Tag Archives: Minnesota River Bottoms

CROCT organizes a group ride at the Minnesota River Bottoms trail in Bloomington

I polled our ridership last month, asking them to indicate which weekend days in Feb. would work for them to participate in a group ride along MORC’s Minnesota River Bottoms trail in Bloomington. Yesterday, ten of us showed up at 1pm at the Lyndale Ave/I35W trailhead. This group photo in the parking lot was taken by Pat Sorenson,  president of Penn Cycle who happened to be heading out on a ride with some buddies at the same time:

L to R: Griff Wigley, Curtis Ness, Michael Lehmkuhl, Joe Thorman, JC Ingebrand, Dave Wolf, Bill Nelson, Gary Duden, John Rinn, Scott Parker

L to R: Griff Wigley, Curtis Ness, Michael Lehmkuhl, Joe Thorman, JC Ingebrand, Dave Wolf, Bill Nelson, Gary Duden, John Rinn, Scott Parker.

We opted to ride 8 miles west to the Bloomington Ferry Bridge (Hwy 169) trail head since several of the group had never ridden that route.

Bike repair by Curtis Ness; photo by Michael LehmkuhlWe took our time, stopping several times for socializing and a little exploring on the railroad swing bridge.

There was one mechanical, a broken chain. But one group member had a chain tool and Curtis Ness, CROCT board secretary and manager of Milltown Cycles in Faribault, did the trail-side repairs. Whew!

There wasn’t much snow, and with temps in the low-to-mid 30s, the trail was a bit sloppy in places. The camaraderie, however, was first-rate.

We do it again on Saturday, Feb. 28. Deets here.

CROCT group rides to MN River Bottoms set for Feb. 8 & Feb. 28

Feb. 26 Update: given the sparse snow along the MN River Bottoms and the ample snow in Rice County, we’ve decided to move the Feb. 28 group ride to the River Bend Nature Center in Faribault. Meet at the Interpretive Center parking lot at 10 am. Directions here.

MN River Bottoms group ride

I created a Doodle poll a couple of weeks ago to see which weekend days in Feb work best for the most riders for a CROCT winter group ride to MORC’s MN River Bottoms trail in Bloomington.  I promoted the poll via our CROCT Facebook page, Twitter feed, and Google Groups discussion list. The days that polled the most (13 each) are:

  • Sunday, Feb. 8, 1 pm. Meet at the Lyndale/I35w trailhead/parking lot (live Google map)
  • Saturday, Feb. 28, 10 am. Meet at the Bloomington Ferry Bridge/Hwy 169 trailhead

The trail is beginner/intermediate-level in difficulty. These will be C-Level, no-drop group rides, with several 5-10 minute rest stops.

For the Sunday, Feb. 8, 1 pm ride starting at the Lyndale/I35w trailhead, we’ll likely ride one direction for an hour and then return. For those who want to keep riding, we’ll go the other direction for an hour or more and then return.

For the Saturday, Feb. 28, 10 am starting at the Bloomington Ferry Bridge trailhead, we’ll ride to the I35W bridge, which takes about an hour. Some of the group can then return, and the rest can go on to the Cedar bridge about another hour. Some of that group can return and a fewer number will all the way past the Mendota bridge and into the town of Mendota for lunch and then return. So it’s either a 2, or 4, or 8 hour ride. This group ride will likely coincide with MORC’s Faturday Group Ride.

If you didn’t participate in the poll, you can still go. Just show up! We’ll try to do some ride coordination via discussion on Google Groups and Facebook.

If weather conditions warrant canceling a ride, we’ll try to make it up by scheduling another day that polled highly.

Also, several other days show lots of interest (10 or more) so don’t hesitate to organize a ride on your own, either by contacting those people directly if you know them or by starting a new group ride discussion topic in Google Groups.

Questions? Contact us!

Feb. 26 Update: given the sparse snow along the MN River Bottoms and the ample snow in Rice County, we’ve decided to move the Feb. 28 group ride to the River Bend Nature Center in Faribault. Meet at the Interpretive Center parking lot at 10 am. Directions here.