Rice Marsh Lake — Hiking

Spring in Minnesota has been windy this year. Besides it destroying my lawn umbrella yesterday, I have loved the wind. Why? Because it makes a hike so much cooler and more enjoyable. I overheat easily which sends me into migraine mode and I’m certain that would have happened on my last two hikes had it not been for the wind. If only all my spring and summer hikes can be so breezy.

It didn’t help that we picked the hotter day of the weekend to hike, but we headed out early and I tried to find a highly shaded trail. It rained quite a bit the night before so I also planned a hike on a paved path which brought us to Rice Marsh Lake loop. There were a couple dirt path off-shoots, but they were muddy from what we could see so I was grateful to have a dry, paved path all around.

Hike #: 32

Trail: Rice Marsh Lake

Location: Eden Praire and Chanhassen, MN

Trail surface: paved with a couple dirt offshoots

Date: June 7th, 2020

Riley requested to bring my dad’s compass from when he was in the Korean War. By the end of the loop she had a better understanding of how to use a compass and what papa did in the war (built destroyed bridges in Germany). I love when she has a genuine interest in things like this. Plus, it made our walk a bit more interesting.

This trail is surrounded by a neighborhood on one side and the highway on the other, but was highly shaded (expect for a patch near the highway on our last stretch of walking). While there was the humm of the highway for part of the hike, it didn’t really bother us and most of the time we just heard the wind rustling the leaves of the trees.

There are a couple playgrounds along this trail which is nice if you have kids and want to take a break (we didn’t), but the most exciting thing we found was these rocks painted like a little village. A runner stopped us and noted that we were about to come along a fairy village up ahead. She had no idea what this meant to Riley as she’s a huge fairy lover. She even noted, as we left the house, that the compass would help her find fairies. Indeed, it did.

Riley and I were huge fans of this trail for it being paved and urban. Riley noted that she would give it a 4.5 if possible. Jesse noted that it gets a 3 just for being good weather, having no bugs, and lots of shade. I think he’s underselling this trail, but to each his own.

Jo: ★★★★

Jesse: ★★★

Riley: ★★★★