Friday, August 11, 2006

Riding the Root


As you may have picked up from my previous posts, Minnesota has a growing abundance of great "Rails to Trails" paths. All of these trails follow old Rail Road right of ways. One very scenic trail follows the Root River in southern Minnesota. It is a pretty ride and if one chooses, it can be a rather long one. The full trail length currently stretches from Houston to Harmony with the eventual goal of taking it all the way to La Crescent MN on the Mississippi across from La Crosse Wisconsin.

On Saturday, August 5, the OH and I rode from Houston to Lanesboro. We had a nice lunch in the very touristy and quaint Lanesboro down town. We then rode back to Houston. It was a round trip of 62 miles and including lunch we finished it in a leisurely 5.5 hours. The Root River Trail begs for a leisurely ride to enjoy the views. If you ever have the chance to ride it, do not be in a hurry, it is a ride to savor





There is one bit of humour we noted on several occasions we have ridden this trail. 80% of the riders we see on this trail start in Lanesboros, get as far as Whalan (4.6 miles) where there is a really GOOD pie shop *L* It seems the pie does them in

8 comments:

Dave said...

Mal,

I love Pecan Pie. I can see the problem.

jj mollo said...

It's a beautiful path. My long ride goes through the city. Not quite the same.

Some of my inlaws, professors from Colorado, once toured for several hundred miles across New England, gaining weight the entire way. What's needed here is a little more asceticism.

I have one friend who is a serious rider. He bikes 13 miles each way to work over a suspension bridge. If he has time in the Summer, he takes the long way home. I suppose if he lived in MN he would stop riding during the Winter. I don't know. On weekends he does centuries and then just rides home afterward. I don't even want to think about it.

Now, he claims that you don't really need all this food and water nonsense. It's a matter of attitude. Just chew on a couple blades of grass. That should hold you. I never saw him put a quarter in the candy machine. I have seen him chewing on grass.

Fred said...

What a great way to spend 5.5 hours. Nice pictures!

Åsa said...

What beautiful scenery! Your blog is a good source of bike rides I’d like to take. There is nothing wrong to see the pies as the goal though. That would get me pedaling...

Grant said...

People should plan the pie better - make sure it's closer to the end of the track than the beginning.

Notsocranky Yankee said...

You always make me want to ride my bike! There's probably a better chance that I'll make a pie though. :))

Saur♥Kraut said...

We have the pinellas trail, which is very similar. Many of us love the trail (though it's currently too hot to be on it in the daytime right now, when we're averaging muggy 95-100 degree days).

Josh said...

So beautiful. Wish I had that kind of ability.

btw I can't believe you knew a pie place and kept it to yourself, hmmff..

:P