Paddle & Pedal Winona, MN

Lake Winona Paddle and LaCanne Park to Prairie Island Pedal: 10.36 miles
TRIKE Pedal Time: 1 hour 8 minutes, average speed 9.1

Our trip to Winona was full of adventure. We started out with family visits in the morning and then kayaked Lake Winona in the afternoon before getting ready to meet up with good friends, Tim & Deneice, for supper.

Following an early supper, we all decided to continue our visit and get some exercise. Tim suggested a bike tour starting at LaCanne Park and continuing on towards Prairie Island. We passed over a wooden bridge with lots of character, then toured through Prairie Island Park and finally finished our ride with a spin though the area’s manufacturing neighborhood—a very enjoyable route.

Memorial Day Ride

Winona Loop: 67.48 miles Ride Time to Winona was 1 hour 55 minutes, average speed: 16.6 Ride Home was 3 hours 25 minutes, average speed at finish: 12.6

Beautiful weather returned today beckoning us to increase our pedaling distance so we set our destination for Winona. Getting to Winona was a comfortable ride. We suspected the wind was at our back and anticipated a more gruesome trip home. We watched the many flags flying in the breeze and just geared ourselves for a challenging ride back home but not before we had a rest and visit with family in Winona.

Mom & Dad Storsveen were grilling burgers and brats for lunch and we accepted their offer to join them. As we pulled up to their house, brother Rob was there with his shiny red motorcycle and brother Paul and sister Lynn were also on hand for a wonderful photo opportunity—it couldn’t have been planned any better. We were missing sister Jean but she will be arriving from Washington State soon and we will be gathering together again then.

Views along our bike route to Winona, MN

A rare family photo opportunity meets us in Winona

As predicted, the ride back towards St. Charles was brutal and took us a total of 3.5 hours pedal time to achieve. We took many stops along the way to rest and received one phone call from Mom wondering how we were doing—Mom always seems to call when we are biking up a hill but Dennis always does a good job picking up the slack. We had a wonderful journey today and were excited to see four other cyclists along our route. Who knows, maybe our neighborhood roads will become a common travel corridor for cyclists in the near future. It’s always a joy to share our smiles of fulfillment with others as we quietly pedal by.

Old Glory waving us on towards home on this memorable Memorial Day ride

May 2012—Total Biking Miles 420.49
Accumulative Miles 1038.57

Hey, Let's Bike to Winona!

Winona Loop: 67.80 miles
Comments: Ride Time was 5 hours 18 minutes, average speed: 12.7

Anyone owning a bike in southeastern Minnesota should have been out riding it today. The temperature was in the mid-60’s with winds blowing out of the southeast at 3-5 mph. We biked down to Winona to have lunch with Mom, Dad and Lynn. Mom made an excellent bean and ham soup. We visited for a bit and then pedaled through Winona via the River Road to stop in at the Stark’s. After a short rest there, we kicked it into gear to crawl out of Winona on the Gilmore Road. The climb took us 20 minutes to reach the top. We were satisfied that we made it without having to get off and walk or call Tim to bring his truck to take us up. We enjoyed a tail wind for the next 10 miles before needing to climb the hills around Lewiston. We were now counting down the hills left to home and feeling confident that we would complete the loop using our own pedal power. We’ll sleep well tonight and probably be pedaling in our dreams—Life is good!