Because the Midtown Greenway trail is only about six miles long, we didn’t want to make a special trip to Minnesota for it, so we decided to combine it with this Iowa trip (it’s been a Hall of Fame trail for a few years now). On Thursday, after completing the Raccoon River Valley Trail, Dalea flew back to Atlanta and I rode with Martha and Ed to Minneapolis. Navigating Minneapolis traffic with the camper behind the truck was a bit difficult, so we decided to let Ed park the truck and camper just one time and we would ride the trail “down and back” instead of just one way. We parked at the Central Mississippi Riverfront Park (taking up two parking spots which Ed had to feed with quarters), unloaded our bikes and took off. We had been concerned about predictions of rain that afternoon, but the closer we got to Minneapolis, the later the predictions came, so we felt pretty good about the timing of our ride.
We rode along the West River Parkway Trail, along the Mississippi River for a spectacular view of the river, for about 3.5 miles and then turned to connect with the Midtown Greenway. That part was a little hilly in spots, but we did it fine. The actual rail-to-trail was flat and easy to ride, going through or near downtown Minneapolis to the “Chain of Lakes” area. It wasn’t actually very scenic except by the lakes, but wasn’t totally ugly either. Its practical use as an urban trail was probably the main reason it earned the Hall of Fame recognition. There was one tool stand located on it, and it was pretty well maintained, but there were no other amenities that we noticed. As we rode along, I recognized the names of some of the streets from graduate school days in 1969 and 1970, and that brought back old memories. I honestly don’t think I would have voted for it to be a Hall of Fame trail; however, since it was, we wanted to ride it to fulfill our goal of riding them all.
At the other end of the trail, I found a public restroom in a restaurant and then we headed back to the Mississippi River to meet Ed. All was going well until we were about two miles into the West River Parkway. We had just commented on how we were fortunately missing the potential rain when it started sprinkling. We were still optimistic and thought that we were close enough that we would make it to the end with only some sprinkles of rain. Oh how wrong we were! In just a matter of minutes, the sprinkles turned to rain and the rain turned to hail. Yes, visible ice pellets were hammering down on us. Other bikes and cars came to a halt (bikers under a bridge, cars wherever they were) to try to wait out the hailstorm. To protect my phone in its little “stand,” I put my hand over it, and boy did those ice pellets hurt my hand! Our helmets provided good protection for our heads, but we were soaking wet, and it was getting colder the longer we stayed under the bridge. After about ten minutes of waiting, the hail let up some, so we started back riding. It was still raining, but nothing like the hail!
Finally, we made it back to the truck. We each put on a dry shirt and I called Bev and Steve Atkinson, my friends from graduate school at the U of Minnesota, to come pick me up, as we had previously arranged. Ed and Martha took off for another campground, and I spend the rest of that day and evening and the next day renewing a long-time friendship. It was a good trip!
Georgia Pedal Pushers 