Enjoying the Mississippi River by Bike

MRRT & CVT: 66.36 miles (a metric century)
TANDEM: Ride Time was 5 hours 12 minutes, average speed: 12.7

Today we travelled by van towards Hastings, MN to meet up with biking friends, Alan and Michelle Andersen to check out the Mississippi River Regional Bike Trail near Spring Lake Park Reserve. This is the third Friday adventure we have enjoyed with Alan and Michelle. Our group was not sure what we would find for biking trails here but all were willing to take a chance. We were on the bikes by 10:30 a.m. pedaling towards Hastings along the Mississippi River. The skies were blue and the temperature was in the 70’s with no rain in sight. The trail system here appeared to have been newly paved and provided a very comfortable ride.

We continued along the MRRT (also known as the Hastings Trail System) enjoying the views along the waterways which included Lock and Dam #2. A few wrong turns into construction areas forced us to retreat using rugged escape routes—a very entertaining journey. Much activity was taking place along the river with construction crews working on a replacement bridge between the Minnesota and Wisconsin state borders here.

Alan and Michelle take a shortcut down to the river nearly scaring this man resting peacefully on a bench

We reached Hastings around 11:00 which was too early for lunch so we searched out the Chamber of Commerce building for trail maps of the Hastings area. We found numerous guides not only of bike trails but also of water trails that will be handy for upcoming kayak adventures. We set off along the City’s Loop Trail towards the Vermillion Falls Park and stopped on the falls bridge for a beautiful photo opportunity.

These heads startled me as we pedaled past

The group decided it was now time for lunch so we biked back into Hastings to rest at the Busted Nut Bar & Grill. The food and service was superb.

Back on the bikes, we pedaled towards our vans parked north of Hastings. We passed over the river and stopped for one last look at the wildlife living here. I was fortunate to snap a photo of a blue heron towering above three turtles resting on a log. Once back at the vans, we took a short tour of the Spring Lake Park Reserve before deciding to drive to Cannon Falls to do more biking on the Cannon Valley Bike Trail.

We finished our bike adventure today by biking the full Cannon Valley Trail from Cannon Falls to Red Wing and back, a total of 40 miles. We stopped at the Bierstude in Red Wing for a quick snack and when exiting the diner noticed the sky looking pretty dark to the west. We picked up our speed and zoomed back to our vans parked at the trailhead in Cannon Falls. We were rained on for the last two miles of the total 66 we biked today. It was a beautiful day of riding and we look forward to our next adventure with Alan and Michelle.