A Little Minnesota Splorin’ (11/02/2019)

We are trying to fit more and more and MORE into our weekends. Splorin’ is almost always our priority (because, it has literally saved Mike’s life) but spending time with dear friends is also high on our list of important things to do. This weekend we were going to be spending time with Tracy and Jerry — friends from high school — by going to an escape room and then spending the evening at an Embassy Suites Bloomington, MN. So — Splorin’ this time would be as close as we could get to there.

We started the day by heading to Not Justa Cafe in Bayport, MN. The restaurant opened at 7AM and we were actually gone early from home!!! We left at 5:54AM when we planned on on leaving at 6AM. WOO HOO!!!!!!!!!! According to Google Maps we were to arrive at 7AM (until half a mile before when it switched to 6:59AM). We thought this would be awesome, we’ll be the first ones there.

We arrived to see several cars out front and several in the parking lot. And it was still very dark outside. Holy cow — we got the second to last table available even though we walked in at 7:01AM. WTH?!? We guess they must open earlier than 7 as several people already had their food and were eating. No worries — we were able to get our order in without an issue. Hmm, what should we have? How about something original: a Veggie and Meat Lover’s omlettes with green beans on the side! (No salads, but the green beans were nice, albeit a bit greasy.)

Since we were in Minnesota and needed someplace pretty near Bloomington where were were meeting the Boesels, we decided on Hyland Nature Park Reserve. Off to the park — we were making good time until we got off of 694 at W. Bush Lake Rd. We waiting at the top of the exit ramp to turn and when the light turned green we proceeded across the overpass and kept going, and going and going. The overpass was glare ice!!! No matter what Mike did: stand on the brakes, come off the brakes, we were headed towards the wall of the overpass. We hit the wall at about 5mph. However, we had plenty of guardian angels watching over us and the car, as there was not any damage other than a little scraping of the rim of the wheel. Whew — we dodged a bullet there. OK, back on track and off to the park.

“The Plan” for today was to do a triple lollipop trail. This would get us close to 7 miles or so. Upon arrival at the park we found out that there was a craft sale that day at the nature center — where we were planning on parking. Thankfully we were there before the fair started, so there was space available for us to park. We were using our new backpack to carry our water bottles and such. Mike got it strapped on and we were off for our morning of Splorin’.

As we found the trail that we were to head down there was a big sign that said “Trail closed except for cross country skiing. All other use prohibited.”. Hmm….there wasn’t very much snow on the ground (regardless of the ice on the overpass), so we headed out figuring they just had their Winter use signs up a little early.

We made our way a little ways and then could not determine where to go — there was a paved trail and several trails that were mowed. Mike knew we should not be on the paved trail, but which mown trail? We picked one and went — only to find out that it merged back into the paved trail in about a quarter mile. We soon found ourselves at a point where the trail was completely under water and we had to walk on the street. After going on the street we made it back to the grass hiking trail — only to find it completely covered with water again. OK, our triple lollipop trail just because a double lollipop trail as we could not make it around that one area.

A little way down the trail we came to a very muddy area — reminiscent of what we saw at the very beginning of our Splorin’ at Interstate State Park. We made it around the mud without getting too wet. We were passed by several runners going in both directions. As we rounded a corner we saw a deer ahead on the side of the trail. Surely the runners that just passed would scare it away. But as we came out from behind the corner it was still there. It definitely saw us, but seemingly couldn’t care less. He started moving….towards us. He was obviously in the rut as his neck was huge! His antlers were also a little strange as they were very thick at their base, but it was basically only a fork horn. Mike thinks is was just a very old buck.

We were then off toward the next loop in the lollipop. As we got to the next trail intersection Mike had has following the left hand rule and away we went. However, Mike then checked GPS on his phone and noticed according to Google Maps we were going the wrong way! Ugh, so we reversed direction and started going the other direction. However, we found out quickly that it was just that Google Maps had not updated quickly enough and we were originally going the right direction and now were going the wrong way. UGH!!!! So we reversed course and were back on track.

Along the bottom of the last loop we saw a very large Pileated woodpecker. Mike tried his best to get a picture of it, but by the time we was able to get into a position to the the picture the woodpecker flew off to parts unknown (at least to us). We soon found ourselves at the portion of the park that was under construction. We were forced back onto the paved trail as the other hiking trails were closed. :-(.

We made it back to the car and even though it was just a little over 6 miles in just a little over 2 hours – we were tired. Mike again had blisters. :-(. But — the good news was we were off to Cowboy Jacks and their Bloody Mary Bar — that helps cure a lot of ills. We had a quite delightful weekend with Tracy and Jerry to really cap off a great SplorinSaturday!!!!