Hike 35 - Lake Minnewashta

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

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.

Hike #: 34

Trail: Crosby Lake Loop

Location: Victoria, MN

Trail surface: earth

Date: June 20th, 2020

Jo: ★★★

Jesse: ★★

Riley: ★★★

*All agreed that this trail would have earned more points if the bugs were under control.

Hike 31 - Cedar Lake

We woke up Saturday not really knowing how the day would end. It was another day of unrest, of protests, and unfortunately a lot of looting and burning of businesses. George Floyd had been killed by police on Monday and the city was upet… for George, for Brianna, Ahmaud, Eric, Michael, Philando and ALL the others. I’ve been talking with my family and having very intentional conversations with my 10 year old white daughter about what’s going on now. What HAS been going on. And honestly, I’m having a lot of conversations with myself. What can I do? What impact can I make? I don’t want to be another white person who just posts a picture and a hashtag on social media.

I haven’t been protesting, but that doesn’t mean I don’t support the protestors. I have been reflecting and figuring out how to best use my white voice to support black humans, to support justice, and to be an ally. It’s still a work in progress as I’m educating myself and processing what has been happening in the world. As my daughter noted “the world is really stressful right now”. So with my white privalage, I asked my family to go on a walk with me Saturday morning. Walking and getting out in nature is how I try to de-stress and I’m grateful that I am able to do so. To be honest, part of me wanted to just go out alone and be with my thoughts, but I also find comfort in my family and I was glad to have them with me.

I debated all morning about just walking out the door and wandering around the neighborhood or selecting a new trail to explore. I finally came to a decision and selected a trail nearby. Cedar Lake is really close to our house, but I was under the impression that the trail only goes around part of the lake - and that is sort of true. It’s not like some of our other city lakes with a clear paved trail along the shore, but it does have a trail that I was able to map out, and then modify once out walking to make it a new favorite for us.

We started out in the Bryn Mawr neighborhood following the paved trail and then met up with the Cedar Lake trail. I discovered there were some detours, but the best discovery was that there were dirt trails within a woodsy area. Paved trails are fine. I like them when I know it’s been raining a lot and the earth is wet, but they aren’t what I prefer. I’d rather walk on dirt and grass and feel the connection to the earth as much as I can. There was a number of trails weaving through the woods and I’m excited to go back to explore this area more. Even my husband raved over it and determined that this might be a good change from the Westwood Hills Nature Center near our house that he walks through quite a bit.

Hike #: 31

Trail: Cedar Lake

Location: Minneapolis, MN

Trail surface: dirt, paved

Date: May 30th, 2020

Jo: ★★★★

Jesse: ★★★★ (Jesse wanted to note that this is an enthusiastic 4 and the only reason it isn’t a 5 is because it’s a city trail)

Riley: ★★★★

There were a lot of messages along the way that were worth reading and worth getting behind. As I write this, it’s a few days later. There has been a lot of looting and destruction of businesses, a huge scare with a semi on a closed highway, violence against people and media…, but there has been a lot of peaceful protests. Each day people get out to speak their voice, clean up the community, and be visable. It’s not just hear in Minnesota, or even in the United States - we are seeing protests around the world, people making their feelings known that this injustice needs to stop.