The Root River State Trail

We were planning on heading up to my parent's cabin for the weekend, but a last minute change in work schedule meant we stayed local. I'm glad we did. 

I've been wanting to take Sara and David down to Lanesboro for a while. The town is nested in a small river valley, in the 1970s Minnesota converted an old railway along the Root River to the Root River State Trail. It is long trail system (I think about 40 miles plus it connects to the Harmony-Preston trail?) with gorgeous views of valleys and the river. It passes several towns on it's way to Houston. 

The plan has been to connect it to La Crescent, Minnesota which is on the Mississippi River. There, it would be able to connect to the 100+ miles of trails in starting in La Crosse Wisconsin. This would be so amazing. I found some a master plan presented in 2011 by the Department of Natural Resources that laid out the details for the 18 mile extension to La Crescent/La Crosse. It seems it all hinges upon unanimous land owner permission as well as funding. I'd imaging those are big hurdles, but it would be quite an amazing project. The 1st phase of the Wagon Wheel Trail (which is the connecting La Crescent portion to the Root River Trail was completed in May. There are 2 more phases to that and it seems the progress is quite slow, though, the few articles that I have found including a post on the City of La Crescent Facebook page seem optimistic. 

Anyway….. We rented bikes and a trailer at the Little General Store - it is first come, first served, but they have a large inventory and it doesn't seem like they run out.  

Thankfully, David wasn't threatened by being caged up in the chariot. 

I took some dangerous selfless along the way. I didn't realize we wore matching shirts until now….. Apparently, we are that couple :)

This is a pretty bridge that crosses at the confluence of the South Branch Root and main Root River.  On another trip, we will hopefully canoe or kayak down this stretch. 

Mommy rocking the trailer!

We lucked out with 75+ weather and almost no clouds. A gorgeous day with the leaves just starting to change.

We walked around downtown a bit and stopped for ice cream. David hasn't really tried it before, but it appears Superman is his favorite flavor. I can't blame him :)

There are great amenities making Lanesboro a nice town to make a home base if one was thinking about a weekend trip or vacation to the area.

Downtown Lanesboro has art galleries, restaurants, coffee shops and more. Very cute. 

It is hard to beat that for a Saturday. All in all we spent about 2 hours biking which included a short break in Whalen, Mn. We probably biked about 10-12 miles total. We are lucky enough to live about an hour away from this awesome trail. We may have to do it all again if the opportunity arises.