I was antsy after a long work week (3 long work weeks really), and needed a long bike ride today. I rode big last weekend on my Lemond, and managed to ride bigger considerably today on, oddly enough, my 29er. It's not my big-miles bike, so it was the result of a completely non-planned, leave from the apartment and see what happens venture. Good idea. I rode to Grand Performance, a local shop first, cuz I needed a spare tube, then down along the Mississippi to Fort Snelling State Park. From there, I crossed the Mendota bridge to the other side of the river to explore some gravel trail that I thought went a decent distance along the river. It did. I linked up with the MORC built river-bottoms singletrack in Bloomington, then on to hwy 169. Rode up through Eden Prairie to the Kenilworth Trail, which is a rails to trails path. It turns into the Greenway in Minneapolis, which took me back to St Paul via the West River Pky and the Lake Street/Marshall Bridge and down to Summit Ave. Wow. Didn't plan to go that huge, but it was worth it. The route below shows 55ish miles, but that's a very short estimate as I couldn't possibly have tracked the whole route as the singletrack wound all over the place along the river. As a result, I'm estimating the route with all it's meandering was closer to 63ish miles. Considering the varied terrain and surfaces and being on fat tires, that's a pretty good day. I'd place it equal to a moderate road century as far as effort. So it was just what I needed to clear my engine from too much being in the office/classroom.
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