The Way Fall is Supposed to Be

November is attempting to make up for the worst October weather in history. I have no scientific evidence to back that up, but will go with the fact that I only road 25 miles the entire month. Two consecutive November weekend days in the 60's are about as rare as a good Gopher's football team.

Taking full advantage of the weather I headed out on the CrossCheck Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon for a ride on the Minnesota River Bluffs LRT trail. The LRT trail is a crushed limestone rail trail that stretches from Chanhassen to Hopkins, a nice, mostly flat 25 mile round trip ride.



Note that special attention was given to what jersey I was wearing. It was deer opener after all...

The LRT is a great trail and a nice break from riding on regular roads. After a short, but brutal climb up Hwy 101 to access the trail, you get a very cool view of Shakopee.



The trail then makes its way northeast towards Eden Prairie and passes one of several lakes that are along the trail, Lake Riley.



The first 5 miles are definitely the busiest stretch of the trail. Everyone and their dog, quite literally, are on this section of trail. Walkers, bikers and even a dry-land cross country skier were out enjoying the weather.

After you get a few miles past Lake Riley, traffic on the trail goes down considerably.



A tragic scene was encountered along the way and a moment of silence was observed.



From the look of the rims, this bike had a great life and Kati was very pleased that I did not drag it home with me.

The trail continues past Shady Oak Lake before it dumps you out in Hopkins. This marks the halfway/turnaround point of the ride at 12.5 miles.





The only downside of the LRT trail is that it does not form a loop. So everything you saw on the way out you see on the way back in.



The 50 miles I logged this weekend finally puts me over the 1,000 mile mark for the year. I was starting to wonder if I would ever get there.

I am celebrating crossing the 1,000 mile mark and an all-around great weekend with a Bell's Third Coast Ale. It packs a punch with a 10.2% APV in addition to aging in the Bike Cave (aka our basement) for about 9 months now.