Hike 37 - Bass Pond and Old Cedar Bridge

November 29, 2020 by Elizabeth Davis

Why yes, I’ll get outside during this beautiful fall weather. Fall is my favorite time to hike - it’s usually not too hot and not too muddy, the bugs are gone and if you catch it at the right time, you get to see beautiful fall colors. I’ve been wanting to check out the old Cedar Bridge for some time. The last time I came down here was when Jesse and I were dating, it was covered in snow, and the bridge was so damaged, it was unsafe to walk on. But years later, the bridge has been repaired and the trails around it updated.

Hike #: 3

Trail: Bass Pond and Old Cedar Bridge

Location: Bloomington, MN

Trail surface: earth

Date: October 11, 2020

Jo: ★★★★

Jesse: ★★★★

Riley: ★★★★★

This is another area where there are a bunch of trails to select from depending on how long you want to walk. We started at one parking lot, walked around one side of the pong, came across a newly built nature play area, crossed the bridge, and then headed back on the other side of the pond. There’s even a little library at the nature play area that’s so new that there aren’t any books in it yet.

Riley was in a bit of a funk on this hike, but once we got to the nature play area and the bridge, she sparked back to life. and it made all the difference. While I appreciate all sorts of trails, I really love those that pay attention to all ages like this one.

Hike 35 - Lake Minnewashta

November 29, 2020 by Elizabeth Davis

Ahh, after a month of hot weather, August finally gave us some cooler days. The mornings feel a little crisp which reminds me that fall is on the way. It also gets us back out on the trails. This time I narrowed down our trail options because we wanted to check out Big Stone Mini Golf and Sculpture Garden after our hike. We headed to Lake Minnewashta and stayed mostly on the Lake trail for a 2.2 mile loop. There are many trails in this park so you could probably make this a 5 - 6 mile hike if you wanted to.

Along the start of the trail were signs along the path that told the story of 3 little owls. Some of them were a little beat up from the rain, but it was still fun to keep walking to see what happened in the story and it certainly kept Riley entertained.

Hike #: 35

Trail: Lake Minnewashta

Location: Chanhassen, MN

Trail surface: paved, nature

Date: August 2nd, 2020

This park was well maintained and wasn’t too crowded. In the middle of our walk, we came to a beach with a little library and I can imagine it was once packed pre-COVID, but we only saw one person there.

We all agreed that we’d come back here and look forward to exploring the other trails nearby.

Jo: ★★★★

Jesse: ★★★★

Riley: ★★★★

Hike 34 - Crosby Lake Loop

July 10, 2020 by Elizabeth Davis

On the first day of summer, we tried to get out the door somewhat early before it got to hot to hike. We were sort of successful, but the bugs were out in full force and so the 3.5 mile hike I had planned became 2 miles. Even with bugspray this trail was annoying, but I would love to go back when the bugs are less of an issue as this was a nice trail.

Crosby Lake trail has multiple trail options which is what allowed us to shorten our hike quite a bit, but would also allow someone to change up this hike each time you went. Besides the bugs and humidity, I enjoyed that the trails we highly shaded and a dirt or grass base. Jesse loves earth trails, but noted that the wide mowed trail reminded him of a horse trail so he took points away for that. Picky, picky.