This trail runs 41 miles between Mankato and Faribault through farmland, woodlands, and along the Cannon River. There are trailheads in Mankato, Faribault, and Madison Lake (at about the mid-point of the trail). It is an hour-and-a-half or so drive from the Twin Cities.
My girlfriend (I still have a hard time calling her a girlfriend as I am 71 and she is……..you didn’t really think I’d finish that, did you?), Lee and I drove to Mankato with the idea of riding half the trail and back one day, then the other half the next day. Due to two bad knee replacements (doctors tell me that one out of very many do not work out—I drew the lucky straw) I have been limited to 25 miles at a time or so. Doctors have assured me the knees going bad is not a result of cycling so much but is due to, ummmm, let’s just say, so much life experience. Lee, on the other hand is still a very strong rider and I have had to get used to her riding ahead of me so I don’t slow her down too much. We both still enjoy the rides, however, even though we don’t ride side by side, which is tough to do on a trail, anyway, with other bikes using the trail. With my riding limitations we have gotten to riding 10 miles or so, from the car and back, then do the other end on another day. We often start at the mid-point of the trail so we can see the more rural portions. We get plenty of city riding in the Twin Cities.
On the first day we got to Mankato thinking there would be signs directing people to the trailhead but saw none (yhere are three close to the junction of Hwys. 22 and 14). Lee used GPS on her phone but it had no location for a trailhead in Mankato, we should have brought a map (remember those—pieces of paper with pictures of roads and towns?). The GPS led us to the trailhead about 14 miles to the east at Madison Lake and we started riding back toward Mankato from there. This turned out to be fortunate as we understand the western part of the trail spends several or more miles alongside and crossing the city streets of Mankato. We rode to the outskirts of Mankato and back to Madison Lake, putting in our required 20 miles, then drove to Faribault. We spent the night at Shattuck of St. Mary’s school for Boys, who rent rooms in the visitors’ building, and enjoyed a nice meal at a close-by rib shack alongside the Cannon River. The weather had been good, although hot, and the meal and lodging very nice. It had been a very enjoyable day.
However, the next day started out with rain and the prediction of more to come so we headed back to the Twin Cities, still considering it a good trip.
The next week we drove back to Faribault to ride the eastern end of the trail. The weather was much improved and we enjoyed a sunny, pleasant couple hours of riding. When I ride my 10-mile exercise ride at home I say, “I’m not riding for the scenery.” But when we ride a trail we are there for the scenery so we don’t rush it too much.
Breaking the trail into sections like that works well for us as riding the entire trail and back would be strenuous and time-consuming, we have more time to enjoy the scenery, and we get two nice days of riding out of one trail. We rode back to our car at Warsaw and drove home, with the obligatory stop at a Dairy Queen, of course.