Best Bike Paths in Minneapolis - a review

I woke up early this morning, possibly because the entire planet is on fire and it's too hot to sleep.  I felt more like going outside (only 80* at 6am) than staying in so I got on my bike and planned to stay out for a long time.

Here's what wound up happening:

Because Minneapolis rocks it for biking, all of this ride was on bike paths or bike boulevards.  See why we're the most bike friendly city in the US.  I'm coming very late to the party for cycling, but quite happy that I showed up.  I was on several different paths or trails so I'll tell you all about them.

Hiawatha LRT Bike Trail follows the Light Rail tracks southeast.  I'm reserving judgement on this trail for a later date.  Today I was only on it for less than a mile.  As has been mentioned previously there's a northern section that's so torn up even Google Maps noted the detour.  I love the part of this trail down by Minnehaha Creek.  It's gorgeous and well paved.

West River Parkway is a familiar place.  I run here a lot.  I love that the trail was recently paved and it's generally in fantastic condition.  I also love the trail is well shaded and connects to about a billion other trails.  My dream is that someday they will paint this trail they way they did the greenway with three lanes (running lane, northbound bike lane, southbound bike lane) but it may just be too narrow for that.  The runners and the bikers tend to cooperate on this trail, but it can get confusing who is supposed to be where.

The Midtown Greenway is, in some ways, the jewel of our biking crown.  It's a bike/walk only road that runs the entire east/west span of Minneapolis and connects to all kinds of things including the river and chain of lakes.  More information here.  The eastern portion of the trail is a bit exciting because it crosses some big streets.  (27th Avenue and Minnehaha Avenue, I'm looking at you.)  After that, the trail is below street level and some businesses have patio level doors that can only be accessed from the greenway.

Cedar Lake Trail I've found out is much longer than I've ever taken advantage of.  I just use it to ride around the lake.  Lake Cedar is what I refer to as "where they keep all the white people" in Minneapolis.  Just go there sometime to see what I'm talking about.  The only downside of this trail is the railroad I have to cross (serious) to get onto it.

The Kenilworth Trail is a newer trail. More info here. The bonus of this trail is it's the only way back into Uptown and the lakes that doesn't involve a giant freaking hill.  It supposedly connects to Lake of the Isles, but I've never found the connector path that even Google Maps swears exists.

Lake of the Isles is underused for bikes, or at least I think so.  All the bikes are running around Calhoun and Harriet or playing on the Greenway   Fine.  I'll stay here by myself.

Lake Clahoun is overly popular for bikes.  Pluses are this it's gorgeous.  Minus for the bumpiness of the bike path.  Although, it wasn't the worst paved path I was on today. 

Lake Harriet is my favorite lake.  Mine and everyone else, which is why it's so busy.

The River Lake Greenway (see here for more) is one of the newer Greenways.  It's the one closest to where I live.  I also call it "the one no one has ever heard of".  Really.  If you're not on it, you don't know it's there.  I'm on it the most and so have the most to say about this one.
Pluses for this Greenway are this it's close to my house and takes me to Lake Harriet.  I also use it for running in the winter when the sidewalks are all icy.  Also yeah for having a walk light button at Cedar Ave in a place that bikes can get to it without having to dismount.  How thoughtful.
Question marks - What's with all the stop signs on these little neighborhood streets?  Did they just run out of money to take them down or change directions?  I thought it was just one by my house but when I headed east this morning I found several new examples.  I understand the bikes need to be stopped before crossing major streets like Chicago Ave, but these are all dinky little side streets.  I thought the idea of a bike boulevard was to give priority to bike traffic.  Why give priority to cars on some little side street? 
Serious minus - For part of this road, when they say "bike lane" what they mean is Go ahead; that part of the road is so chewed up I wouldn't drive my car on it, even if I could.  There's a particularly rough patch between Lyndale Ave and 35W that's so chewed up it's painful to ride.  There's about a million construction projects going on in the Twin Cities so I'm hopeful that eventually they'll re-pave the bike lanes and smooth them out.

The ride was about 24 miles and took me around 2 hours including a little break for food.  It was the last thing I did outside today.  The weather was predicting 95* but the rain they called for last night failed to appear so it's actually even hotter.