Wed. night at the MN River Bottoms

Downed tree at mile marker 11 Downed tree at 9 Mile Creek John Seery, Greg Henningsen, and Michael Knoll
It was raining here in Rice County yesterday afternoon but a glance at the radar showed that the showers were sliding to the northeast. So I headed to the MN River Bottoms instead, parking at the 35W/Lyndale lot and heading west.

I wondered how much traffic that portion of the trail was getting when I encountered a newly downed tree (left photo) at MORC mile marker 11 and only saw a few tire tracks around it.  When I got to 9 Mile Creek, I discovered that there was no easy way to cross. The ice was gone, the raft was not yet in place, the water was too high to ride through and too cold to wade through, and I wasn’t thrilled about carrying my bike over the big downed tree (center photo) by myself.

On my way back, I lucked out.  Greg Henningsen, John Seery, and Michael Knoll (Michael’s Cycles in Prior Lake were preparing to head out for their regular Wed. night ride. After taking the blurry photo on the right,  I joined them.  Other than a couple of muddy spots on the riverside trail, it was clear sailing. I got a darn good workout trying to keep up with them, too.