks like our destination is the Emerald City.
The trail is a gentle down hill , which of course mean a gentle uphill climb coming back. With road bikes no problem, but it is more of a challenge with our cross trail bikes designed for country limestone trails. Not complaining, just saying:)
If you are a photographer this trail is a paradise for city and architectural shots, I am posting some of my shots here taken with my quick draw digital (canon power shot), I can actually bike and shoot at the same time! I hope you will enjoy.

A nice park along the trail with a logging theme

 

 

 

 

 

A sand  barge on  Mississippi with University of MN campus on top of the hill

A shot of the bike trail which runs along the east bank of the Mississippi

The Weisman Art Museum at the U of MN

 

What a juxtaposition of new and old, The Guthrie Theater next to some of the oldest buildings in Mpls. Gold Medal Flour mill

 

 

The Scaffolding to Heaven