Hike 29 - Lake Phalen

I’m sort of embarrassed at how many local trails I haven’t explored in my 48 years, but luckily this hiking challenge is putting an end to that. I’d heard of Lake Phalen, knew it was on the other side of the river (for non-Minnesota folks, that would be on the St. Paul side while I’m on the Minneapolis side of the Mississippi), but never found a reason to venture there. Due to COVID-19, a lot of businesses are still closed which has forced us to either stay home or find something outside to entertain ourselves with. We live close to a couple lakes on the Minneapolis side that get quite crowded so I hoped that this lake would have less people to run into.

Turns out it was a good gamble. Plus, it had been a little wet recently so I selected a trail that was paved to avoid a muddy hike. This park had plenty of places to picnic, fish, a beach and beach house (currently closed), and a Chinese garden.

Hike #: 28

Trail: Lake Phalen

Location: St. Paul and Maplewood, MN

Trail surface: paved

Date: May 10th, 2020

Jo: ★★★

Jesse: ★★★

Riley: ★★★★★

Riley made up a story based on the name of the lake and deemed this a great place to boost your imagination hence her high score. I liked it well enough for a city, paved trail and would like to go back when more of the plants and flowers are in bloom.

Hike 28 - Murphy-Hanrehan

I think back to last spring and all the hikes we attempted, but were foiled with flooded trails and rainy weather and I am grateful for better conditions. Especially, since our ‘leave the house’ activities are limited by the COVID-19 stay at home order. Hopefully, we can make hiking more of a weekly thing now that we don’t have a bunch of other obligations (some of which I miss, of course).

The week before this, my in-laws called my husband and mentioned this trail close to them. They talked it up quite a bit so my husband suggested we check this one out. We headed out early as we tend to do, but were a little apprehensive by a fairly full parking lot. These things bring extra concern when you are supposed to be social distancing, but we noticed that most of the vehicles had bike racks and that most people were mountain biking and not hiking. We saw a number of people on the hiking trail, but it was far from crowded.

Hike #: 28

Trail: Murphy-Hanrehan Park Reserve

Location: Savage, MN

Trail surface: dirt

Date: May 2nd, 2020

Jo: ★★★★

Jesse: ★★★

Riley: ★★★★

This trail is also used as a cross country trail in the winter and we took the route that is opposite of the winter route. There were plenty of fairly flat areas, but also a number of inclines (and far fewer declines) which meant my glutes got a nice workout. It was a wide trail (for those cross country folks), but still had a nice nature-y feel to it.

We had a little confusion over if we were going to follow the 4 mile or 2 mile trail and ended up putting in about 2.5 miles which was fine. I’d totally go back to this trail - expecially after all the trees have bloomed. It was a bug free trail this time of year so I wonder what it will be like farther into the season. Maybe we’ll meet the in-laws here this summer to find out.

Hike 27 - Bush Lake Loop

I’ve lost track of how many weeks and days we’ve been mostly at home due to COVID-19. We’ve gone out for essentials such as groceries and have taken many walks around the neighborhood, but have mostly been trying to stay safe at home. However, now that the weather is a bit nicer, it’s hard not to want to get out of the house. We live in a first ring suburb of a major city so it sometimes takes some planning to figure out where to go to avoid the crowds. Honestly, this isn’t that different from pre-COVID life as we like to avoid groups of people, but it seems especially important now.

On this particular day, we didn’t want to drive too far, but wanted to find a place that wasn’t overrun with people who had the same idea to get outside and I think we succeeded. We like to head out early in the day and I think that seems to help with the crowds as well.

Hike #: 27

Trail: Bush lake Loop

Location: Bloomington, MN

Trail surface: paved

Date: April 25th, 2020

Jo: ★★★

Jesse: ★★

Riley: ★★★

We’d walked an adjacent trail a year or so ago which we liked, but were frustrated with as we got lost. Since then I use my AllTrails app to make sure we are following the trail that we want to. It’s made a huge difference as some of these trails can be a little confusing (especially when there are a series of trails you can take).

This trail went partly through fields, around the lake, and through a neighborhood. We’d been looking to walk a little further as a lot of these hikes have been around the 2 mile mark so this 4 miler seemed like a good idea. I’d rather have a nature trail, but it was sort of nice to see a different neighborhood and admire the houses (we are looking to remodel so we are hyper alert to house designs).

While this might have felt a little long for Riley, she did fine and it was nice to find a trail that was close to home. I’ve said it before, but I’ll note it again… I love Minnesota for all the parks and trails that are maintained . It really makes a difference in our quality of life.