Biking-Camping Forestville State Park

Second biking-camping trip for this year. This time there were 4 biker-campers. Bud and I were joined by Pam and Susan. (video link - best viewed landscape)

We headed out on Monday to southern Minnesota using two cars because Pam and Susan have pretty heavy electric bikes and theirs' take a different bike rack than Bud and my bikes.

Destination, Forestville State Park - less than 3 hours from the Twin Cities. We were the only people tent camping in a part of the park that allowed RVs. The tent only part of the park only had one set of campers! The tent-only sites were very woody so being in the RV area was better in my opinion.

We got our camp site setup pretty quickly (including the picnic tablecloth and a very special center piece made by Pam) so decided to take a walk/hike along the South Root River to find the historic town Forestville. The South Root River is full of trout...so full you can see them hanging out in the deeper pools. But "deeper pools" isn't really valid this year as the drought made the entire river fairly shallow. We made it to Forestville which during normal summer hours has costumed docents. There was no one around when we visited. It felt very ghost-towny.

We had beautiful weather and got to enjoy Susan's very tasty Chile, some s'mores, and a magnificent starry night. I don't remember if it was the first night or the second, but we had a visitor during the night that for some reason I was the dumb one that got out of the tent to investigate. Turned out a racoon was having its way with our belongings. I did my best to "scare" it away though it didn't really seem to care.

Bud fried up bacon and some delicious scrambled eggs to get Day #2 started which was a good thing because we were riding round-trip (a little over 20 miles) from Preston to Lanesboro. Bud and I had a Lanesboro trip in 2021 (click here for that blog post) but from the east side then. 

The Root River Trail is fairly flat and easy. In Lanesboro, we ate and wandered around some. The weather was starting to look stormy so we headed back to Preston. It was threatening the entire way so we did not dawdle. We made it to the cars and started to load the bikes right when the clouds opened up. We jumped in the cars and waited for the deluge to end before finishing the bike load and getting back to camp.

I am writing this almost a month after the adventure, so my memory is not great. I think the second night we ate in camp. Sweet potatoes baked on the fire coals with two different Indian curries. There was another beautifully clear night. While I was looking at the stars, a trout fisherman came by (he was night fishing) and told me he saw a 30" trout eating a mouse!

Day #3's event was a tour of Mystery Cave. Reservations are required. The South Root River runs underground through parts of the cave system. Having the river run underground is how trout can survive here. The water is always in the high 40's year round! 

The cave tour is an easy walk/stroll and the State Park tour guide was informed and even turned off all the lights so we could experience the total darkness.

The road to the campsite was being repaved and was limited to a single lane. While we were hanging out with the road guard, we were able to get her recommendation for eating in Preston. She suggested the bowling alley and while not a high culinary experience, it was decent but surprisingly the drinks were very mediocre.

We were definitely some tired campers by the time we made it back to the campsite. Thursday, we packed up the campsite and headed home to Minneapolis. 

The trip video is here (best viewed landscape).

Root River State Trail

The Root River State Trail in southeastern Minnesota has been on my list for quite some time. My friend Bud and I got to ride (bike) the trail this past Friday and Saturday.

An easy drive from the Twin Cities down along the Mississippi River is a Fall adventure in itself. We stopped at Hanisch Bakery in Red Wing for breakfast and donuts for the road.

We arrived at the eastern end of the Root River Trail in Houston. The trail is a paved bike and walking path that is about 40 miles total from Houston to Fountain. It is primarily a rails-to-trails route and is very well maintained. The path crossed the Root River several times and has views of farms, crops and the driftless geology.

Friday was a bit drizzly and overcast but that didn't dampen (HA!) the ride too much. We were pretty much the only ones out on the trail. We road from Houston to Rushford and ate lunch in Rushford before returning to the vehicle.

From Houston to Lanesboro we drove along the same route we just biked. Are accommodations, The Guest Hus, were spot on. There was bike storage and an easy walk to the main downtown.

There was to be a bike event on Saturday so Lanesboro was busy. We ate pizza at a local bar because there wasn't any room anywhere else. We got to mix with some locals including a very friendly dog.

Saturday was sunny but not hot. The ride from Lanesboro to Peterson is very easy. There were many more other cyclers on this section. It is more popular and the weather was fantastic.

We passed a giant eagle's nest on the way out and on the way back two adult eagles were perched right near it. I can never get enough eagle sightings.

It was a great trip. Easy to do over a couple of days. We did end up with almost 60 miles of cycling but split over the two days made it enjoyable.

Click here is a short video of the two days.